30/03/2017 Points West

Welcome to BBC Points West with Liz Beacon and David Garmston.

The 20-minute op changing men's lives.

The treatment to cure a common prostate condition

is being pioneered in the West and gives instant pain relief.

I've had the left, I'm fixed, I'm not getting up in the night. It's a

complete transformation and I'm really happy.

We'll find out how it works and where it's on offer.

The candidate denied a job interview when he revealed

The end of a nightmare for soldiers with stress.

A new therapy to turn flashbacks into peaceful dreams.

And we're revving up with the school students

who are taking their own Formula One car to Silverstone.

An exciting new treatment's being offered at Southmead Hospital

in Bristol which could make a massive difference to men's lives.

It's called the UroLift and it's being used to help with

a prostate condition called BPH or Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia.

For those who've got it, it feels anything but benign.

For something that's only the size of a walnut,

It does grow throughout your life, but rarely causes any

But once you hit 50 it can start to get bigger

and around third of men begin to experience discomfort.

The prostate begins to restrict the tube which carries

It's a bit like when you get a twist in the garden hose.

It can mean having to get up several times in the night and a feeling

Certainly an embarrassing problem, but one which Chris,

a gardener from North Somerset, was willing to share with our health

When I first had the problem, I noticed it seven or eight years ago,

I couldn't pay at all and when the doctor asked if I was in pain, I

said it was more like discomfort. He said it sounded like you was in

agony. Chris Monkton was shocked to

discover he was suffering from BHP. It's a condition which causes

the prostate to grow Until now, the only solution has

been to take medication. If that doesn't work, then

you could be facing major surgery. But now Chris has been

offered another option. A project at Southmead Hospital

is offering a new treatment And the best thing about it is that

it's not particularly invasive It's a bit like pulling

apart a pair of curtains. Permanent implants are put in place

to hold the excess tissue away, That's the tube that carries

urine from the bladder. There's no need for a general

anaesthetic or an overnight stay. It will reduce those symptoms of

difficulty being, slow flow, having 2p frequently to empty them later

because one person doesn't do it all.

Until recently this operation has only been available privately,

but recently twelve patients have received it at Southmead Hospital

as part of an evaluation trial and it very much depends

on where you live as to whether you may get it.

In Gloucestershire and South Gloucestershire a 10-patient

In Somerset there are early discussions to start a trial at

There are no plans for the procedure at Bath's Royal United

a 10-patient trial was completed at Salisbury Hospital on 24th March

and it should be routinely available from April.

Chris Monkton has spoken out about his condition as he wants

more men to be offered this life-changing surgery.

Now I've had the UroLift, I'm fixed, I no longer have to carry catheters

around, I'm not getting up in the night, it takes complete

transformation and I'm happy. But with the NHS under

huge financial pressure, it may take a long time for that

to become a reality. And we're joined by

the consultant who you saw It sounds almost too good to be

true. That's the instantaneous response I had, but it's an

operation that does not involve cutting through an organ which is

rich in blood vessels and that's the main advantage, especially for the

elderly who commonly have this ailment. There is no bleeding, no

need to stay in hospital for two or three days, it's done under

anaesthetic and it works. So are the days of men taking pills to reduce

the size of it and getting up three or four times in the night over? I

don't think there are over but we always start with Pelz, but they can

have side attacks. For younger men it may affect sexual function and in

this procedure we stay away from the vessel important for sexual

function. Will Davila solve the available for everyone eventually?

It's gone through all the scrutiny and regulatory approval so I think

we will see it spreading throughout the country. There are already

centres doing it regularly and we are doing it at Southmead. The old

operation will still be necessary for certain types of prostate, the

large ones or ones with funny configurations but I think this is a

very good procedure that will help men get over things quickly and get

back to life without having troublesome affects. Is it expensive

for the NHS? It's a much cheaper procedure both in terms of the time

in theatre, occupancy of beds and the equipment, so we reckon it saves

about ?1000 per procedure, so if you have an equivalent operation that

saves money, there is another advantage. I guess many men over 50

get the symptoms but it may not always be the ninth so it's sensible

to get it checked out anyway. It's sensible to go through the right

pathway and rule out other conditions and the one people are

most worried about is prostate cancer. There is ten times the ratio

of men who have the pH than cancer but it is worth having that checked

out. It sounds like a worthwhile operation. Thank you.

Well, it's lovely to have your company this Thursday evening.

It's David and Liz with tonight's Points West.

We meet the puppet master from Somerset getting offers

And today was the warmest day of the year so far. It will be a fresher

and cooler story tomorrow. Details towards the end of the programme.

The actions of an employment agency in the West have been described

James Heappey, the MP for Wells, has taken on the case of a computer

programmer whose offer of a job interview was withdrawn

when he told them he was blind and used a guide dog.

The agency are refusing to reveal the name of the company involved,

but that hasn't stopped the matter being referred to the government's

Ian Brooks, from Glastonbury, meeting with his MP today.

Mr Brooks was approached about a computer programming job

by an employment agency called Vector Resourcing

But after finding out he was blind Mr Brooks got a call back to say

the company no longer wished to interview him.

For someone to want me and then turn me away

because of my disability, it's one of

The company said they were unable to accommodate Mr Brooks' guide dog

but discriminating against a blind person for having a guide

Vector Resourcing, who are based in offices here on the outskirts

of Malmesbury, have so far refused to tell Mr Brooks the name

Not knowing the company's name means it's impossible for him

I've also contacted Vector Resourcing on Mr Brooks'

behalf but they've refused to speak to me too.

It cannot be the case that equalities legislation can be

defeated so easily as a third party recruitment agency hiding behind

data protection or whatever else they are hiding behind for not

revealing the name of a company who have clearly breached

The Royal National Institute of Blind People has agreed to pay

They're also keen to remind employers that any extra costs

incurred making their workplace accessible to those

with disabilities can be claimed back from the government.

If I had my choice and lived my life again I wouldn't have a disability.

I always wanted to serve my country but I've never been able

to so I chose computers as my line and it's something I can do.

Mr Brooks hopes by making a stand he'll make employers think twice

about turning people away because of their disabilities.

And we'll let you know what action the Equalities

Parents of students from across Bristol are meeting

tonight to fight Government plans to change the way

A consultation on a new spending formula ended last week -

with some gaining and others losing out.

Overall, Bristol schools will get slightly less money.

Martin Jones is at the meeting for us tonight.

These are mostly parents from Fairfield High School,

This is the amount of money they are concerned that each school could

lose and some of the cuts they fear could be coming. The meeting is just

getting under way and plenty of people there. And they are also

concerned about some of the cuts already taking place in the West.

Schools across the West say they're under pressure.

The government is introducing a new system of funding -

So while this class learns about Dickens -

the head teacher is getting ready for financial Hard Times.

Over 20,000 secondary school students will lose as a result

When you consider that as a school we sit in

one of the lowest funded counties, to be losing 2.5% takes the meaning

out of the term fair when associated with fairer funding formula.

But the new formula is only part of the problem.

Even schools which gain under the new proposal are worried

because rising costs will be more than the increased funding.

We've cut back on our support staff and maintenance is cut to the bare

minimum for safeguarding and health and safety,

The most painful cut is a reduction in teaching time at A Level.

The government insists it is listening.

Schools minister Nick Gibb recently visited Swindon,

saying they're protecting funding while tackling the deficit.

We have protected school funding in real terms.

We're spending ?40 billion on school funding, the highest ever amount

we've ever spent in this country on our school system

As pupil numbers increase, so will that funding increase.

But for many there's still too little money in the system.

Unions and even the Commons Public Accounts Committee say major

That's something Simon and Terry know all about,

recently made redundant from their jobs in drama and PE.

Nobody's ever in a job for life but it felt after 30 years

of loyalty to one establishment, it was very difficult

Cuts to subjects are already happening elsewhere too.

Seven out of ten South West schools who replied to a survey

from a teachers' association said they were reducing their curriculum.

Design, German, Drama and Music were the most common GCSEs to go.

Schools try to protect core subjects like English and Maths.

The problem is, many now say they can't make

What's interesting about a meeting like this is the same groups of

parents across Bristol getting organised. There are two other

meetings in the next wake of parents concerned about the effect of

spending cuts on their skills and the organisers hope this will become

a bigger movement. There's so much to discuss about education that the

Sunday Politics are doing a special feature on this weekend. You can see

that on Sunday at 11 a.m.. One of Swindon's main roads

was closed today after a gas leak The Great Western Way was shut

for more than an hour after contractors cut through a gas

pipe on the estate this morning. Firecrews were called and a nearby

factory had to be evacuated while the work was carried out

to fix it. People with breathing

problems in the Freshbrook, Toothill and Grange Park areas

were told to stay indoors Wiltshire-based armoured vehicles

are leaving the UK today as part of a big military

deployment to Estonia. Earlier this month more than 100

soldiers from the 5th Battalion, The Rifles, based at Bulford Camp

arrived to bolster Nato Defences. The Nato operation is to reassure

eastern European members in case Imagine, almost every night,

having the same recurring nightmare about a traumatic event that you've

witnessed and always It's a common symptom of PTSD

in military veterans. Well, now a Cheltenham therapist

is getting positive results by actually changing the nightmare,

allowing veterans at last Here's our Gloucestershire

reporter, Steve Knibbs. It's not his real name but Peter

was woken up almost every night by a recurring nightmare reliving

the moment he saw his friend Right at the end there's a clang

like a gong, a bell. It was a large propeller

and I mean large. In his own words he said the lack

of sleep turned him into an ogre. Irritable to everyone,

including children and grandchildren, wife,

next-door neighbour, It's often a difficult cycle to get

out of but Justin Havens has been researching a technique called

Planned Dream Intervention - effectively teaching the brain

to change the nightmare. Resetting their sleep cycle,

if you like, and you do it by creating something

for your dream, something to allow The reason people are waking up

is because the dream is not continuing, normally because there's

something horrific happening. Justin's three-year research

involved over 100 UK veterans suffering with PTSD and over half

saw improvement One solider dreamt every night

that he was being chased and woke up when he was jumped on and dragged

to the ground. He would often fight

his wife in bed. But he changed the scene to a rugby

match where where he was running with the ball, then tackled

to the ground but went over the line to score a try with opponents

still hanging on to him So we're priming the dream process,

giving it a shot in the arm, We're not doing anything magical

or mysterious, just helping Magical and mysterious it may

not be, but for Peter changing his nightmares changed him

for the better. It turned the gong sound

from being a horrible expression, the death knell, to a dinner gong

or cathedral bells I'm not feeling guilty anymore,

I'm not feeling unpleasant. Justin's now writing up his research

and plans to share it not just with military charities but also

others who help those Last November we revealed

the pressure that some agency drivers were under,

delivering parcels for Amazon. The investigation, which was carried

out by Inside Out West, revealed illegally long hours and pay well

under the minimum wage. Well, since then more than 50

drivers from all over the country have got

in touch saying they'd had similar experiences.

Seb Choudhury reports. Six months ago Inside Out West went

undercover at We gathered disturbing evidence that

some agency drivers for the biggest online retailer in the world

were being exploited. We had one guy that he hadn't

had a single day off for three months solid,

so that was constant seven days a week for three months

driving on the roads. After the programme

we were inundated with messages from all over the country

from people who had worked as Amazon I was always running late

because there were too many stops and had to break traffic rules

and other stuff that The only way to knock time off

is to break the law by speeding. Amazon don't care about the drivers

and give impossible deadlines and as for asking for a day

off, forget it. How was the response

when the programme went out? The contact I got from drivers

was amazing, to be honest. The words they were saying to me,

they kept thanking me for standing It was quite emotional

as well, to be honest. And you can see the full

story on Inside Out West tomorrow night at 7:30pm -

they've moved from their usual And we should add that the original

investigation recently gained the team a Royal Television Society

award. Katy Perry has been unveiled as one

of the acts who will play this Part of the line-up was announced

today and the singer took to social media to say she was looking forward

to tea and crumpets Music lovers have been divided

with some saying the line-up is the best in years and others

saying the festival has moved Enjoying the weather and tea and

crumpets? She doesn't know what she's let herself in for. I'm

looking forward to going. Are you going?

I haven't decided. Students from Gloucester

are at Silverstone this evening, trying to win

a national racing competition. A team from The Crypt School has

made a mini Formula One car, which has been tested against others

from across the country. But this competition

isn't just about speed. A year's worth of work

sits on the start line. And Nathan is in

charge of the button. Anxious faces as the students from

Gloucester wait for their little car to travel 20 metres in just over a

second. That's twice as fast as Usain Bolt.

It's nerve-racking, we've all put in loads

of sleepless nights on this, we've worried so much,

we were up until 3am the other night just finishing everything off

and making sure we were happy with it, so we've all

If this all goes awfully, there will be some tears probably

This is a journey which started with this, a hard foam block.

Cars flying down a track, metres away from one of the most

This is Formula One racing - just smaller.

Those blocks have been made into cars by 30 teams who have come

Now they're going against each other to finish

But this competition isn't just about speed but design,

the sponsorship the team has managed to get and how it presents itself.

The F1 teams are very close by so we had four teams coming

to have a look around, meet the students and present some

It's an opportunity for them to take a look at what we're developing

as an organisation so they can support it in a bigger way

to attract more students and make the pool much bigger

Unfortunately, the team from Gloucester didn't make the podium.

Disappointing but we all put in a lot of hard work, a lot of sleepless

nights. Could have gone better but waiting for the scorecards,

hopefully better than last year. It's now hoped that the skills they

learned from making this could one day be used to make something more

like this. I thought that would have a happy

ending! Such passion. That's life, guys,

live to fight another day. An animator turned

puppeteer has won ?50,000 Barnaby Dixon has created his

own puppets and films He's already getting interest

from international programme makers. So I finally finished the puppet

or close enough to it. This is called Manu,

the unique creation by Barnaby Dixon With the dancing Manu,

Barnaby went on to win the Germany I won ?50,000, which is a lot

of money but that will go towards equipment, towards lawyers'

fees in terms of Barnaby studied animation

but decided to build puppets around his hands

so that he could make To do that motion, that's

a day's work in stop motion which is insane,

whereas this, it happens as quickly as you can perform

it, so fairly cheap. So far he's relied on crowdfunding

to support his work. It's meant he can spend hours

creating characters like Dinosaur. When you're in control

of every aspect of creation, you are the authority

and its very freeing. Along with the character

Dabchick, Barnaby has made The good news is, we're

doing an Easter egg hunt, With offers from the US

to make a TV series, If you're good enough

at anything and you like it and other people like it,

you can make a living doing anything, if you find

a way to make it viable, Isn't that clever? I have a feeling

we will hear a lot more from him. There were rumours of highs of 18

today. Did they come through? They did, 19 Celsius, not as high as we

saw towards the south-east of England but the warmest day of the

year so far. Tomorrow will be characterised by fresher and cooler

weather, but would you have any sunshine it will still feel

comparatively warm and there will be some rain, some of that showery to

the first part of the day and as we get later on to wards the evening

and through the evening, but most of you will enjoy a lengthy spell of

dry and bright weather. We have some light showers running in from the

South West associated with a high level cloud and in the early as a

week-old front from the South West will set up tomorrow morning with

some light rain but there was a fair stretch of the day were it looks the

opposite in terms of a balance towards a lot of dry weather. At the

moment, although your reader apps might show a lot of showers around,

not all of that is reaching the ground but the second half of the

night will usher in a greater threat showery rain. Temperatures around

tonight after ten or 12, a breezy story tomorrow and then once we

clear that first phase of showery rain, the rest of the day for the

majority will be bright, varying amounts of cloud and sunny spells,

occasional showers but many areas on a stretch of dry conditions which

will last into the evening and then we will bring in the renewed threat

of further rain in the evening and overnight into Saturday.

Temperatures tomorrow at the town on today, then Saturday will be a

classic day of sun and showers, some of those showers will be heavy,

possibly some thunder and hail, but towards the West a ridge of high

pressure builds so we will have a weekend off to have speakers Sunday

is looking settled, dry and fine. I don't think I got 18 degrees today.

I had my own personal cloud! That's it from us. I'm back at 10pm with an

app base but otherwise see you tomorrow. Thank you

For full sets and more from the weekend,