A man was left out of work with his leg swollen ‘like a balloon’ after a ‘horrific’ bite from ‘Britain’s most dangerous spider’. 

Shane Parmenter, from Chelmsford, Essex, says a bite from a noble false widow left him unable to work and struggling with his mental health. 

The 36-year-old, who raps as MC Napz, says the spider struck after he tried to squash it in his recording studio. 

He said: ‘My mate was laughing his head off. He said “it’s gonna come back and do ya” and I was like “yeah, alright”. 

‘We ended up both falling asleep in the studio, and I felt something in the night bite me. It felt like a bee sting. 

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT 

‘When I woke up in the morning, I felt another big sting, and then a false widow ran out of my trouser leg. 

‘Pretty much straight away it all went red, it was a bit uncomfortable. 

‘It got a whole lot worse. My leg swelled up like a balloon. I felt sick, I felt nauseous, I was dizzy, I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t eat.’ 

Following advice from the NHS 111 helpline, Shane drew around the bite with a pen so he would see if it was swelling – but his injury quickly outgrew the markings. 

He said: ‘It went from a little mark on my leg, to massive – it just kept getting bigger and bigger, more swollen and swollen. You could see that it was getting infected.’ 

At Sittingbourne Memorial Hospital, medics cleaned and dressed the wound, and gave him a course of antibiotics. 

But the musician would have to re-dress the wound time and time again as it continued to ooze through the bandages. 

He said: ‘I had about four or five of them put on, and literally within 24 hours of it going on, it was filling up – I’d take them off and it’d burst. 

‘The worse it got was: one night, I was sat on the toilet and I felt it just go ‘pop’ and I felt it seeping through the pad – it was dripping down my leg. 

‘I took the pad off and it was just literally horrific: blood and big lumps of pus oozing out of my leg. It was so painful.’ 

The bite has also unleashed a wave of mental health anguish for Shane, and impacted on his work with his record label, D&B Politics. 

‘It was really hard to cope with,’ he said. 

‘Not being able to go to work and not being able to do my side-job, or even sit at my laptop and do my promotions and release some music. 

‘I’ve got my own studio so I like to get really creative in the studio, but I couldn’t think straight. ‘It’s made me a bit shook of spiders.

‘I wasn’t scared of spiders before but I definitely damn well am now.’ 

Noble false widows are not native to the UK, but are thought to have arrived from the Canary Islands in banana boxes in the late 1800s.

The species gained a strong population in the majority of Britain’s southern counties, and they are now spreading northwards. 

It can be found all year round regardless of climate both indoors and outdoors – from roadside plants and ivy growing on walls to telegraph poles, fence posts and buildings.  

The noble false widow is ‘widely regarded as the most dangerous spider breeding in Britain,’ according to a 2020 paper by Clive Hambler, an Oxford University zoologist.

However they’re unlikely to attack unless provoked or trapped between clothes and skin. 

Now Mr Parmenter is speaking out to warn others to leave them be. 

He said: ‘They’re the sort of spider that if you just leave them alone, they will not even bother you. 

‘My advice to other people would be: if you find a false widow in your house, leave it.’ 

City Pub Group sees increase in revenues despite poor weather and train strikes

• Revenue increased to £31.7m for the first half, up from £26.7m 
• Like for like sales at London-listed pub operator were also up 14%

By Daniel Fessahaye

Updated: 10:41 EDT, 21 September 2023

Some links in this article may be affiliate links. If you click on them we may earn a small commission. That helps us fund This Is Money, and keep it free to use. We do not write articles to promote products. We do not allow any commercial relationship to affect our editorial independence.

MARKET REPORT: US car strikes put brakes on GKN automotive spin-off Dowlais

By John Abiona For The Daily Mail

Updated: 17:01 EDT, 12 September 2023

Some links in this article may be affiliate links. If you click on them we may earn a small commission. That helps us fund This Is Money, and keep it free to use. We do not write articles to promote products. We do not allow any commercial relationship to affect our editorial independence.

Doctors have been put on high alert about rising cases of a potentially severe respiratory virus in parts of the United States, which could signal a bad nationwide outbreak is to come. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned medical professionals the rising rates of respiratory syncitial virus, or RSV, in Florida and Georgia in recent weeks signal the start of the respiratory virus season.  

And the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has advised healthcare workers to brace for what could be a ‘tripledemic’ of RSV, flu, and Covid-19 cases this winter.

RSV infects the lungs and the respiratory tract and typically causes cold-like symptoms, though it can be deadly to seniors who have weaker immune systems and infants whose already-narrow airways fill with mucus, making it hard to breathe. 

RSV is the leading cause of hospitalization for infants one or younger in the US. Each year, the virus causes up to 80,000 hospitalizations and 300 deaths in children under age 5. 

And in seniors, the virus can cause up to 160,000 hospitalizations and 10,000 fatalities every year.

Treatments and preventive measures for RSV have become more widely available in just the past year, and the CDC is urging clinicians to stock up on vaccines for adults and pregnant women and monoclonal antibodies for infants when they become available.    

This summer ushered in the most substantial win for protecting babies FROM RSV, though, with the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of a monoclonal antibody to protect against RSV called Nirsevimab, which will become available in October.

Nirsevimab is a single-shot monoclonal antibody that, in clinical trials, cut the chance of serious RSV infection requiring hospitalization by nearly 75 percent. 

For seniors 60 years and older, there are now two new vaccines to help fend off the virus, with one of them proving to be 80 percent effective at preventing RSV infection. 

But the vaccines for older adults are not like a traditional flu shot that is available to all who want one. Doctors must decide after consultation with their patients whether the rare, yet potentially severe health risks associated with the vaccine, such as atrial fibrillation and neurological complications, outweigh the benefit of protection. 

Regional increases early in the season, such as those currently occurring in the Southeast, offer health officials a glimpse of what may be to come for the rest of the country in the next several months. 

Agency officials monitoring disease testing results in Florida found the number of diagnostic tests coming back positive for RSV exceeded five percent for about a month. The typical test positivity rate for RSV this time of year is around three percent. 

In Georgia, the CDC observed an uptick in the number of hospitalizations due to RSV. Around two for every 100,000 children in Georgia were hospitalized for RSV during the week ending on August 5. By August 19, that rate had risen to seven hospitalizations per 100,000 children. 

The uptick in cases this time of year would not otherwise be noteworthy, as seasonal RSV, along with influenza, typically begins in early fall and peaks in the winter. 

But the last few years have been an exception to that rule thanks to pandemic-era social distancing measures like masking and isolation. Meant to stave off Covid, the measures also largely stamped out seasonal virus outbreaks as we knew them.

But when the world gradually reopened in 2021 after Covid-19 vaccines became available, seasonal viruses came back too. 

Last year’s RSV season was among the worst. 

Covid, flu, and RSV began to circulate with some overlap, garnering fears of a ‘tripledemic’. 

Now, there is renewed concern of another ‘tripledemic’, a situation in which three diseases join forces and overwhelm the healthcare system, which so far has not had the devastating consequences at the scale many epidemiologists feared. 

Still, the CDC is recommending doctors ramp up testing for RSV, as well as Covid and the flu, in schools, daycares and long-term care facilities, and stockpile the latest medicine. 

The health agency also recommends all infants under eight months born during RSV season should receive the antibody within their first week of life, while infants born outside the typical season should get Nirsevimab before the next RSV season begins. 

While the shot has been shown to be extremely effective, the CDC acknowledged not all hospitals will have it in their arsenal immediately due to high demand. 

Pregnant women can also receive a vaccine that confers immunity to their unborn babies for a continuous six months of protection after birth. 

Direct Line shares soar as hiking car insurance premiums pays off and it strikes £550m deal

• Deal will see firm sell its brokered commercial insurance to RSA 
• FTSE 250 company saw pre-tax losses risen to £76.3m from £11.1m in Q1

By Daniel Fessahaye

Updated: 08:11 EDT, 7 September 2023

Some links in this article may be affiliate links. If you click on them we may earn a small commission. That helps us fund This Is Money, and keep it free to use. We do not write articles to promote products. We do not allow any commercial relationship to affect our editorial independence.

WH Smith shrugs off rail strikes as sales are buoyed by holidaymakers

• Turnover at the retailer increased by 28% for the 12 months ending August
• Its travel arm continued to benefit from the loosening of Covid-related curbs
• The firm recently said it would not be opening any more UK high street shops

By Harry Wise

Updated: 06:38 EDT, 6 September 2023

Some links in this article may be affiliate links. If you click on them we may earn a small commission. That helps us fund This Is Money, and keep it free to use. We do not write articles to promote products. We do not allow any commercial relationship to affect our editorial independence.

• Jason Missey was moving wood in his garden when he felt something like a sting
• Doctors identified Jason’s injury as a spider bite – likely from a noble false widow 

By Michael Havis For Mailonline

Updated: 06:38 EDT, 22 August 2023

By Lewis Browning and Kieran Lynch For Mailonline

Updated: 13:55 EDT, 31 July 2023

Support for industrial action among junior doctors appears to have plummeted as 5,500 fewer walked out each day during their latest strike than in the first wave, new figures show.

The Royal College of Nursing yesterday also admitted for the first time that its industrial action could ‘hit the end of the road’ this week, in a major boost to patients.

Health bosses were forced to cancel 108,602 appointments and operations when medics withdrew care for three days last week, including from cancer wards and A&E.

It took the total number of postponements as a result of strike action by the likes of junior doctors, nurses, and physiotherapists to 651,232 since December.

However, while an average of 28,708 doctors below the rank of consultant took part in strike action each day between March 13 and March 15, this plummeted by a fifth (19.3 per cent) to just 23,158 last week.

The figure during the previous wave, from April 11 to April 14, was 26,145.

Notably, last week’s peak figure of 24,407 on Wednesday was fewer than every day during the previous rounds.

It suggests the doctors are growing weary, can no longer afford to lose pay or are concerned that taking too much time off work will impact on their ability to progress to their next year of training.

Meanwhile, consultants, nurses and radiographers are being balloted over their own industrial action, which could see disruption within the NHS drag on for months more.

However, Pat Cullen, chief executive of the RCN, has raised doubts over whether enough nurses will return their postal vote in time to secure a mandate for further strikes, with the ballot closing on Friday.

Under the 2016 trade union laws, at least 50 per cent of union members must vote in a postal ballot for its result to stand – equivalent to more than 150,000 of the RCN’s membership.

Ms Cullen told the Guardian: ‘There are only a couple of days left to vote by post and it is starting to look like the government’s rules on postal voting could get the better of us.’

She said she believed the vote would indicate support for further strikes but the 50 per cent voting threshold may not be reached.

Ms Cullen, who is seeking a double digit pay rise for her members, added: ‘Nursing staff can still post their ballots back but unless 150,000 people get their votes sent back in the post then the strike has hit the end of the road.’

Only last week, junior doctors threatened to walk out ‘indefinitely’ if the government refuses to cave in to their demands for an inflation-busting pay rise.

The British Medical Association has told ministers they must boost pay by at least 35 per cent if they want to bring the industrial action to an end.

It warned its row is not a ‘flash in the pan’ and it is prepared to reballot members ‘again and again and again’ to maintain a strike mandate.

The alarming warning would see waiting lists, which already stand at a record 7.4million, soar further and leave patients waiting longer in pain.

Dr Robert Laurenson, co-chair of the BMA’s junior doctors’ committee, said: ‘There will come a time when the inevitable will happen – it will probably look like an indefinite withdrawal of labour.’

Professor Sir Stephen Powis, national medical director at NHS England, believes the strikes have had a greater impact on appointments than the figures suggest.

He said: ‘These figures yet again demonstrate the huge impact of industrial action for patients and their families, and are likely to underestimate the scale of disruption last week, with many services avoiding scheduling appointments for strike days.

‘With more than 106,000 appointments now being added to over half a million already postponed over the last six months due to strikes, we are continuing to see a massive cumulative impact on NHS services and our hard-working staff as they do all they can to maintain safe patient services while tackling a record backlog.’

Miriam Deakin, director of policy and strategy at NHS Providers, which represents NHS trusts, said: ‘Strikes cannot become ‘business as usual’ for trusts and patients.

‘Trusts have had to deal with seven consecutive months of disruptive and demoralising industrial action in the NHS and leaders are working hard to prepare for a possible eighth.

‘Trust leaders and their staff continue to pull out all the stops to cushion the impact of strikes with patient safety the top priority.

‘But they are worried about the long-term effects on patients who have their care delayed at a time when waiting lists are already at record levels, the impact on staff morale and the rising cost of paying to provide cover.

‘Only serious talks between the government and the doctors’ union can break the deadlock but in a speech in the middle of last week’s strike health and social care secretary Steve Barclay made no mention of steps to settle the dispute.

‘While ministers and the doctors’ union aren’t talking patients pay the price of the stand-off.

‘The longer that industrial action goes on and trusts have to keep coping with the fall-out from the most significant period of industrial action in the history of the NHS, the less they can focus all of their energy on patients and help to meet the government’s pledge to cut waiting lists.’

Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents healthcare organisations, said: ‘Many patients may end up back in primary care due to experiencing complications or a deterioration of their condition as a result of waiting longer for their operation, meaning that the NHS is still forced to store up problems for the future.

‘Not only is this continuing standoff between government and junior doctors taking a toll on patient care and wellbeing, but on NHS finances.

‘One provider has told us that during a previous round, the combination of additional staffing costs and lost activity cost them £500,000, so we are starting to see the financial impact beginning to bite.

‘With demand for services high, pandemic recovery efforts in full swing, and finances already stretched to the limit, leaders will want to know how many more times this situation must be repeated.

‘Coping with strikes cannot become business as usual; both the BMA and the government need to get back to the table immediately.’

Dr Vivek Trivedi and Dr Robert Laurenson, co-chairs of the BMA Junior Doctors Committee, said last night: ‘Junior doctors are as determined as ever to keep fighting for their pay to be fully restored despite the mounting financial implications of striking and amid a cost of living crisis.

‘They will continue to take industrial action every month until this Government sees sense and resolves this crisis by listening to them and coming to the table with a credible offer.’