Trust A Trader member to walk Hadrian's Wall for brother lost to meningitis

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Trust A Trader member Lee Miller of LM Plumbing & Heating is going to walk 88 miles along the full length of Hadrian's Wall for the Meningitis Research Foundation, having lost his younger brother to the illness when they were both children.

In July 1982, Lee was nine years old when his seven year old brother Tony became ill while in Spain on a family holiday. At first Tony's fever and sickness was thought to be caused by a bug, but after his condition deteriorated he was taken to the local Spanish hospital, where the doctors thought he may be suffering with acute appendicitis. However, Tony later fell into a coma and his parents were told that if he recovered he would be severely brain damaged. Lee and Tony's parents had to make the most difficult decision; to turn off Tony's life support.

Lee, now 41, had tragically lost his little brother to what was later found to be meningitis, which strikes thousands across the UK each year. Small children and young adults are high risk, but all ages can be affected.

Lee's chosen charity, the Meningitis Research Foundation, fundraise to invest in research, campaign for vaccines, provide symptom information and support those already affected with meningitis.

Lee wants to help to support research into prevention of meningitis and to support families affected by this terrible illness, which is the inspiration for his charity walk.

If you would like to support Lee's efforts, you can do so by donating via his page on JustGiving.com, or you can donate by texting ANTY82 followed by the amount you want to give to 70070, so for example you might text ANTY82 £5.

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A quarter of all construction jobs could be filled by women within 5 years - Trust a Trader

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Women are likely to occupy a quarter of all construction related jobs in the UK by the end of the decade, new research by recruitment firm Ranstad CPE has found.

Since 2010 the number of women in construction has increased from 16% to 20%, while there was only a 1% increase within the previous 5 years.

Projections made in the report suggest that women could be filling 26% of construction positions by 2020, or an even higher proportion.

The report states that currently the percentage of women in construction is 1 in 5, or 20%. This correlates with official figures from the Office for National Statistics which recorded a proportion of 19.7% women in September last year.

However, despite the positive trend in recruitment for women, the report by Ranstad also warned that lack of flexibility and misconceptions about the workplace can remain barriers to progress.

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£3bn to be invested in UK broadband networks by Virgin Media - Trust a Trader

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Virgin Media has announced that it is going to invest £3bn in updating its broadband network, bringing fast fibre optic connections to within reach of 4 million more homes, and creating 6,000 new jobs in the process.

The investment is said to be the biggest made in broadband infrastructure within the UK for over ten years.

The reported 6,000 jobs will be created over the course of 5 years and will include 1,000 apprenticeships.

The fibre optic network developments will allow even more people to access 'superfast' broadband than even the government's rollout, which has already reached more than 2 million homes and businesses.

The company is currently expanding its coverage across around 110,000 homes in east London, Sunderland, Teesside and Glasgow.

Virgin Media claim this investment in connectivity for homes and businesses will be worth £8bn in value for the UK economy.

However, critics have pointed out that the investment will be mainly involved with filling in gaps in the current network coverage, rather than expanding further out into more rural areas, which have been generally neglected by companies such as Virgin and BT.

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Glasgow Athletes' Village becomes home to residents - Trust a Trader

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The Athletes' Village developed for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow last year has been reconfigured with homes for local residents to buy or rent.

During the Commonwealth Games the Athletes' Village, in the east end of Glasgow, provided accommodation for around 7,000 athletes and officials during summer 2014.

The 38.5 hectare area has been updated to include 300 private homes, 400 homes for rent and a care home for the elderly with 120 beds. The homes consist of detached, semi-detached and terraced houses.

The first residents are starting to move into their new homes now, with around 100 houses already occupied. The remaining homes are likely to be taken within six months.

Over 250 of the 300 private homes have been sold at this point.

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Film studio home of British comedy shows sold for development - Trust a Trader

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Teddington Film Studios in London, the location where a number of much loved British comedy shows were filmed, is to be sold for development into a £250m luxury apartment complex.

Comedy shows filmed at Teddington include The Office, Men Behaving Badly, The IT Crowd, Black Books, and Bremner, Bird and Fortune.

Teddington, on the banks of the Thames, has become one of the most expensive residential areas in London. Values are reaching £750 per square foot, although values for the new development of the film studios are expected to exceed £1000 per square foot.

Since the studio stopped being used for filming, it had more recently been the home of Haymarket publishing, producing magazines and advertising.

The 4.5 acre Teddington Studios site has been reported to be sold for around £80m.

Image: Wikipedia

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