Latest news with #Freya
Business News Wales
8 hours ago
- Business
- Business News Wales
Celebrating Pride Cymru: A Commitment to Inclusivity and Positive Change
I'm looking forward to joining my colleagues at the Development Bank of Wales in celebrating Pride Cymru in Cardiff this weekend. Events like Pride Cymru hold real significance, standing as a beacon of visibility, unity, and advocacy for the LGBTQ+ community. They remind us that equality is not a passive ideal but something that must be continuously nurtured and defended. Whether through the efforts of campaigning individuals or the support of public institutions and large employers, Pride embodies the power of solidarity and progress. Throughout my time at the Development Bank of Wales, since starting with Finance Wales in 2002, I have been incredibly proud of how we embrace equality, diversity, and inclusivity. These values are not just words in a strategy document but are actively embedded in everything we do, shaping our workplace, our partnerships, and the communities that we serve. From the support we provide to our employees and colleagues to the entrepreneurs and business owners that we fund, we champion fairness, accountability, and transparency. The Development Bank is more than just a financial institution—we are a force for positive change, using our influence to foster an environment where everyone can thrive. Our commitment to ethics and social responsibility drives us to be purposefully engaged in Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles. It's not just about business; it's about doing what's right. This commitment is clearly reflected in our recruitment strategies. In 2024/25, one-fifth of all our new starters came from ethnic minority backgrounds—well above the national average of six per cent. It's this kind of intentional inclusivity that matters, not just for our workforce but for the LGBTQ+ community and our allies. When organisations take active steps to build diverse workplaces, they send a powerful message: You are seen, valued, and supported. We also recognise that true inclusion goes beyond hiring; it's about continuous growth and development. That's why we prioritise personal and professional growth. Being named one of the UK's Best Workplaces for 2025 by Great Place to Work was a proud moment for us, as was receiving their Development Award—a recognition of our commitment to helping employees become the best version of themselves. One shining example of how we support diversity in business is Freya Curtis, a determined 21-year-old entrepreneur who opened Merthyr Tydfil's first LGBTQ+ themed bar, Sparkles, with the help of a £35,000 loan from the Development Bank. Sparkles, which hosts live shows, karaoke nights, and drag performances, has quickly become a popular space for the local community—providing not only entertainment but also a safe and inclusive environment for everyone. Through her vision, Freya has created a hub of celebration and connection while generating local jobs, demonstrating how empowered entrepreneurs can make a real difference. The Development Bank of Wales is more than just a workplace; it's a place where people, businesses, and communities flourish. As we come together for Pride Cymru, I'm reminded that progress is never a solo journey—it's a collective effort. By celebrating diversity, amplifying voices, and standing up for what's right, we move forward, together. I am proud to be part of that journey. You can find out more about the Development Bank at
The Irish Sun
a day ago
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
Nepo-baby looks just like her 90s TV star mum as she cuddles a lion in Africa – but can you guess who she is?
TV star Donna Air's daughter Freya Aspinall looks just like her mum as she cuddles a huge lion in Africa. The 21-year-old conservationist is seen cuddling two lions in a recent video before releasing them into the wild with her dad Damien. 7 Donna Air's grown-up daughter Freya is a conservationist Credit: instagram/@freyaaspinall 7 Freya has grown up around lions and gorillas in kent Credit: instagram/@freyaaspinall 7 She works for her father's conservation charity The Aspinall Foundation Credit: instagram/@freyaaspinall 7 Freya's parents Donna Air and Damian Aspinall Credit: Getty Freya works with The Aspinall Foundation, a charity run by her father, Damian Aspinall, and founded by her grandfather, the late John Aspinall. Freya rests her head on a lion in one photo on Instagram, and penned: "My beautiful ZEMO on the day we released him in Africa. I can't wait to see him soon." Freya spent much of her childhood surrounded by animals at Howletts and Port Lympne Wild Animal Parks in Kent. She now boasts 1.5m followers on Instagram, where she shares videos and pics of her life, and she says conservation is in her DNA. READ MORE ON DONNA AIR 'I grew up with animals and couldn't imagine my world without them,' she recently told the Financial Times. 'This is in my blood – I've always known what I wanted to do.' However, she has inherited Donna's striking features and is also very close to her TV star mum. It's been more than three decades since Donna shot to fame as a child star on Most read in Celebrity She later swapped acting for presenting, landing gigs on shows including MTV UK and The Big Breakfast. A string of cameo film roles followed before she participated in reality shows Splash!, Celebrity MasterChef and the tenth series of Dancing On Ice. Amazing moment millionaire conservationist Damian Aspinall's wife meets the tender gorillas he bred in Africa Donna, 45, is also known for having an on-off relationship for four years with Kate Middleton's brother Freya's parents, Donna and Damian, were introduced in 2000 at a dinner party by their friend Donna was 21, Damian 40, and their relationship and parenting style quickly made headlines. Shortly after Freya's birth, the couple famously said they planned to place their baby in a gorilla enclosure at Howletts, allowing her to be carried off by a female gorilla. The move was a tradition Damian carried out with his eldest daughters when they were babies. In another video Freya feeds a gorilla snacks from her pocket. She says: "Animals don't belong in a cage in zoos they belong in the wild. We hate zoos. "Kifu is at our sanctuary because his wife's who are a little bit older than him need medical attention 3 times a day and wouldn't survive the journey back to Africa. "Gorillas live in a family group, so it would be completely unnatural to send him alone and separate him from his family. "It's the same as humans if we were sent away never to see our family again we would all be so unhappy. "So for him we give him the best life possible sadly at our sanctuary but his 5 sons are happily free in the wild where they belong. "It's important to highlight any animal that can go back to the Wild should go back to the Wild and those that 100% can't should be given the best life possible, but this shouldn't be an excuse for zoos to keep all animals behind a bars for their business." 7 Donna and grown-up daughter Freya put on a glam display for a night out in London Credit: Getty 7 Donna shot to fame on Byker Grove, alongside Ant and Dec Credit: BBC 7 She was previously in an on/off relationship with James Middleton Credit: PA
Scottish Sun
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Scottish Sun
Nepo-baby looks just like her 90s TV star mum as she cuddles a lion in Africa – but can you guess who she is?
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) TV star Donna Air's daughter Freya Aspinall looks just like her mum as she cuddles a huge lion in Africa. The 21-year-old conservationist is seen cuddling two lions in a recent video before releasing them into the wild with her dad Damien. Sign up for the Entertainment newsletter Sign up 7 Donna Air's grown-up daughter Freya is a conservationist Credit: instagram/@freyaaspinall 7 Freya has grown up around lions and gorillas in kent Credit: instagram/@freyaaspinall 7 She works for her father's conservation charity The Aspinall Foundation Credit: instagram/@freyaaspinall 7 Freya's parents Donna Air and Damian Aspinall Credit: Getty Freya works with The Aspinall Foundation, a charity run by her father, Damian Aspinall, and founded by her grandfather, the late John Aspinall. Freya rests her head on a lion in one photo on Instagram, and penned: "My beautiful ZEMO on the day we released him in Africa. I can't wait to see him soon." Freya spent much of her childhood surrounded by animals at Howletts and Port Lympne Wild Animal Parks in Kent. She now boasts 1.5m followers on Instagram, where she shares videos and pics of her life, and she says conservation is in her DNA. 'I grew up with animals and couldn't imagine my world without them,' she recently told the Financial Times. 'This is in my blood – I've always known what I wanted to do.' However, she has inherited Donna's striking features and is also very close to her TV star mum. It's been more than three decades since Donna shot to fame as a child star on Byker Grove, alongside Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly. She later swapped acting for presenting, landing gigs on shows including MTV UK and The Big Breakfast. A string of cameo film roles followed before she participated in reality shows Splash!, Celebrity MasterChef and the tenth series of Dancing On Ice. Amazing moment millionaire conservationist Damian Aspinall's wife meets the tender gorillas he bred in Africa Donna, 45, is also known for having an on-off relationship for four years with Kate Middleton's brother James Middleton. Freya's parents, Donna and Damian, were introduced in 2000 at a dinner party by their friend Tara Palmer-Tomkinson. Donna was 21, Damian 40, and their relationship and parenting style quickly made headlines. Shortly after Freya's birth, the couple famously said they planned to place their baby in a gorilla enclosure at Howletts, allowing her to be carried off by a female gorilla. The move was a tradition Damian carried out with his eldest daughters when they were babies. In another video Freya feeds a gorilla snacks from her pocket. She says: "Animals don't belong in a cage in zoos they belong in the wild. We hate zoos. "Kifu is at our sanctuary because his wife's who are a little bit older than him need medical attention 3 times a day and wouldn't survive the journey back to Africa. "Gorillas live in a family group, so it would be completely unnatural to send him alone and separate him from his family. "It's the same as humans if we were sent away never to see our family again we would all be so unhappy. "So for him we give him the best life possible sadly at our sanctuary but his 5 sons are happily free in the wild where they belong. "It's important to highlight any animal that can go back to the Wild should go back to the Wild and those that 100% can't should be given the best life possible, but this shouldn't be an excuse for zoos to keep all animals behind a bars for their business." 7 Donna and grown-up daughter Freya put on a glam display for a night out in London Credit: Getty 7 Donna shot to fame on Byker Grove, alongside Ant and Dec Credit: BBC
Daily Mirror
2 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mirror
'Spend a day in our life, PM' says mum whose disabled daughter may lose PIP
Holly Wright is a mum of four - three of whom have various levels of disability who could lose hundreds of pounds of support a month under the new rules Holly Wright, 39, is a mum of four - three of whom have various levels of disability who could lose hundreds of pounds of support a month under the new rules. Her eldest son Kye, 18, has a learning disability and is eligible for PIP, which is unlikely to be affected. But Holly's middle daughter, Freya, is nearly 15 and due to transition from family support onto PIP in a year. Holly fears Freya, who needs speech and language therapy and occupational therapy, won't qualify for PIP once it's reformed. Freya has autism, sensory processing disorder, and hypermobility. She said despite a legal assessment confirming Freya's needs, she's struggled to get her local council, Southampton, to pay out for therapies they're required to support. "You can't get them to fund anything without hammering them in a tribunal," Holly told the Mirror. "Freya doesn't need as much support [as her brother], but she does need constant reminding about things." Freya attends a special needs secondary school, and as well as occupational and speech therapy, currently does horse riding as a therapy - something quite common among children with disabilities. "It helps with her co-ordination, and she has quite serious hypermobility, so it helps her build core muscle strength," Holly said. But she fears she wouldn't be able to afford the therapy if Freya's money were to change significantly. Holly estimates that the cash difference if Freya is refused PIP once she outgrows Disability Living Allowance could be as much as £400 a month. And Holly would almost certainly lose her status as Holly's carer, and the Carer's Allowance top-up of £83.30 a week that comes with it. "They'd expect me to go back to work," she said. "These children aren't capable of being left at home on their own." Asked what message she'd like to send to the Prime Minister, Holly said: "Come and spend a day in our life, so you can see how broken everything is."
Daily Record
6 days ago
- Health
- Daily Record
Parents of week old baby who died at QEUH 'felt blamed' for their daughter's death
SUNDAY MAIL EXCLUSIVE: The family said they have faced a long wait for answers. The parents of a baby who died at Scotland's largest hospital have told how they felt blamed for the death of their daughter. Tiny Freya Murphy was born with significant brain and organ damage after a catalogue of failures at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow led to her death. Her parents Karen and Martin were devastated when they had to allow Freya's life support machines to be switched off when she was just seven days old. A Fatal Accident Inquiry (FAI) found staffing shortages, medics' failure to notice that the baby was in distress as well as a lack of screening for Group B Streptococcus were factors in the youngster's death. However the couple have said they have been left with more questions than answers after the FAI which took seven years to conclude. Dad Martin, 44, from Cambuslang, near Glasgow, said: 'It was the worst thing anyone could imagine happening to them. We left that hospital with no baby and no answers.' Karen, 40, says she had expressed the wish to have a natural birth in the early stages of her pregnancy. However she felt this was later 'held against her' when the FAI medics suggested her wishes as a reason why they failed to intervene sooner during her labour, claiming Karen had said she wanted 'minimal intervention'. She disputes this. Karen, a teacher of children with additional support needs, said: 'I wanted to have as natural a birth as possible which was noted down during the pregnancy and not mentioned again. 'Then suddenly it was mentioned by doctors during the FAI where it came across as an excuse or a defence for the fact they had made mistakes with Freya's birth as it was only mentioned years later. 'I would never, and did not, say I didn't want help. I wanted to do whatever was needed to get Freya out safely and I accepted whatever they told me at the hospital. It felt as if I was being blamed for what happened.' Karen arrived at the QEUH on June 20 2018, but was left in a waiting room for two hours before being checked by medics despite already being dilated and in active labour. She says she felt there was a 'lack of urgency' among staff. Karen had to endure an excruciating procedure to rotate Freya on a labour ward after medics realised the baby was in the wrong position for delivery but the theatre was occupied. Karen said: 'I had to have a manual rotation in the room because there was no other option. I had no pain relief, and it wasn't done in the theatre where it should have been. There was someone else in the theatre and there was only one available.' Martin added: 'The person who was in charge of the ward overnight was also dealing with the other patient who was in theatre so they were taken away from Karen who was the most critical.' Medics had also attached a heart rate monitor directly to Freya's head but failed to notice that she was showing signs of distress. During the FAI Karen's midwife claimed that she had alerted doctors to her concerns about the baby's heart rate but this was contradicted by both the consultant and junior doctor working that night. Sheriff Divers said he favoured the doctors' evidence over the midwife due to inconsistencies between her evidence and that of other witnesses. When medics realised Karen and Freya needed urgent help, it took a further 45 minutes for the youngster to be born - by which time it was too late. Meconium - a name for a baby's first bowel movement - was covering Freya and she was barely breathing when she finally arrived at 9.31am on Saturday July 21, 2018. Martin said: 'When Freya came out she was purple. They put her on to Karen and then over to the resuscitation area. Even at that point we were told this was normal.' Karen added: 'They had not grasped how unwell Freya was at all. Even when she was born we were told 'It's normal for babies not to cry straight away.' 'It was a junior paediatrician who looked at Freya and hit the emergency button. The staff delivering did not have the idea that things had gone so catastrophically wrong.' Doctors spent 17 minutes trying to resuscitate Freya and regain a steady heartbeat. She was transferred to neonatal intensive care and was immediately placed on a ventilator. Her parents looked on in horror after the baby they had been told would be healthy and normal was now in a fatal condition. Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. They later learned that Freya had been starved of oxygen and she had significant brain and organ damage. Karen said: 'Although it was more painful for us to let her go, we knew it was kinder to her. It was absolutely terrible. For a parent it's just a horrendous position and you have to be the one to do it for the sake of your child.' Experts told the FAI the issues were as a result of an infection in the placenta, most likely from Group B Streptococcus, a bacterial infection common among mothers. Karen said if medics had screened for the bug, as they do routinely in many other countries, Freya could still be alive. She also believes staff shortages contributed to the death of her daughter. Karen said: 'If you have a baby outwith Monday to Friday 9-5, it's a completely different experience and the team of people there to support you is vastly different. It shouldn't be that way. Babies can't choose when to be born - they don't arrive to a schedule.' The couple, who now have three children, have never returned to the QEUH for any of the births. Martin said: 'It's been a challenge having more children after the trauma of what happened to Freya. Karen was pregnant again during the FAI which was really hard for her. We just do not want this to happen to another family, and we hope that mistakes are learned from Freya's death.' The couple are being represented by Alan Rodgers, partner at Thompsons solicitors and are now pursuing a civil case against NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. Rodgers said: 'The courage shown by the Murphys to secure this FAI has been enormous and they have waited far too long for it to be held. The Inquiry has shone a light on the reality facing clinicians in the modern Scottish NHS. 'At times care is compromised or suboptimal decisions are made purely due to lack of facilities and resources. The cutbacks and penny-pinching in our NHS needs to stop.' Sheriff Barry Divers described the couple's wait for answers as 'simply too long', with the FAI taking seven years to conclude from when Freya died. An NHSGGC spokeswoman said: "We would like to extend our sincerest condolences to the family of Freya Murphy, and once again to apologise for the distress they have experienced. "Freya's death was the subject of a Fatal Accident Inquiry. We have received the recommendations of this and are working to implement them in full. This includes carrying out a review of staffing levels, and, in line with a recommendation on Group B Streptococcus, we plan to make a formal approach to the UK National Screening Committee."
