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How a Horse Saved This Woman's Life After Mental Health Struggles
A young woman named Shelby Lunt found hope and healing through a horse named Maverick after years of struggling with mental health issues. Despite spending nearly a decade in psychiatric wards, meeting Maverick at a riding school reignited her passion for life outside the hospital. With the support of caring individuals like Pat Fallance and Melissa Darling, Shelby's bond with Maverick helped her see a future beyond her past struggles.
Score (98)
Teen Turns Cans Into Cash for Charity, Donates Thousands While Tackling Recycling Woes
Most 13-year-olds spend their free time glued to a controller. Ryan, from Solihull, spends his crushing cans — literally — and turning them into thousands of pounds for local charities. His idea grew into We Can CIC, a community interest company with an ambitious goal: collect 20,000 aluminium cans every seven days. Residents bag them up, local businesses pitch in, and Ryan’s family drives around picking them up before crushing them at home. His dad John estimates the work takes “up to 20 hours a week,” on top of storing and hauling everything to scrapyards. The money, after costs, goes straight to food banks. “We’re happy to grow the charity,” John said. “It all goes for a good cause.” The timing couldn’t be better for Birmingham, which hasn’t had regular recycling collections for more than a year due to a bin workers’ strike. The family says their operation helps fill the gap, and they’re happy to collect cans from households who want to contribute. Ryan said local businesses “give us all of these bags of cans,” and while he admits he’d “rather be playing video games,” the bigger picture wins out. “When I think about it, I just love what I do because I get to help people in need, families, by giving back.” The scale of the operation is striking. The family processes about a tonne of cans a month, and community support keeps growing. John said recycling is increasingly important to people, and that enthusiasm has helped the project thrive. So far, around £5,000 in cash and food is donated to charities each year, including Anawim, a women’s support hub in Birmingham. And the partnership goes both ways. Angela — known as Miss P — volunteers by gathering cans five days a week with a litter picker and bin bags. “It is satisfying for me and to all the ladies, them that benefit from it,” she said. Megan Heath from Anawim said the impact is felt every day. “It keeps our food bank very well stocked. It keeps our champions busy and gives them purpose in their days that they might not otherwise have.” What began as a teenage idea has become a small but mighty recycling network: lighter on waste, heavier on community spirit, and run by a kid who says helping people matters more than screen time.
Score (97)
This Woman Rescued From a River Hopes to One Day Thank Her Mystery Hero — With a Pint
Alexandra Szilvasi set out for a quiet Monday with her puppy, Snickers. A change of scenery, a pub lunch, maybe a long walk along the River Trent. Instead, the day ended with a rescue, a near miss, and a search for the stranger who pulled her from the water. The 36-year-old had taken her 10-month-old spaniel mix to Gunthorpe, Nottinghamshire, for only the second time. After about 40 minutes of walking, she started kicking a ball for Snickers to chase. One bounce off a rock sent the ball straight into the river. Snickers didn’t hesitate. “She saw it and just did a big belly jump into the water,” Szilvasi said. The puppy managed a couple of metres before the current grew too strong. That was the moment Szilvasi’s instincts took over. “My mind went blank and I just ran in,” she said. The problem: she can’t swim. She climbed down a ladder on the water’s edge and leaned out as far as she could, hooking her feet around the bottom rung to steady herself. “Just as the current started to take Snickers, she started swimming again, enough so I could grab her and bring her to the ladder with me.” The water was freezing, and once she had the dog, she realised she couldn’t climb back up while holding her. They were stuck there for nearly five minutes. That’s when a man who’d been fishing farther down the bank appeared. Szilvasi passed Snickers up to him and then climbed out herself. She was shaking and in shock. “I don't know if we would still be here if it wasn't for the man,” she said. He told her they were “very lucky” and explained he wasn’t from Gunthorpe at all, but Beeston, about 24 kilometres away. Then he left quickly before she could catch his name. Now Szilvasi hopes he’ll see her message somehow. “We just really want to say thank you and take him out for a pint – or whatever he wants,” she said. Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service praised the bystander’s quick action but used the moment to offer a reminder. It “commends the bystander for their bravery, which contributed to saving a life,” a spokesperson said, but also “strongly advises members of the public never to enter the water to rescue people or pets.” In any emergency, they said, call 999 and ask for fire and rescue. Szilvasi understands the warning. But in the moment, logic didn’t stand a chance. “I just had to go in, she's my dog,” she said. Snickers, she added, is part springer spaniel, part cocker spaniel, and completely adored. “I always wanted a dog, because they are great for your heart, great for everything. The house would be empty without her.” She still hopes the man who helped them will come forward. Until then, she and Snickers are staying on dry land.
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Score (91)
Massive Study Finds Vegetarians Have Lower Risk for Several Major Cancers
It’s not often that a nutrition study makes researchers stop and say, now that’s interesting. But a new analysis of more than 1.8 million people has done exactly that, showing that vegetarians face meaningfully lower risks for several major cancers compared with meat eaters. Published in the British Journal of Cancer, the work found reduced risk across five cancer types. Vegetarians had a 21 percent lower risk of pancreatic cancer, 12 percent lower risk of prostate cancer, and 9 percent lower risk of breast cancer. Those three alone account for roughly one in five cancer deaths in the UK. The drops didn’t stop there. Vegetarians also had a 28 percent lower risk of kidney cancer and a 31 percent lower risk of multiple myeloma. Dr Aurora Pérez-Cornago, the study’s principal investigator, called the findings “really good news for those who follow a vegetarian diet.” Researchers pulled data from several long-running health studies worldwide, giving them a rare sample size large enough to study not just common cancers, but the rarer ones too. In total, the analysis covered about 1.64 million meat eaters, 57,016 poultry eaters, 42,910 pescatarians, 63,147 vegetarians, and 8,849 vegans, tracked for an average of 16 years. Key factors like smoking and body mass index were accounted for. But the picture wasn’t uniformly protective. Vegetarians had nearly double the risk of squamous cell carcinoma of the oesophagus compared with meat eaters, something the researchers suggest may be tied to nutrient gaps, including B vitamins. Vegans, meanwhile, had a 40 percent higher risk of bowel cancer, which may reflect low average calcium intake and other dietary deficiencies. Their typical calcium intake in the study, 590 mg per day, fell below the UK’s 700 mg recommendation. The team is cautious about drawing firm conclusions on what drives the differences. Prof Tim Key, a co-investigator, said it isn’t yet clear whether risks stem from meat itself or from something specifically protective in vegetarian diets. “My feeling is the difference is more likely to be due to the meat itself, but that’s an opinion that we haven’t looked at directly,” he said. One notable wrinkle: vegetarians in this study didn’t show a lower risk of bowel cancer. Key said that finding aligns with previous research, given that red and processed meat intake in this cohort was relatively low. “It could be that if we had had more people with very high intakes of meat in the meat-eating group, the results could have been different,” he added. The study also found benefits in other diet groups. Pescatarians had lower risks of breast, kidney and bowel cancers. Poultry eaters saw a lower risk of prostate cancer. The researchers point out that diets have changed since many participants entered the studies in the 1990s and 2000s. Ultra-processed foods are more common, and vegan products today are often fortified with nutrients like calcium, which could shift future results. Prof Jules Griffin of the University of Aberdeen, who wasn’t involved in the study, praised the scale of the work but noted one gap: there was no comparison group eating the NHS Eatwell diet, which emphasises moderation in meat and fish and could represent a strong benchmark for reducing cancer risk. For now, the study offers a clearer map of how diet and cancer risk intersect across millions of lives — and where researchers still need answers.
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Comedy Legend Jim Carrey Receives Lifetime Honour At France’s 2026 Cesar Awards
Jim Carrey has spent decades surprising audiences, so it feels fitting that France’s biggest film awards handed him a moment to surprise them right back. At the César Awards on Thursday, the 64-year-old Canadian-American actor accepted a lifetime honour and did it entirely in French — with a punchline ready. “How was my French? Almost mediocre, right?” he joked, adding that his French roots go back “around 300 years ago.” The ceremony opened with a tribute sketch from presenter Benjamin Lavernhe, who slipped into Carrey’s signature green-faced swagger from The Mask, one of the films that made Carrey a global star in the 1990s. The crowd didn’t need reminding, but the moment landed anyway. Carrey’s career, after all, started on stand-up stages before exploding into cult comedies like Dumb and Dumber, The Mask and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. Then came the turn no one entirely expected. Carrey pushed into drama, earning a Golden Globe for 1998’s The Truman Show, playing an ordinary man slowly realising his life is a TV production. He earned more critical praise in 2004 for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, starring opposite Kate Winslet as a heartbroken man choosing to erase his memories. He later found mainstream success again in franchises like Sonic, before stepping back from Hollywood in the early 2020s. The César d’honneur acknowledges that entire arc, from elastic-faced comedy to soulful character work. The night also spotlighted American director Richard Linklater, who won best director for Nouvelle Vague, his 2025 black-and-white film about the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless. The win added another international nod to the filmmaker behind Boyhood and the Before trilogy. For Carrey, the honour marked a rare public appearance after years out of the spotlight. For the crowd, it was a reminder that the performer whose career spanned slapstick, surrealism and quiet melancholy still knows exactly how to make an entrance — in any language.
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How a Lost Binder Turned Into 15,000 Pokémon Cards for One Very Lucky Kid
It started the way these stories always seem to. A tired parent, a rushed airport connection, and a binder that somehow didn’t make it home. But for a seven-year-old named Reid, losing his Pokémon cards at Denver International Airport ended up triggering a wave of generosity so big it reached across continents. His dad, Graham, posted about the missing binder on Reddit, hoping someone might have spotted it. Airport staff even searched the terminal. Nothing. The family assumed the cards were gone for good. His wife filed a lost item report anyway, more out of hope than expectation. What the family didn’t know was that United Airlines’ social media team had seen the Reddit post and connected it to the missing-item ticket. From there, they did something unexpected. They asked employees if anyone wanted to donate cards to help rebuild Reid’s collection. According to Graham, “They've put two and two together, asked if they could do something, if they could ask some employees if they'd like to replace this kid's collection... and apparently it just detonated.” United initially estimated they’d gather about 2,000 cards. Even that number felt enormous. But when the family returned to the Denver airport on January 19 for what they thought would be a small handoff, employees had something else waiting. More than 15,000 cards had been flown in from as far as Hawaii and Ireland, boxed up and weighing around 40 kilograms. Jonna McGrath, vice president of United’s Denver hub, said the request rippled through the airline. “We were able to gather more than 15,000 Pokémon cards from employees as far away as Hawaii and Ireland to help him start a new collection,” she wrote. She added that once employees heard Reid’s story, “they immediately jumped to action.” Graham said Reid was stunned into silence when he saw the mountain of cards, and both parents teared up. And while the sheer volume thrilled Reid, Graham said the joy wasn’t only in the cards. It was in the notes. “Those letters... are like the coolest part, right? Because that's not just a physical gift, but it's the thinking behind it.” Many employees included messages about their own childhood love for Pokémon. Some sent cards in hard plastic cases, the kind reserved for personal favourites. “This isn't just people refilling the volume of cards,” Graham said. “It was like, ‘this guy was my favorite, or this was my favorite card when I was a kid, and I want you to have it now.’” Since then, Reid has been sharing the kindness. He hosted a trading party for his class, giving each student a bag of 60 cards. The family plans to donate more. “We still have 14,000 cards,” Graham laughed. “My son has to learn the value of having received such generosity... and the role he needs to play as the giver.” For now, the collection lives in their living room, where Reid slowly works through the stacks. “This volume means he always has something new to explore,” Graham said. Even the rare cards, the ones collectors would guard, now sit in the hands of a kid who just loves the game. Graham isn’t a Pokémon expert, but he’s seen enough to understand why strangers rushed to help. “There are a lot of adults who were very interested in it, and it's cool that they see themselves in this 7-year-old who has this passion, and they don't want his soul to be crushed or his passion to go away because he lost these cards,” he said.
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'So Cute!': Viral Punch Mimics Older Monkey During Rain Shower
The internet’s favorite monkey, Punch, continues to star in rain or shine for visitors at Ichikawa Zoo in Japan. Video posted on a rainy February 25 shows Punch taking his cue from an older monkey as they shelter from the downpour. “So cute!” the recorder wrote on X. Punch won hearts around the world after videos showed him cuddling a stuffed toy after he was abandoned at birth. Despite difficulties, including receiving a beating from one of his zoo-mates, Punch has begun settling in and making friends, the zoo said. 📸 @tate_gf via Storyful
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37-Year-Old Mare Named Fancy Breaks Record As World's Oldest Living Horse
If you think your joints creak in the morning, meet Fancy, a Virginia mare who just trotted past nearly four decades and straight into history. The 37-year-old brown mare has been officially crowned the oldest living horse by Guinness World Records, a title confirmed when she reached 37 years and 329 days. Born on April 1, 1988, Fancy now spends her days in Aldie, Va., doing what most retirees dream of: slow strolls, good meals, and time with her best friend. In this case, that best friend happens to be a donkey. Her owner, Paige Sigmon Blumer, first crossed paths with the American Quarter Horse in the late 1990s at a training facility, back when Fancy went by a very different name: Josey Wales. "I met Fancy and was immediately drawn to her strength," Blumer told Guinness World Records. "She also had such a loving presence. I just always trusted her to take care of me, no matter the situation. Her loyalty never wavers." The bond formed fast. By June 2000, Blumer was eight years old and Fancy was twelve when her parents made the purchase official. The name didn’t last long. “I told my parents she was ‘way too fancy to have such an ugly name,’” she recalled. And just like that, Fancy became Fancy. She has since outlived the typical lifespan of her breed, which usually tops out between 25 and 35 years. Blumer says there’s nothing mystical at play — just steady care, a team of attentive veterinarians, and a whole lot of love. “Any horse needs a steady and loving home, a talented farrier, a knowledgeable team of veterinarians, a consistent diet and good company,” she said. That “good company” includes Rosie, Fancy’s seeing-eye donkey. As Fancy’s eyesight has weakened with age, Rosie has stepped in like an old friend who won’t let you miss a step. “Fancy and Rosie took to each other like two old peas in a pod,” Blumer joked, adding that she imagines the pair spending afternoons reminiscing about “the good old days.” Fancy’s later years haven’t been without challenges. She manages Cushing’s disease, a condition that causes the body to overproduce cortisol and requires careful nutrition and medical oversight. Still, she sticks to her routine of twice-daily “granny walks” around the farm, proving that old age can come with a gentle rhythm instead of a full stop. Those quiet moments seem to mean as much to Blumer as they do to her mare. "For anyone who puts their love, time, energy, and pocketbook into a horse — it is such an honour to see them grow old," she shared. "For me, Fancy has taught me way more later in life than she ever did when we were riding and competing." With her Guinness title secured and her 38th birthday just around the corner on April 1, Fancy is settling comfortably into her well-earned spotlight. A long life, a loyal friend, and a donkey sidekick — not a bad way to grow old.
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A Recovered Vintage Camera Still Had Unseen Skiing Photos Inside: Do You Recognize These Vacationers?
In Salisbury, a roll of film forgotten inside an old thrift-shop camera has turned into a small, charming mystery spanning decades and countries. When Ian Scott of the Salisbury Photo Center developed the film, he and the camera’s new owner found themselves staring at clear, time-capsule images of a skiing trip to St. Moritz, Switzerland. The trouble is, no one knows who the people are — or how long the camera sat unnoticed at Alabaré Wilton Emporium before someone picked it up. Scott decided the photos were too good, and too personal, to let fade into anonymity. So he launched a nationwide effort to find anyone who might recognize a face. “No leads on the photos yet,” he told Smithsonian Magazine on February 19. “It has been on TV and the Sunday Express and [my] Instagram, which had 8,000 views in 24 hours, but sadly, no leads.” What the photos don’t reveal outright, the camera and film offer in clues. The camera itself was a Zeiss Ikon Baby Ikonta, a pocket-sized model made between the world wars. But the film inside was Verichrome Pan 127, first sold in Britain in 1956, placing the trip sometime after that. The skiers were also wearing numbered pinnies branded with Cow & Gate, the baby formula company that sponsored a ski trophy in the 1950s. Beyond those breadcrumbs, the scenery does plenty of heavy lifting. One frame shows a woman ice skating in front of St. Moritz’s unmistakable Badrutt’s Palace Hotel, confirming the setting. And while the photos feature crisp alpine backdrops, some of the skiers seem surprisingly underdressed for Swiss winter — proof, perhaps, that wool really does pull its weight. Scott told the Salisbury & Avon Gazette he hopes someone will recognize a smile or a stance. “There appears to be a great story behind these photographs, and it would be brilliant if someone could recognize a face amongst them,” he said. “At the very least, it has been a privilege to have played a small part in preserving these moments from the past.” Until then, the mystery remains: a handful of strangers frozen in time, captured on film that waited more than half a century to be seen again.
Score (97)
Astronomers Woke Up To 800,000 Notifications From This Observatory Watching The Night Skies — Here's Why
If the cosmos had a notification setting, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory just turned it on. The telescope spent Tuesday night watching the dark sky and then blasted out its first batch of real-time alerts, firing off 800,000 notifications to astronomers around the world. Those alerts came from the observatory’s new Alert Production Pipeline, a software system built at the University of Washington that’s eventually expected to push out as many as 7 million alerts a night. Every ping marks something that changed in the sky since Rubin last looked. “The scale and speed of the alerts are unprecedented,” said Hsin-Fang Chiang, a software developer at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and lead of operations for data processing at the U.S. Data Facility. After months of testing, she said the system can now take each fresh image and say, “Here is everything. Go.” This moment has been nearly 20 years in the making. Rubin is armed with the largest digital camera ever built for astronomy and an ultra-sensitive 8.4-meter primary mirror. Its new alert system lets astronomers know about interesting cosmic activity within two minutes, quick enough for them to request follow-up observations before a fleeting event fades away. “By connecting scientists to a vast and continuous stream of information, NSF-DOE Rubin Observatory will make it possible to follow the universe’s events as they unfold, from the explosive to the most faint and fleeting,” said Luca Rizzi of the National Science Foundation. The first wave of alerts included a grab bag of cosmic activity: supernovae, variable stars, active galactic nuclei, and newly discovered asteroids. Each one marked a change — a brightening star, a newly visible source of light, or an object drifting across the night sky. Behind the scenes, a team has spent a decade figuring out how to process 10 terabytes of images every night. “Enabling real-time discovery on such a massive data stream has required years of technical innovation in image processing algorithms, databases and data orchestration,” said Eric Bellm, the astronomy professor who leads the pipeline group. Tuesday’s launch sets the stage for Rubin’s next big milestone: the Legacy Survey of Space and Time, a decade-long project starting later this year. The telescope will scan the southern sky every few nights, building a deep, evolving record of the universe. As that happens, astronomers’ inboxes are about to get much busier. “Rubin Observatory’s groundbreaking capabilities are revealing untold astrophysical treasures and expanding scientists’ access to the ever-changing cosmos,” said Kathy Turner of the U.S. Department of Energy. The observatory sits high atop a mountain in the Chilean Andes, where the air is thin and the view is sharp. It first shared images from its 3,200-megapixel camera in June 2025, capturing millions of galaxies and stars and identifying more than 2,100 previously unknown asteroids during early tests. When the survey begins in earnest, Rubin is expected to observe more objects in its first year than all other optical observatories combined. And thanks to its new alert system, the universe’s latest news won’t just be discovered. It’ll be delivered.
Score (97)
These Brothers Turned a Public Toilet Into a Restaurant — It was Just Named the Best Fish and Chip Shop in the UK
If there were ever a case for not judging a book by its cover, it might be the little fish and chip shop in a layby outside York that just beat the entire country. The Scrap Box in Dunnington, once a disused public toilet block along the A1079, has been crowned Britain’s best fish and chip takeaway. For co-owner Aman Dhesi, the moment felt bigger than a trophy. The shop won Takeaway of the Year at the 2026 National Fish and Chip Awards, a title he described as the “Oscars of our industry.” It’s the kind of honour, he added, that “every chippy dreams of”. Aman and his brother Gavin run the shop together, and the award—given by the National Federation of Fish Friers—felt like validation for the way they approach Britain’s most famous comfort food. “It was testament to the craft, care, and consistency we put into every portion of fish and chips,” Aman said. Yorkshire was well represented on the shortlist. Mister C’s in Selby, Shaws Fish and Chips of Dodworth in Barnsley, and The Fish Bank in Sherburn-in-Elmet were also in the running, but this year the converted loo in a layby took the crown. Gavin said hearing their name called at the London ceremony was “surreal”. His first reaction wasn’t triumph, he said, but gratitude. “Our first thought went to our staff, our customers, and everyone who has put in the hard work to get where we are today.” Their rise hasn’t been glamorous. The Scrap Box is small, unassuming, and physically about as far from a white-tablecloth dining room as one can get. But inside, the brothers have invested heavily in technique, equipment, and quality ingredients. “We have put a lot back into the shop to make sure everything is best practice,” Gavin said. He also made a case for the food itself, defending fish and chips’ reputation in an age when takeaway meals often come with a nutritional warning label. In his view, the national dish deserves better PR. “You have got a piece of white fish which is pure protein from the sea,” he said. Their batter, he explained, is just flour and water “with a few added products”, and the chips are cut from whole potatoes and fried in beef dripping. “I think the purity of the product is what sells.” For a business that started with modest ambitions and an unconventional building, the win lands like a love letter to tradition, craft, and the belief that a simple meal made well still carries weight.