British woman, 76, is stabbed to death in Spain: Victim’s Norwegian partner is arrested

• An 82-year-old Norwegian man has been arrested in connection to the death 

By Natalia Penza and James Reynolds

Published: 04:58 EDT, 15 September 2023 | Updated: 07:22 EDT, 15 September 2023

Five young hotel workers have died after a steel lift cable snapped at a Bali resort and plunged them 100 metres down a steep embankment.

The two men and three women were working in the housekeeping department at Ayuterra Resort in the Ubud district when they got into an Instagram-famous glass lift, which runs on a track up a 35-degree slope, at 1pm on Friday. 

The workers were identified as Ni Luh Superningsih, 20, Kadek Hardiyanti, 24, Kadek Yanti Pradewi, 19, Sang Putu Bayu Adi Krisna, 19, and Wayan Aries Setiawan, 23. 

Outrage has erupted, with the families paid just over $4,000 in compensation from their employers, on the condition they will not launch legal action against the resort. 

According to local media, families have been given between IDR158.2m ($16,308) and IDR166.1m ($17,122) from social security program BPJS Ketenagakerjaan, and about IDR 40m ($4112) from the resort owners to cover cremation rituals and on compassionate grounds.

However, the added support from Ayuterra Resort means families would not be able to launch legal action against the company. 

The uncle of Mr Hardiyanti, Nyoman Suarila told local publication Kumparan, that he accepted the terms.

‘Even if we sue, our children will not return,’ he said.

‘But we believe in karma. If the company is wrong, then it will get it. That’s our principle.

‘If the incident that caused my nephew’s death was the fault of a technician or something, it must be processed according to applicable law.’

Two of the staff died at the scene while the remaining three were alive and transported to hospital, but died shortly after. 

A cook at the hotel, Ketut Suwiarta, told local media he heard screams shortly after the group entered the lift and then crashing sounds.

He rushed outside to help the victims and alerted authorities. 

The elevator runs on a track and transports both tourists and workers between the upper sections of the hotel high up on the ridge and the resort facilities at ground level.

It is understood the elevator was a popular Instagram attraction at the resort, offering views over the surrounding landscape.

Police are investigating why the cable broke, whether adequate safety maintenance had been done, and why there were no backup measures in case the cable broke.

The families met with Bali’s deputy governor, Cok Ace, over the weekend as Balinese Hindu ceremonies were held to cleanse the site and wish the victims well.

‘I was at the resort earlier; the Bali Police were there, the police chief too, as well as several witnesses who knew of the incident,’ he said.

‘Earlier, when I was being interviewed there, I saw for myself the scene where the rope had broken.’

All guests at the resort have been relocated to other accommodation while the investigation is underway.

Resort owner Linggawati Utomo expressed her sympathies to the victims’ families.

Ubud Police Chief, Police Commissioner Made Uder said on Monday the tragedy would serve as a wake up call to all hotels and businesses on the holiday island. 

‘The steel swing rope was not strong enough to pull the weight upwards, which was quite heavy, and the safety wedge or brake did not function, so the elevator slid downwards at high speed so this accident could not be avoided,’ he said.

The lift was reportedly inspected by an independent consultant as recently as November 2022 who said it was in operating condition.

Cancer patients have told of having just months to live after facing long waits for treatment on the NHS.

Sufferers across England have been forced to endure delays of up to four months between vital checks, tests and treatments.

As a result, some say they are now dying prematurely, suffering depression and unable to plan for the future.

It comes as England’s burgeoning cancer crisis was today laid bare by MailOnline’s dossier of ‘disgraceful’ data.

The dire numbers – packaged into a searchable tool so you can see exactly how your NHS trust performs – come amid growing fears of a cancer timebomb.

Carol Fletcher

Carol Fletcher, from South Wales, had a routine screening appointment for breast cancer in June 2022.

The NHS offers the checks to women aged 50 to 71 every three years. It uses X-rays to look for cancers that are too small to see or feel.

It was not until eight weeks after her mammogram, that Carol was told there was something wrong.

She was then diagnosed with breast cancer and faced further waits for scans, tests, surgery and chemotherapy.

Carol told the BBC: ‘I was told that I might not get results back [quickly] after my mastectomy because they haven’t got enough pathologists, so there was another eight-week delay for chemotherapy.

‘I can’t plan for the future and it’s had a huge impact on my family.’

Kevin O’Hara

Kevin O’Hara, from County Durham, had a scan last November after a motorbike accident.

As well as showing that he had five broken ribs, a scan detected a shadow near one of his kidneys.

It was later diagnosed as kidney cancer.

Kevin was initially offered drugs to slow the growth of the tumour.

But medics informed him that he faced a three to four month wait for surgery.

He told the BBC: ‘Every day you are waiting and waiting and nothing changes.

‘I come home from work and go to the door and, when there’s no envelope that says NHS on the top, I just get so depressed.’

Charlotte Park

Charlotte Park, from North Yorkshire, booked GP appointment in June 2020 after finding a lump in her breast.

Her doctor made an urgent referral to her local breast clinic, which was supposed to see her within two weeks.

But when Charlotte called the clinic after not hearing from it, she was told there were delays due to a backlog.

She was eventually seen three-and-a-half weeks later — but only after going back to her GP who helped secure an earlier appointment. 

Scans showed she had an aggressive form of breast cancer. But it wasn’t until September that she began chemotherapy.

She is now in remission, which means there is no sign of cancer in her body. 

But she told the BBC: ‘It was so frustrating. I just felt like I was hitting my head against a brick wall. I felt under a massive amount of stress.

‘I thought I was going to die at one point. You worry so much when you are waiting. Sadly there are so many people out there is this position.’

Caroline Boulton 

Caroline Boulton, from Greater Manchester, was booked in for a mammogram — a routine breast cancer check — in March 2020.

But the appointment, and another for November 2020, were cancelled due to the Covid pandemic.

Then, in November 2021, she found a small pea-sized lump on her breast.

Caroline booked a GP appointment and was urgently referred to a specialist. 

However, she had to wait three weeks to see a consultant, rather than the two weeks set out in the NHS rule book.

By the time of her appointment, the lump had grown to the size of a tangerine.

Caroline was told it was a fast-growing cancer but that it would be an eight-week wait for surgery to remove her breast.

She then faced delays of four to eight weeks between each appointment and scan.

By the time she saw an oncologist, seven months after finding the lump, scans showed that the cancer had spread to her liver and there was no effective treatment available. 

Caroline said: ‘I’ve now got stage-four cancer that I shouldn’t have — and two years to live.’ 

Rishi Sunak was heckled as he told victims of the infected blood scandal their decades-long wait for compensation would have to continue.

The Prime Minister came face to face with protesters and campaigners at the inquiry into what happened, and what recompense they should receive.

But angry audience members accused him of ‘not listening’ and laughed sarcastically en masse when he said work to settle the issue was continuing ‘at pace’.

The spectacle of shouting down a sitting Prime Minister giving evidence prompted a rebuke from inquiry chairman Sir Brian Langstaff, who urged them to abide by the ‘tradition of respecting the witness’.

One woman walked out in tears as the Prime Minister said he could only speak about ‘the Government I’m responsible for’.

It followed a series of questions from inquiry lawyer Jenni Richards KC about a lack of compensation for victims since former Paymaster General Penny Mordaunt wrote to then-Chancellor Mr Sunak in early 2020, urging him to organise payouts as soon as possible.

Mr Sunak said he was not aware of her letters at the time, as they were dealt with by officials.

At least 2,900 NHS patients – including young children – died from being infected with HIV and hepatitis C through contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s. Many others continue to live with serious medical conditions caused by tainted blood products.

It has been described as the worst treatment scandal in the history of the health service, yet those infected and affected by it have been forced to fight for a compensation body to recognise their suffering and loss.

Sir Brian announced in April he was taking the unusual step of publishing the recommendation that bereaved parents and children of victims should receive immediate £100,000 interim compensation payments ahead of the publication of the full report into the scandal so that victims would not face any more delays.

The inquiry has also recommended that the Government establishes an arms-length compensation body soon.

An independent report by Sir Robert Francis recommended victims should eventually be compensated for physical and social injury, the stigma of the disease, the impact on family and work life, and the cost of care, while the parents, siblings and children of victims who have now died should also receive payouts, he said,

Inquiry chairman Sir Brian’s final report is expected later in the year.

Giving evidence to the inquiry in central London this afternoon, in front of an audience of around nearly 500 people infected and affected by the scandal, Mr Sunak accepted people had to wait decades for compensation.

But he said it would not be appropriate to settle compensation fully until the final report was completed.

He said: ‘Before making final decisions there is the context in which those decisions need to be made, so understanding the full context of the inquiry’s findings about what has happened over the preceding decades is important for a variety of policy reasons.

‘That’s why the Government would ordinarily wait to have the final report, so it has a full set of findings to make decisions on.

‘There is good legal precedent and reasons for that and rational decision-making would suggest that is the right thing to do.’

He said he was unable to put a timescale on when compensation would be sorted.

Mr Sunak said: ‘I do not want to add to what I believe to be a litany of broken promises and dashed expectations of everyone in this room and everyone watching (online) has had to endure for years, if not decades.

‘It is hard for me to give a precise time frame on exactly when and how these things will be resolved.’

But he said the interim £100,000 payouts and the acceptance of a moral case for compensation was an example of his Government’s ‘desire to see this through’.

Mr Sunak described the scandal as ‘a tragedy which should not have happened and we must right the wrong’.

In his witness statement to the inquiry, he said: ‘The Government is committed in responding to this inquiry’s final report when it is published and I understand that work is underway across government to ensure that a substantial response on a full compensation scheme can be included.

‘I am aware of the complexities of preparing an adequate compensation scheme, including the likely need for primary legislation.

‘As is the usual process for managing policy decisions, this work is being led by other ministers and I will be sighted in relation to the scope of the scheme and intended response at the appropriate stage when they have a formal set of recommendations to make based on their expertise.’

The Government agreed last summer to make the first interim compensation payments of £100,000 each to about 4,000 surviving victims, and bereaved widows.

But while some victims have received financial support, not all have been fully compensated.

Campaigners fear the Government is dragging its feet over the issue by not yet establishing a full compensation framework for all those affected.

Both Jeremy Quin, the current lead minister sponsoring the inquiry, and Penny Mordaunt, one of his predecessors as Paymaster General, this week told the inquiry the Government was determined to resolve the issue.

Former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt is due to give evidence on Friday.

Mr Sunak’s appearance comes ahead of an anticipated grilling at the Covid Inquiry in the autumn, at which his time as Chancellor during the pandemic will be scrutinised.

MARTIN BEARD: No wonder Rishi Sunak was jeered, when tainted blood victims like me have had to wait decades for justice

There were two telling moments at today’s Infected Blood Inquiry at which the Prime Minister was giving evidence when Rishi Sunak was jeered by the audience.

Once when he prevaricated on whether it was good enough that there were still no plans to give compensation to the 30,000 people and their grieving families whose lives were, like mine, ruined by tainted blood.

And secondly when the Prime Minister insisted the Government’s work on this issue was moving ‘at pace’.

Thirty-seven years after I was told, as a teenager, that I had been infected with HIV from contaminated blood products issued by the NHS, it remains enormously frustrating to see yet another Prime Minister insist that we are a priority, that what happened to us was an ‘appalling scandal’ — and yet at the same time failing to make any real progress.

Every four days someone affected by this dies — a tragedy Sunak acknowledged.

And the longer the Government delays making a decision on compensation — for which it has already accepted there is a moral case — the fewer individuals and their families will see justice in their lifetimes. That only compounds the agony.

Here, again, Sunak has failed to give us any answers. Not that an official wall of silence is any surprise to us.

It was in 1986, when I was 17, that I learned that I’d been infected with HIV three years previously.

A doctor at North Staffordshire Royal Infirmary bluntly told my Mum and I: ‘I see you have HIV.’ It was a hammer blow. I was predicted to live just two years.

Doctors at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, where I’d been previously treated for haemophilia, had failed to tell me that the blood clotting agent, Factor VIII, with which I had been injected, was contaminated with the virus.

Another cousin — like me, infected with HIV from contaminated blood — died, aged 34, from AIDS. At his funeral, I felt as if all eyes were on me, wondering if I would be next.

In the Eighties, medical professionals treated me like a leper; I lost my job on an electronics-assembly line when colleagues found out my status; and I haven’t been able to have relationships.

The only real one I ever had ended because I knew she wanted to have children and I couldn’t risk infecting her.

Of course, an HIV diagnosis these days is very different, as many people living with the virus have long and normal lives because of effective treatment, and they cannot pass the virus on.

I know I’m fortunate to still be here, aged 54, when so many are not.

Some died very young, without a life of any kind.

And that is, by anyone’s measure, wrong.

I understand that the Government can scarcely afford the billions it may cost to put this scandal right and I’m grateful for the work done to date (I received £100,000 as an interim compensation payment last year).

But I fear that an election — which could come next year — could only kick the can further down the road. Only survivors, and those who lost spouses, have received any money to date. People whose children died — who have never received any payments — need to be given the compensation they deserve, too.

And a genuine apology would go a long way, with an acknowledgement of the cover-up by politicians and NHS staff.

Perhaps then the community which has suffered for so long can get on with what remains of their lives.

Martin Beard is a campaigner and speaker for tainted blood victims

There were two telling moments at today’s Infected Blood Inquiry at which the Prime Minister was giving evidence when Rishi Sunak was jeered by the audience.

Once when he prevaricated on whether it was good enough that there were still no plans to give compensation to the 30,000 people and their grieving families whose lives were, like mine, ruined by tainted blood.

And secondly when the Prime Minister insisted the Government’s work on this issue was moving ‘at pace’.

Thirty-seven years after I was told, as a teenager, that I had been infected with HIV from contaminated blood products issued by the NHS, it remains enormously frustrating to see yet another Prime Minister insist that we are a priority, that what happened to us was an ‘appalling scandal’ — and yet at the same time failing to make any real progress.

Every four days someone affected by this dies — a tragedy Sunak acknowledged.

And the longer the Government delays making a decision on compensation — for which it has already accepted there is a moral case — the fewer individuals and their families will see justice in their lifetimes. That only compounds the agony.

Here, again, Sunak has failed to give us any answers. Not that an official wall of silence is any surprise to us.

It was in 1986, when I was 17, that I learned that I’d been infected with HIV three years previously.

A doctor at North Staffordshire Royal Infirmary bluntly told my Mum and I: ‘I see you have HIV.’ It was a hammer blow. I was predicted to live just two years.

Doctors at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, where I’d been previously treated for haemophilia, had failed to tell me that the blood clotting agent, Factor VIII, with which I had been injected, was contaminated with the virus.

Another cousin — like me, infected with HIV from contaminated blood — died, aged 34, from AIDS. At his funeral, I felt as if all eyes were on me, wondering if I would be next.

In the Eighties, medical professionals treated me like a leper; I lost my job on an electronics-assembly line when colleagues found out my status; and I haven’t been able to have relationships.

The only real one I ever had ended because I knew she wanted to have children and I couldn’t risk infecting her.

Of course, an HIV diagnosis these days is very different, as many people living with the virus have long and normal lives because of effective treatment, and they cannot pass the virus on.

I know I’m fortunate to still be here, aged 54, when so many are not.

Some died very young, without a life of any kind.

And that is, by anyone’s measure, wrong.

I understand that the Government can scarcely afford the billions it may cost to put this scandal right and I’m grateful for the work done to date (I received £100,000 as an interim compensation payment last year).

But I fear that an election — which could come next year — could only kick the can further down the road. Only survivors, and those who lost spouses, have received any money to date. People whose children died — who have never received any payments — need to be given the compensation they deserve, too.

And a genuine apology would go a long way, with an acknowledgement of the cover-up by politicians and NHS staff.

Perhaps then the community which has suffered for so long can get on with what remains of their lives.

Martin Beard is a campaigner and speaker for tainted blood victims

The mother of the teenager who died in the Titan sub disaster with his multi-millionaire father has revealed she had originally intended to go on the doomed voyage – but gave her spot to her son because he ‘really wanted to go’.

Christine Dawood and her husband Shahzada Dawood had initially booked a trip to the Titanic wreck for themselves but had to cancel due to the pandemic.

She said that when their family reserved spots on this year’s OceanGate Expeditions mission, she ‘stepped back’ because her son Suleman, 19, was so keen to go.

The family boarded the Polar Prince, the sub’s support vessel, on Father’s Day hoping for the trip of a lifetime. Mrs Dawood and her daughter Alina, 17, were still on board when word came through on June 18 that communications with Titan had been lost.

She and her daughter held out hope to begin with after they did not initially return – but admitted she ‘lost hope’ when 96 hours had passed since her husband and son boarded the submersible, which indicated they had run out of oxygen.

Her daughter held out a bit longer, she said, until a call with the US Coast Guard last Thursday when they were informed debris had been found – something they did not know about until that point. It then became clear that an implosion had taken place.

The US Navy had detected sounds ‘consistent with an implosion’ soon after Titan lost contact on Sunday, but it was deemed ‘not definitive’ and the detail was not released publicly – with the search and rescue mission continuing until debris was found. 

Speaking about initially holding out hope, Mrs Dawood told the BBC: ‘We all thought they are just going to come up so that shock was delayed by about 10 hours or so.

‘By the time they were supposed to be up again, there was a time…. when they were supposed to be up on the surface again and when that time passed, the real shock, not shock but the worry and the not so good feelings, started.

‘We had loads of hope, I think that was the only thing that got us through it because we were hoping and… there were so many actions the people on this sub can do in order to surface… they would drop the weights, then the ascent would be slower, we were constantly looking at the surface. There was that hope.

‘There was so many things we would go through where we would think ‘it’s just slow right now, it’s slow right now’. But there was a lot of hope.’

She said she ‘lost hope’ when 96 hours had passed since her husband and son boarded the submersible.

She revealed that is when she sent a message to her family saying she was ‘preparing for the worst’.

Her daughter held out a bit longer, she said, until the call with the US Coast Guard when they were informed debris had been found.

UK-based businessman Shahzada and Suleman were two of the five victims killed instantly when the submersible suffered a ‘catastrophic implosion’ just 1,600ft from the bow of the Titanic, according to the US Coast Guard.

Mrs Dawood revealed that she had planned to go with her husband to view the Titanic wreck in the OceanGate sub, but that their trip was cancelled due to the Covid pandemic.

‘Then I stepped back and gave them space to set [Suleman] up, because he really wanted to go,’ she said.

‘I was really happy for them because both of them, they really wanted to do that for a very long time.’

Mrs Dawood shared how she and Alina hugged and joked with Shahzada and Suleman before the pair entered the submersible.

Suleman, a student at Strathclyde University, had taken his Rubik’s Cube on the trip as he hoped to break the world record for solving the puzzle at the greatest depth, she revealed.

‘He said: ‘I’m going to solve the Rubik’s Cube 3,700 meters below sea at the Titanic’,’ Mrs Dawood recalled.

Her son, she said, was practical and intellectual, and wouldn’t go anywhere without his Rubik’s Cube – which he taught himself to solve it in just 12 seconds.

‘Suleman did a 10,000-piece lego Titanic. He applied for a world record because he wanted to solve a Rubik’s Cube at the deepest point.

While his application was rejected, they were still planning to film the attempt.

Mrs Dawood said she and her daughter have vowed to try to learn to finish the Rubik’s Cube in Suleman’s honour, and she intends to continue her husband’s work.

She said: ‘He was involved in so many things, he helped so many people and I think Alina and I really want to continue that legacy and give him that platform when his work has continued and it’s quite important for my daughter as well.

‘Alina and I said we are going learn how to solve the Rubik’s Cube. That’s going to be a challenge for us because we are really bad at it but we are going to learn it.’

And the heartbroken mother said through tears: ‘I miss them. I really, really miss them.’

As well as her husband and son, three others died on board Titan: OceanGate’s CEO Stockton Rush, 61, British businessman Hamish Harding, 58, and Paul-Henry Nargeolet, 77, a former French navy diver and experienced Titanic diver. 

Mrs Dawood said those above water tried to remain hopeful, telling themselves: ‘There were so many actions the people on this sub can do in order to surface… they would drop the weights, then the ascent would be slower, we were constantly looking at the surface. There was that hope.’

She and her daughter held out hope to begin with after being they did not initially return.

She said: ‘We all thought they are just going to come up so that shock was delayed by about 10 hours or so.

‘By the time they were supposed to be up again, there was a time…. when they were supposed to be up on the surface again and when that time passed the real shock, not shock but the worry and the not so good feelings started.’

Despite the bleak outlook as the hunt dragged on, she said her teenage daughter never lost hope of her father and older brother’s rescue.

Alina’s mother said of her daughter: ‘She is such an incredible young woman, she is so self-aware.

‘She believes in science, and she really believe, just like if you board a plane, that the science, the mechanics, the engineering will work.’

Mrs Dawood said at 96 hours she tried ‘really hard’ not to show her daughter that she had lost hope.

After news emerged on Thursday that debris from the sub had been found, the family returned to St John’s in Newfoundland, Canada on Saturday.

Yesterday, they held a funeral prayer for Shahzada and Suleman, which Christine said had ‘helped’.

Paying tribute to her son, she admitted he had been a ‘mother’s boy’ but that he also ‘loved his father’.

When asked what the family’s last words to each other were, she told the BBC: ‘We just hugged and joked actually, because Shahzada was so excited to go down, he was like a little child.

‘He had this ability of childhood excitement, they were both so excited.’

Mrs Dawood and her husband met at university, she said, when she didn’t speak any English.

She recalled how the history buff knew more about her native Germany’s history than she did, and that he was obsessed with documentaries.

‘He would make us all watch David Attenborough, and the children loved it.

‘His enthusiasm brought the best out of me, and so I really learned to love history as well. He was really able to, through his knowledge, inspire and motivate others.’

A deadly cancer that grows silently for years is striking down more young people than ever before — and tearing apart families in the process.

While cancers have steadily fallen over recent decades, scientists have been mystified by an explosion of colon cancer cases in younger adults who have traditionally been at low risk of the disease.

Evan White, 24, from Dallas, had just graduated from the University of Arkansas with a degree in finance when he was diagnosed with colon cancer after dismissing his main symptom – tiredness – for months.

The tumor was not spotted until it had progressed to stage three, meaning it had spread outside the colon, making it much harder to treat. Mr White had been on track to marry his girlfriend and move to California, but his dreams were cut short when he died after a four-year battle with the disease.

For those who are lucky enough to catch the cancer before it becomes terminal, their world is torn apart in other ways. Marisa Maddox, a paralegal, was robbed of the chance of having the big family she had always hoped for after a colon cancer diagnosis at 29 made her infertile.

The Delaware native, now 38, had given birth to her son Luke just weeks before being given the devastating stage three cancer diagnosis, when she was told the tumor had spread to her lymph nodes. 

But the harsh effects of radiotherapy caused so much damage to her ovaries that she was unable to have more children, putting an end to Maddox and her lawyer husband Robert’s dream of having a big family.

She told DalyMail.com: ‘I am so happy that I have him, that I have one healthy child.’ 

Shock is a common theme among the growing number of young people being diagnosed with cancers traditionally thought of as a disease of the middle-aged and elderly.

Mrs Maddox said doctors told her the tumors had likely been growing ‘for years’. ‘This isn’t an overnight thing, they told me,’ she added.

Mr White’s mother, Dana, told DailyMail.com that the diagnosis of her then-24-year-old son ‘is just not something you would expect for someone so young.’

In the 1990s, just 11 percent of colorectal cancer cases were among people younger than 55 years old. But cases have now more than doubled, with people in that age group now accounting for a fifth of all new diagnoses, according to the latest data for 2021.

Experts are not sure what’s behind the unprecedented rise, and are exploring whether modern diets, antibiotics or even fungal infections could be at play.

Colorectal cancer normally begins as a small growth, called a polyp, on the inner lining of the colon or rectum — part of the large intestine. 

Over time, the cells in these polyps can start to divide uncontrollably, triggering the cancer.

It often doesn’t cause any or very few symptoms in the early stages, which is why doctors say everyone aged 45 and over should get screened for the cancer once a decade. It is also possible to get screened at an early age after talking to doctors.

Early warning signs of the disease can include a change in bowel habits, blood in feces, unexplained weight loss and sudden fatigue or weakness — brought on by blood loss.

If caught in the early stages, before it spreads to other areas, the charity Fight Colorectal Cancer says nine in ten patients will live beyond five years after their diagnosis.

But should the cancer not be detected until stage three, the five-year survival rate drops to 71 percent. At stage four, just 14 percent of patients live for another five years.

For Mr White, the eldest of three children, he was only diagnosed with the cancer after visiting a hospital to have an abscess removed from his tonsil and a blood test revealed concerning biomarkers. 

At the time, he had just started working as an associate at a financial advisory firm in his home city.

Doctors initially performed surgery and gave him 12 rounds of chemotherapy to treat the cancer, with his life carrying on as close to normal as it could at the time.

The treatment was going well and he started to date Katie Briggs, who he met at university.

‘They had gone to Southern Methodist University in Dallas together and, through friends of friends, they had got to know each other. But she only knew him as cancer Evan, she knew upfront that this guy was battling cancer.’

Mr White was told he was cancer free in June 2018. The couple hatched a plan to move to California, with Katie leaving for the outskirts of Los Angeles in December and Evan set to follow in May 2019.

But this would never come to be after scans in February showed that the cancer had returned.

His father John told DailyMail.com: ‘That was worse news than the original cancer diagnosis.’

Katie moved back to Texas to help him battle the cancer when Covid hit and his condition worsened.

They got engaged in October of that year, with Evan throwing a weekend-long party to celebrate the event.

She wrote on Instagram at the time: ‘I’m so excited to be a White!’

By late 2021, scans showed three tumors about an inch long had spread and grown in his lungs.

John said: ‘In those days it really snowballed, from in his lungs, to in his eye, it was in his brain, it was …. well, it actually broke a vertebra in his spine, and then they found some spots in his liver.’ 

He died on October 18, 2021.

Mrs Maddox was diagnosed with the cancer in 2014, with two golf ball-sized tumors detected in her colon and rectum.

In an attempt to save her ovaries following diagnosis, doctors had done ovarian transposition surgery — where the organs are moved out of the field of radiation where treatment is taking place.

This could be to behind the uterus or to the upper abdomen to protect them. 

Chemotherapy and radiation was a success and her tumors began to shrink immediately. Repeated tests have shown that eight years after the cancer, was treated it has not come back.

Doctors moved her ovaries back into position, but scar tissue had grown around them, making Marisa infertile.

She said: ‘While this was successful and I was not put into early menopause, my ovaries did not function properly afterward. We have tried the IVF route and we went for the whole IVF round. 

‘My doctor said, “I can see the eggs, I can see four of them, but I can’t get to them because of the scar tissue.” He concluded, “There are eggs but we can’t get to them”.’

Marisa and her husband Robert, 48 and a lawyer, had been hoping to have more children.

She only found out she had the cancer after giving birth when she began to experience bleeding from her rectum.

Initially, she thought this was hemorrhoids and what happens to every first-time mother. But when the bleeding became constant, and would happen even when she was sitting on the bus to work, she went to get checked.

Cancers of the colon and rectum are currently the third most common type in the US and third leading cause of death of both men and women.

But within the next decade, experts expect colon cancer to become the number one cause of cancer-related deaths among under-50s.

Making the prediction at a conference earlier this month, gastroenterologist at the University of Chicago Dr Christopher Lieu said: ‘Colorectal cancer will be the number one cause of cancer-related deaths in [patients] 20 to 49.

‘This is a humongous issue.’

The American Cancer Society estimates that around 153,000 cases will be detected this year, including 19,500 among those who are less than 50 years old.

Criminal ring ’caused seven people to kill themselves’ and extorted £3million from victims with fake emails saying they had to pay a fine of up to £170,000 or face child porn charges

• The phishing scam involved false emails from police, judges or institutions
• Police said they arrested 18 people in France and one in Belgium

By James Callery and Afp

Published: 09:59 EDT, 23 June 2023 | Updated: 11:50 EDT, 23 June 2023

An ex-cybercriminal has warned of the dangers children face online after getting tangled up in scams himself at the age of 12. 

The man in his 20s, referred to only as ‘Harry’, has expressed regrets over previous offences, having tricked computer gamers out of thousands during his younger years.

These harmful scams took off at a time when Harry was keen to make pocket money, with no option to get a job of his own.  

But with children now increasingly fixated on the virtual world, he says that protections are vital to ensure they are sheltered from dark practices.

‘As a kid, I didn’t feel anything about it at all. I’d get big scams and take my friends to McDonald’s and pay for it. Things like that,’ Harry told MailOnline.

‘But after it was all over, it really got to me that it was other kids that I had scammed. I started thinking about how it was received from their end. 

‘It’s probably a little harder to do what I did now, but it is fairly easy. That’s a huge risk to kids. You can just download DarkComet RATS (Remote Access Trojans) and you’re ready to go.’

Harry’s first scam took place out of anger when a player of the first-person shooter game, Counter-Strike (CS: GO), tricked him.

This player stole a virtual weapon, known as a Huntsman Knife Crimson Web, which currently sells for more than £1,000 ($1,278) on trading sites such as CSGOSkins.gg.

But this is by no means the most expensive, with other in-game weapons selling for £19,500 ($25,000) in some cases.

These are obtained through a lucky-dip style function, with players spending £5 ($6.39) for ‘cases’ that may have one inside.

‘Someone messaged me saying “I’ll buy your knife and I’ll send you money for it”,’ Harry continued.

‘After a bit of convincing I sent them the knife and of course they didn’t send me any money.

‘Out of anger, I just repeated what the guy did on me to someone else. I didn’t have much success at first, but enough to remain interested. The more time I spent on it, the more convincing I made my scam.’

Harry believes he scammed more than 100 people over the course of his early-teens, with £700 ($895) being the most he earned at one time. 

Screenshots of fake PayPal transactions and encouraging friends to vouch for his trustworthiness initially made this very easy. 

He said: ‘There was a bit of a trading scene at the time. So, you could join a trade server and there’d be people looking for items, swap things around – stuff like that. 

‘I’d look at profiles of people that were trusted and respected on there and make my profile look trusted and respectable.

‘I remember one time I went to a friend and we wanted to play GTA (Grand Theft Auto) and he didn’t have it and he was like “ah can you quickly scam someone so we can buy it” – so I did.’

During his early-teens, Harry also delved into hacking forums to play around with viruses.

He was completely oblivious to the severity of his actions and claims it was all far too easy.

‘I would spend a lot of time on hacking forums. I played around with viruses. It was like you didn’t have to have much technical knowledge at all. Using it is extremely easy. Anyone could use it – no problem,’ Harry continued.

‘I once found a virus undetectable to anti-viruses which I then disguised as nude pictures. So I then just googled “sex chat” and put a suggestive name in that would indicate I’m a woman. 

‘You might say “do you want to see a picture of me” – of course they want to see a picture of you. You can send a picture that’s not really a picture – they run it -then you can look at their screen and play around.’

Based on his experience, Harry is encouraging parents to ensure their children’s devices are equipped with sufficient anti-virus software and ad blockers.

‘Parents can monitor all this and make sure proper antivirus is installed on the PC. And an adblocker too, since malvertising is huge at the moment,’ he said.

‘There’s a massive boom in in-game item prices. They hit a record-high of new players recently and the release of CS2 is imminent – attracting more kids.

‘Things like TikTok videos saying “join this group of trusted traders”, “here’s how to sell these items” will pop up. It’s too easy to rope people in.’ 

While TikTok is among numerous platforms that do not tolerate fraud and scams, Jake Moore, a Global Security Advisor at ESET, claims this content persists.

He warns that offenders may just get even younger as a result of this.

‘Online forums are rife with illicit how-to-guides and as the visitors to these websites get younger, so do those carrying out these offences,’ Mr Moore said.

‘These relatively simple and straight forward step-by-step guides offering scams and sending viruses prey on those who are vulnerable and innocently using the internet who may not be used to the types of cons that appear online.

‘There is also information offering how to protect themselves from being caught which only increases the amount of people committing these offences as well as victims being scammed.’

While cyberbullying and cyber safety have become key parts of the curriculum in many schools, Mr Moore claims that key cybersecurity advice often gets overlooked.

He added: ‘Ideally, prevention measures and education on such topics needs to be added into the curriculum and continually reinforced before more children become victims of online crime.’

Two British victims on the Egyptian dive boat that caught fire in the Red Sea had decided to sleep in on the morning fire broke out, while the other Brit who died returned to his cabin to grab personal belongings, according to a report.

Sources told Al Arabiya.net that the three missing persons, a woman and two men, were inside their rooms on the boat at the moment that the fire broke out on Sunday morning, noting that one of them left the room in an attempt to escape, but then returned.

They also added that he may have wanted to take his phone, passport or some of his personal belongings from the room but he was then unable to leave.

The sources told the media outlet that the other two, the man and the woman, hated waking up early and were asleep when the fire started because they did not take part in the diving trip. 

They also noted that their rooms were located near the fuel tank and that they may have died from suffocation or from their burns. 

Scuba Travel, the company that chartered the boat, announced that the three Brits who ‘perished in the tragic incident’ off the coast of Marsa Alam had chosen not to go diving that day, leaving them unable to evacuate the boat quickly.

Investigators combing through the wreckage confirmed today that the three victims were found below deck in their cabins after failing to escape the intense fire. 

Scuba Travel said that the three passengers were among 15 qualified diving enthusiasts who were on board the ‘Hurricane’ boat for a week-long trip when the fire broke out at around 6.30am UK time.

‘At the time the fire broke out, 12 divers were participating in a briefing on board, while those missing had apparently decided not to dive that morning,’ the company added. 

Scuba Travel said that due to the severity of the blaze, 12 divers were evacuated immediately to a nearby craft, while the 14 crew members had to abandon the ship after trying to reach the missing guests. 

Footage on social media showed the tour boat transform into a floating inferno as its stern was engulfed by flames, producing plumes of black smoke while it was off the Elphinstone Reef in the Red Sea.

A video showed terrified passengers jumping from the ship, which had 29 people on board at the time, to escape after a suspected electrical fault in the engine room.

A spokesman for Scuba Travel confirmed to MailOnline yesterday: ‘It is with great regret that we, as tour operator, with heavy hearts, must accept that three of our much-valued dive guests, perished in the tragic incident.

‘Our sincere and heartfelt condolences go out to their families and friends at this very sad time.’

In total, 26 passengers were rescued, 12 British and the other 14 are thought to be Egyptian. Local police said the people rescued had no injuries and were in good health. 

They also said the crew rescued suffered no injuries and were taken to shore in good health.

The shocked group of survivors were today being offered trauma counselling following their ordeal, which was compounded by the devastating loss of the three people with whom they bonded closely during their week together. 

The Britons have been moved to a hotel in Hurghada, 180 miles north of the tragedy, while emergency travel documents to allow them to return to the UK are arranged.

A spokesperson for Scuba Travel, Pat Adamson, said: ‘They lost everything on the boat. People will be searching under the sea, but if nothing reappears, then that’s it.

‘All of their credit cards, money, personal belongings, toothbrush, car keys, credit cards, everything gone – and their passports.

‘Their cars are at Gatwick, they don’t have their house keys.’

The group had been together for a week-long trip.

Mr Adamson added: ‘There’s a trauma counsellor with them now. Even though they’d only been together for a few days, it’s a small group and you get to know each other incredibly well.’

A full investigation is set to be carried out by local authorities to determine what caused the fire. The wrecked boat has been pictured lying on its side with smoke still billowing out of it on the shore as it cools down.

The cruiser left Port Ghalib in the eastern city of Marsa Alam on June 6 and was meant to return on Sunday.

It was said to be one of the Tornado Marine Fleet tours, which offers ‘Luxury Red Sea Liveaboards’ for just under £1,500 per trip.

A Foreign Office spokesman said on Sunday: ‘We are in contact with local authorities following an incident aboard a dive boat near Marsa Alam, and are supporting British nationals involved.’ 

MailOnline has contacted the Foreign Office for an updated comment. 

The Red Sea Governorate said: ‘The initial examination resulted in an electrical short circuit in the engine room, and the investigation authorities went to conduct an inspection and investigation.’

It added: ‘[The Secretary General] pointed out that the crew and passengers were rescued by the boat named “Blue” and returned to central Marsa Alam, and a search is still underway for three British passengers by the concerned authorities and other boats, stressing that the Ambulance Authority and the Directorate of Health Affairs have been notified to raise the level of readiness and follow-up is underway.’ 

A diving enthusiast who was on the same ship in May, said the boat was plagued with problems and no one was surprised the blaze had occurred.

He told MailOnline: ‘[We had] recurring issues from the week of May 1 and 8. There was no nitrox on board. They should have had it but they never told us. 

‘The toilets and the showers weren’t working properly.’

He added: ‘There was some issue below the decks. They were pumping something out but it was coming up my toilet. 

‘The crew work very hard – they don’t get paid a lot – but the boat has seen better days. 

‘I was in cabin six in the bow so I wouldn’t have wanted to get out from there. 

‘None of us are surprised that [the blaze] happened.’

Egypt’s Red Sea resorts harbour some of the country’s most renowned beach destinations and are popular with European holidaymakers.

The country has cemented its reputation as a dive destination with easy access to coral reefs from shores and dive sites offering diverse marine life.