Latest news with #Colleen
Daily Mirror
6 days ago
- Health
- Daily Mirror
'My son, 12, can't have free life-changing drug because of where we live'
No mother should have to watch their child suffer, but one woman shares what it's like witnessing her 12-year-old boy slowly deteriorate because he's not eligible for a new drug that could improve his life Having to watch her son slowly fade away is heartbreaking in itself but knowing he can't have a free drug because of where he lives, is nothing less than mental torture. That's the everyday reality for Colleen who is mum to Alfie Pentony, 12, from Newry, County Down, who was diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) when he was just four years old. Her fun-loving, football -mad son is getting weaker every day - but a new drug, Givinostat, could slow down his incurable condition and help him walk for another three years. But although the drug is free in other parts of the UK, the Belfast Trust has said it does 'not have the capacity' to offer it in Northern Ireland. 'We're heartbroken and devastated,' Colleen, 43, tells The Mirror. 'It's unjust, shameful and feels like mental torture knowing there's a drug that could help him but he can't have it because of where we live. "Alfie is a typical little boy who wants to grow up and play for Newcastle United like Lewis Miley. We know this is never going to happen but if he got this drug, it would at least help prolong his ability to walk for maybe another three years and continue to kick a ball for longer.' Muscular Dystrophy is an inherited genetic condition that gradually causes the muscles to weaken so sufferers eventually lose the ability to walk - with most only living to their 20s or 30s. While DMD is one of the most common and severe forms - this new drug could slow it down giving patients an extra three years without being restricted to a wheelchair. 'We don't know how long Alfie has left on his feet, most boys are wheelchair bound at the age of 12, so he is beating the odds so far,' Colleen adds. 'His muscles are breaking down every day - but time is muscle and in a few months it could be too late for him. "Every day that he doesn't have access to the drug, he is getting weaker than the boys who have access to the drug which is unjust and cruel. The Trust has put a price tag on my son's life and I'm not having it, I don't know how they can sleep at night. 'This drug is something that could dramatically change the course of our son's disease and to be told we can't have it is mental torture. I feel let down by the service that is meant to protect these boys, the fact that we are the only part of the UK that won't provide this drug is shameful. It could massively prolong Alfie's life and his quality of life.' Alfie is also pleading for the drug - not just for himself - but for the 10 other boys in Northern Ireland who it could also help. The anti-inflammatory drug, Givinostat, has been approved for use in the UK by the medicines regulator and is available on the NHS for people who meet strict criteria. But individual trusts must apply to take part in the Early Access Programme (EAP). The Belfast Trust said currently it 'is not in a position to proceed' to offer the free drug. 'Its implementation will need to be managed within defined and agreed protocols and additional staffing resources will also be required to ensure the treatment can be provided safely," a spokesperson added. "We recognise this will be very disappointing for families and the Belfast Trust sincerely apologises to them.'
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Dragonfly' Review: Andrea Riseborough And Brenda Blethyn Give Wings To Paul Andrew Williams' Poignant Neighborhood Drama
Paul Andrew Williams's feature debut was called London to Brighton (2006), but the British director has never been much interested in capital cities. His latest, Dragonfly, is another example of this, being a dark, low-key drama about the ways in which the unnoticed lives of suburban people can make surprising headlines. In a direct way, it's a sister piece to his provocative 2010 home invasion film Cherry Tree Lane, in which—pre-empting Adolescence—a middle-class couple's humdrum live is turned upside down when they are inexplicably attacked by violent teenage rebels without any apparent cause. In reality, though—and despite the blood spilt both onscreen and off—it turns out to be more like the film Williams made in 2012. Called Song for Marion, it starred Terence Stamp as an emotionally shut-down widower who joins a choir to pay homage to his late wife (Vanessa Redgrave). It wasn't a commercial success, and Dragonfly may not be either, but the new film makes better use of that film's ingredients: themes of loneliness, regret, bereavement, self-worth and family. And like Song for Marion, it has quite the cast: two Oscar nominees playing just outside their age range and beyond their comfort zones. More from Deadline Editors Guild Protests Against Nonfiction Producer Story Syndicate At Tribeca Premiere Of OceanGate Submersible Documentary 'Titan' As Tribeca Kicks Off, Toppers Weigh In On Their Growing Festival & Standing Up To Donald Trump Banijay Appoints Factual Drama Chief There's little to no vanity here in the central pairing of Brenda Blethyn, as the elderly widow Elsie, and Andrea Riseborough, as her unemployed neighbor Colleen, and the two very different actors' styles work perfectly together. The film's opening ten minutes sets up the two women's lives with a poignant economy: living in back-to-back bungalows, they lead eerily similar lives, like ghosts. Elsie had a life once and misses it bitterly now, but Colleen never had a life at all. 'So weird,' says Colleen, quite intuitively, when she first visits Elsie's home. 'It's exactly like mine, just the other way round.' Colleen has lived next door to Elsie for some 13 years before the story starts, and it's not quite immediately clear why she should suddenly pop round to offer her services—does Elsie want anything from the shop? But Colleen has been watching the procession of carers that visit Elsie from day to day, and she sees a woman who deserves more than the clock-watching agency nurses who come to give her showers she doesn't need and food that isn't doing her any good at all. There is, as they say, a gap in the market, and Colleen moves fast to fill it, something Elsie appreciates and which helps the once dowdy woman blossom. Compared even to the slow-burn of Williams' last film Bull (2021), the film takes baby steps to reveal itself as a genre film, but the score by Raffertie is ahead of the action at every turn. Nothing will ever really be revealed or explained by the end, but Williams' script sets up so many fascinating ways in which these two very different women — the relatively posh Elsie and the definitely struggling-class Colleen — strike a chord. And key to that is the introduction of Elsie's son John (Jason Watkins). Middle-aged and yet still pathetically upwardly mobile, John is the harbinger here, and his nasty bourgeois values, coming between Elsie and Colleen, turn out to the be the meat in the sandwich. Instead of Chekhov's gun in this scenario we have a dog, and Colleen's inability to control her 'mentalist' crossbreed Sabre does not go well for either of them, leading to a very violent denouement. But Williams' film is not so much concerned with the tension of getting to that and more about the understanding; Andrea Riseborough is just so good at this, bringing the A-game she brought to 2022's To Leslie, but this time with a more jarring child-like innocence, reflected in her pasty, wan complexion. The same goes for Brenda Blethyn, so effortlessly affecting as a wife and mother reduced to becoming a client to the welfare state, a degradation that Colleen just can't begin to tolerate. Williams' films often end with a question mark, and that doesn't always satisfy. With Dragonfly, however, the questions posed are moral and timely, and they will hang around in your head long after as you think about women like Colleen and Elsie and the things in their lives that are missing. It's a mother of a story. Title: DragonflyFestival: Tribeca (International Narrative Competition)Director/screenwriter: Paul Andrew WilliamsCast: Andrea Riseborough, Brenda Blethyn, Jason WatkinsUS Sales: AMP InternationalRunning time: 1 hr 38 mins Best of Deadline Broadway's 2024-2025 Season: All Of Deadline's Reviews Sundance Film Festival U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize Winners Through The Years Deadline Studio At Sundance Film Festival Photo Gallery: Dylan O'Brien, Ayo Edebiri, Jennifer Lopez, Lily Gladstone, Benedict Cumberbatch & More
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Dragonfly' Review: Andrea Riseborough And Brenda Blethyn Give Wings To Paul Andrew Williams' Poignant Neighborhood Drama
Paul Andrew Williams's feature debut was called London to Brighton (2006), but the British director has never been much interested in capital cities. His latest, Dragonfly, is another example of this, being a dark, low-key drama about the ways in which the unnoticed lives of suburban people can make surprising headlines. In a direct way, it's a sister piece to his provocative 2010 home invasion film Cherry Tree Lane, in which—pre-empting Adolescence—a middle-class couple's humdrum live is turned upside down when they are inexplicably attacked by violent teenage rebels without any apparent cause. In reality, though—and despite the blood spilt both onscreen and off—it turns out to be more like the film Williams made in 2012. Called Song for Marion, it starred Terence Stamp as an emotionally shut-down widower who joins a choir to pay homage to his late wife (Vanessa Redgrave). It wasn't a commercial success, and Dragonfly may not be either, but the new film makes better use of that film's ingredients: themes of loneliness, regret, bereavement, self-worth and family. And like Song for Marion, it has quite the cast: two Oscar nominees playing just outside their age range and beyond their comfort zones. More from Deadline Editors Guild Protests Against Nonfiction Producer Story Syndicate At Tribeca Premiere Of OceanGate Submersible Documentary 'Titan' As Tribeca Kicks Off, Toppers Weigh In On Their Growing Festival & Standing Up To Donald Trump Banijay Appoints Factual Drama Chief There's little to no vanity here in the central pairing of Brenda Blethyn, as the elderly widow Elsie, and Andrea Riseborough, as her unemployed neighbor Colleen, and the two very different actors' styles work perfectly together. The film's opening ten minutes sets up the two women's lives with a poignant economy: living in back-to-back bungalows, they lead eerily similar lives, like ghosts. Elsie had a life once and misses it bitterly now, but Colleen never had a life at all. 'So weird,' says Colleen, quite intuitively, when she first visits Elsie's home. 'It's exactly like mine, just the other way round.' Colleen has lived next door to Elsie for some 13 years before the story starts, and it's not quite immediately clear why she should suddenly pop round to offer her services—does Elsie want anything from the shop? But Colleen has been watching the procession of carers that visit Elsie from day to day, and she sees a woman who deserves more than the clock-watching agency nurses who come to give her showers she doesn't need and food that isn't doing her any good at all. There is, as they say, a gap in the market, and Colleen moves fast to fill it, something Elsie appreciates and which helps the once dowdy woman blossom. Compared even to the slow-burn of Williams' last film Bull (2021), the film takes baby steps to reveal itself as a genre film, but the score by Raffertie is ahead of the action at every turn. Nothing will ever really be revealed or explained by the end, but Williams' script sets up so many fascinating ways in which these two very different women — the relatively posh Elsie and the definitely struggling-class Colleen — strike a chord. And key to that is the introduction of Elsie's son John (Jason Watkins). Middle-aged and yet still pathetically upwardly mobile, John is the harbinger here, and his nasty bourgeois values, coming between Elsie and Colleen, turn out to the be the meat in the sandwich. Instead of Chekhov's gun in this scenario we have a dog, and Colleen's inability to control her 'mentalist' crossbreed Sabre does not go well for either of them, leading to a very violent denouement. But Williams' film is not so much concerned with the tension of getting to that and more about the understanding; Andrea Riseborough is just so good at this, bringing the A-game she brought to 2022's To Leslie, but this time with a more jarring child-like innocence, reflected in her pasty, wan complexion. The same goes for Brenda Blethyn, so effortlessly affecting as a wife and mother reduced to becoming a client to the welfare state, a degradation that Colleen just can't begin to tolerate. Williams' films often end with a question mark, and that doesn't always satisfy. With Dragonfly, however, the questions posed are moral and timely, and they will hang around in your head long after as you think about women like Colleen and Elsie and the things in their lives that are missing. It's a mother of a story. Title: DragonflyFestival: Tribeca (International Narrative Competition)Director/screenwriter: Paul Andrew WilliamsCast: Andrea Riseborough, Brenda Blethyn, Jason WatkinsUS Sales: AMP InternationalRunning time: 1 hr 38 mins Best of Deadline Broadway's 2024-2025 Season: All Of Deadline's Reviews Sundance Film Festival U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize Winners Through The Years Deadline Studio At Sundance Film Festival Photo Gallery: Dylan O'Brien, Ayo Edebiri, Jennifer Lopez, Lily Gladstone, Benedict Cumberbatch & More
Buzz Feed
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
Colleen And Matt From "Love Is Blind" Announce Divorce
It's over for Love Is Blind's Colleen Reed and Matt Bolton. After almost four years together, the reality stars have announced they're getting a divorce. In a joint statement shared to Instagram, they wrote, "Hi everyone, we wanted to share something personal, and this is not easy to do, but after nearly four years together, we've decided to end our marriage and move forward on our own paths." They continued, "We've been separated for some time now and have been doing our best to work through everything privately and with care. This was an incredibly difficult decision, not one we made lightly. It came with a lot of thought and it's been an emotional process for both of us." And although it didn't work out, they said they'll "always be grateful for the love and memories we shared. There's not one thing we would change and we continue to have deep respect and care for one another." They concluded the statement by thanking fans for their support before requesting privacy as they navigate their next chapter. Matt and Colleen first met on Season 3 of the Netflix dating series, getting married in Episode 11. Fans will remember them for deciding not to move in together immediately after their wedding, as well as Matt's often divisive behavior in disagreements with Colleen. They finally moved in together in June 2023, almost two years after they wed. Divorce rumors have swirled for the past several months due to Colleen allegedly being seen without her ring, and Matt's limited presence on her social media pages. Here's what people had to say about the news of their split: Good luck on your next chapters, Matt and Colleen.
Time of India
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
'Love is Blind' fame Colleen Reed and Matt Bolton announce shocking split after four years of marriage
Colleen Reed and Matt Bolton, a couple from one of the most popular online dating variety shows, 'Love is Blind', have announced that after four years of being married to one another, they have mutually decided to part ways. The news was shared by the couple on their social media accounts and came as a major shock to the public. Colleen Reed and Matt Bolton part ways The couple recently took to their online social media platforms to confirm the split to the public. In a joint statement shared by them, the duo began the note by saying, 'We wanted to share something personal, and this is not easy to do, but after nearly four years together, we've decided to end our marriage and move forward on our own paths.' The couple shared that the split is not recent and the two have been away from one another for a while. They also shared that they had been trying to solve things privately and away from the prying eyes of media. 'We've been separated for some time now and have been doing our best to work through everything privately and with care. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 2025: Steel Suppliers From Mexico At Lowest Prices (Take A Look) Steel Suppliers | search ads Search Now Undo "This was an incredibly difficult decision," says the couple, citing personal reasons In their statement to the public, the couple also shared how they thought about the separation and that the decision came after a lot of consideration. 'This was an incredibly difficult decision, not one we made lightly. It came with a lot of thought, and it's been an emotional process for both of us,' they shared in the statement. The couple also recalled their past and mentioned how they met was a 'unique and unexpected way.' To conclude the statement, the duo shared how grateful they are for everyone and everything and even asked their fans and the public for some time and 'compassion' during the hard times. They ended their statement by saying, 'We'll always be grateful for the love and memories we shared. There's not one thing we would change, and we continue to have deep respect and care for one another.' How Colleen and Matt came to be Colleen Reed and Matt Bolton met and got together on one of the older seasons of 'Love is Blind'. The duo had not entirely been the public's favourite couple, with many citing that they do not seem like they are meant for one another. Another controversy that had hit the couple when during the show, after Colleen had accepted Matt's proposal, she had gone forth and flirted with fellow contestant Cole Barnett in front of the camera. Matt on relationship with Colleen The two have also done interviews in the past where they have mentioned and talked about one another. In a 2022 statement to People, Matt had talked about being with Colleen and seeing her for the first time on the show. He had shared that from the moment he saw her, he knew that they 'had too much potential'. 'We saw so much potential, and it was just on the day of, we still didn't know. But when I saw her walking down the aisle, I was like, 'Listen, we've good potential, This is such a great moment. We are meant for each other.' So we just had to do it. Can't pass it up."
