Busier than a busy bee on a very busy day...

TO SAY the last week has been a bit of a whirl would be a huge understatement.
As we journalists are known more for sensationalising stories than playing them down, I shall go the other way and say it's been the busiest working week for anyone, ever.
There's one reason for this I can tell you about, and one I can't because it's a secret. Hee.
The first is Ed Stilliard.
My reporter friend and colleague from the Bedworth Echo was tootling home on his Vespa last Wednesday when he collided with a car at traffic lights in Leicester.
Note that I said "collided with". We can't say one person hit another, or that they crashed. It's all to do with apportioning blame, something we're not in a position to do.
It always sounds weird when you have to say a pedestrian collided with a car, as if they have hurled themselves at the vehicle from the side of the road.
But, sadly, those are the rules we have to adhere to. There's your journalism 101 lesson for today.
Anyhow, young Ed managed to sustain two broken legs and will now be a resident of Leicester Royal Infirmary for the foreseeable future.
It's one hell of a way of getting out of doing a shorthand exam, but desperate times and all that.
As the Tribune is a one-woman band, and the Echo a one-man one, any absence really hits us hard, particularly as we also share stories between publications.
Luckily, though, we work from the office of The Hinckley Times, so I have been able to call on reporters for help.
Getting much time out of former Echo reporter Sam Dimmer, now a high-flyer on the Times with more work than he can wave a ballpoint pen at, is like trying to book the Arctic Monkeys for the Civic Hall.
But he throws me some crumbs and by golly they're appreciated. Rachel Parrish, former Nuneaton Evening Telegraph reporter, has been invaluable and everyone else is playing a part.
Which is why I have felt the need to swan off as of Wednesday on a secret mission.
It's a cunning plan, you see. I make everyone think I'm desperate, they do all the work, and then I take time off.
Brilliant!

Fight for Raymond Liggins' Sight

This week's front page features the plight of Raymond Liggins, from Nuneaton, who is fighting to get treatment on the NHS that will save his sight.

He is already blind in one eye, and is slowly losing sight in the other eye. He is also deaf in one ear. On top of all that, he looks after his stroke-victim wife, Olive.

Raymond has used up nearly all his life-savings on paying for injections that are saving his sight. Now he needs NHS help, but Warwickshire PCT are refusing treatment.

We believe he should have the treatment. If you do too, please post your comments here and we will ensure they get to the PCT.

This is your newspaper - join the debate.

The Full Story

A DESPERATE battle to save a Nuneaton man’s sight is being backed by MP Bill Olner.
Raymond Liggins is facing a race against time to convince Warwickshire Primary Care Trust to fund treatment that could stop him going blind in his right eye.
The age-related macular degeneration has already left him blind in his left eye, and he is also deaf in one ear.
The 76-year-old former Dunlop worker cares for his stroke victim wife, 72-year-old Olive, and the couple have raided their life-savings to pay for treatment.
The money is now running out for the pensioner’s vital Lucentis injections and the couple have issued a desperate plea for the trust to change its mind.
They are being backed by the Royal National Institute for the Blind and the Macular Disease Society.
And Nuneaton MP Bill Olner says he will do all he can to help.
Raymond, of Windmill Road, said: “When the right eye started to go the same way as the left, I knew I had to do something straight away. I went to the University Hospital in Walsgrave and they rushed everything through because of my history.
“They said it was the same thing but they couldn’t do anything for me and I’d have to go private.
“After three injections I could read four lines on the eye chart. It was bringing me back. Now, that’s up to nearly five.
“I’ve paid for four injections, at £1,520 each, and now the money is running out. Trials show that in 95% of cases, people having 20 injections have their sight successfully restored.
“I’m so depressed thinking that I could go blind because the trust won’t pay for my treatment. It’s morally wrong.”
Olive said: “Raymond’s consultant at University Hospital has even written on his behalf to say he should have the treatment but it hasn’t made any difference.
“If he goes blind we will cost the state a lot more money, for care through social services, than it would cost to fund this treatment.”
David Rose, chief executive of trust, said: “Warwickshire PCT commissions an extensive range of treatments and health services for the local population of 500,000 in line with national NHS guidelines.
“The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) issues guidance to the NHS on treatments and procedures following extensive trial and review and Warwickshire PCT follows all mandatory Nice guidelines.
“The drug Lucentis is not in these guidelines so it is not routinely commissioned by this PCT, along with other PCTs in the West Midlands.”
Bill Olner said: “I’m absolutely more than happy to try and convince the trust to change its mind on Mr Liggins’ behalf if he gets in touch with me.
“I urge him to get in contact and I will do all I can to help.”
Barbara McLaughan, RNIB campaigns manager, said: “It’s an absolute disgrace that he is effectively being told to pay up or go blind.”
She urged the trust to reconsider its decision and adopt revised Nice guidelines which she said meant that Lucentis could be prescribed on the NHS.

Game old birds and the spice of life

Last week's blog featured a good old-fashioned whinge about how things were far better in the "good old days" when I was a cub reporter.

You would have been forgiven for getting a mental image of me as a wrinkled, jaded old hack who started out in the old hot metal days.

Or you would if my mug wasn't splattered all over the pages of the Trib!

Well, only the jaded part is really true, what with me being a youthful 33 and relatively wrinkle-free.

The good thing about this job, though, is that no matter how cynical you get - and believe me, the levels can get pretty high - there's always something waiting round the corner to give you a bit of a lift.

Variety is not just the spice of life, it's also what makes this job so cool. You never know what is going to happen from day to day.

So while some things can be predicted - like bashing in press releases or doing our daily round of morning calls to the emergency services - others cannot.

This week there was a perfect example of why I love this job so much.

It's all about the people who make our communities so fascinating and sometimes you meet someone new who makes a big impression.

Gwen Johnson is a perfect example.

"Game old bird" might sound like an insult, but it suits her perfectly.

The Atherstone pensioner waited until her 80th birthday to make a point about the value of the older generation.

On checking she had actually got her staggeringly generous 25p extra in her pension, she promptly dug out the right change from her purse and sent it off to the chancellor, Alistair Darling.

Her message was, simply, stuff it.

I had a long chat with Gwen about her gesture, and game old bird just sums her up.

I hope I'm as feisty, forthright and opinionated as she is when, god willing, I get to her age.

I've got a pretty good chance - my mother's as game an old bird as they come, and they say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree!

Sub-editors have a sense of humour too - who knew?

As well as being pedantic, greying, generally bespectacled and with an air of self-importance, sub-editors also have a great line in bad jokes.

A certain silver-haired gentleman on the subbing team spends most of his time in a little world of his own, emerging only to relay the latest joke from the book he was given as his secret Santa present.

Here's the most recent:

A mother and baby camel are talking one day when the baby camel asks, "Mum, why have I got these huge three-toed feet?"

The mother replies, "Well, son, when we trek across the desert, your toes will help you to stay on top of the soft sand."

"OK," said the son. A few minutes later the son asks, "Mum, why have I got these great long eyelashes?"

"They are there to keep the sand out of your eyes on the trips through the desert."

"Thanks, Mum," replies the son. After a short while, the son returns and asks, "Mum, why have I got these great big humps on my back?"

The mother, now a little impatient with the boy, replies, "They are there to help us store fat for our long treks across the desert, so we can go without water for long periods."

"That's great, Mum. So we have huge feet to stop us sinking, and long eyelashes to keep the sand from our eyes, and these humps to store water, but Mum..."

"Yes, son?"

"Why are we in Twycross Zoo?"

Mindless automotons? Not us!

The modern journalist spends a lot of time staring at their computer screen.

Not stalking the streets for stories, not pressing the flesh of the public hoping to make new contacts, and certainly not propping up the bar like our older (for older read ancient), cardiganned, grumpy sub-editors used to.

No, nowadays it's all about story counts and speed. We don't have a morning conference at the copshop anymore. Instead we stare intensely at the Warwickshire Police website hoping there'll be an update of some kind.

More than 30 minutes of this in one go and the site starts to look like a magic eye creation, all shifting shapes and strange images. I swear I saw Larry Grayson one day, but then I was a little worse for wear.

Once an incident is posted, instead of speaking to a sergeant or inspector, we ring someone in the press office, who then speak to the police for us and come back with information. This sometimes creates more questions than answers and we will have the choice of asking them to go back to the officer, or forget the whole thing because it's going to take too long and it will in no way be as good as speaking to a real person.

There's also the chance, as happened with the brothel story last week, we'll be told no such incident can be found when we ring up an hour after it's happened. The next day, deadline done and dusted, we resume the website-staring only to see the incident we'd asked about sitting there proudly at the top of the list, waiting to be lapped up appreciatively by the dailies, who'll have it to themselves for a whole seven days.

Back in the good old days, when I was a cub reporter, this type of scenario would have involved a complex game of cat and mouse with the rival reporters.

You'd sit through the morning police conference, mentioning not a syllable about your "exclusive". At the end of the chat, during which time you will have either a) had your shorthand skills severely tested or b) had some good-natured banter with a sprinkling of news thrown in depending on which inspector you got, it was time for some play-acting.

The essential first stage of the deceit is to take an absolute aeon to pack up. Oh look I've dropped my pen. Gosh, I just can't seem to cram my notepad into my stylish yet affordable courier bag.

All this is to ensure you are last to leave the room. If you succeeded the next stage was even harder. You would have a split second time frame to allow the last reporter to leave the room in front of you, half leave yourself, then quickly turn back to the inspector and ask, in the sweetest of tones, "could I just check one thing with you?"

Get it right, and the exclusive was in the bag. Get it wrong, and you'd have all the others loitering at the door while you gave away your potential Pulitzer prize-winning tale.

Yes, that really was life on the edge! Nowadays it's all sanitised news releases and virtual people. Spokesman and representatives.

It's the main reason why we are using new media like this blog, Facebook and email to get back to basics - interaction with our readers and their stories. Using the new to go back to the old - pretty nifty, eh?

The Virgin Post

Greetings brave readers who have made the leap from the reassuringly familiar pages of the Tribune to this, the new frontier.

Okay, so that sounds a little grandiose, but this is a pretty big deal for us. We haven't exactly been at the forefront of modern technology in recent years, so instead of aiming for the 20th century, we've gone straight for the 21st instead.

It's part of what readers will hopefully see as a fresher, more vibrant approach to what's going on in our communities.

You can even contact me via Facebook - how swanky's that? Just look for me under Emma Ray Nuneaton Tribune.

The aim of this blog is to give a bit of a feel for how the paper works, what it's like being a regional news reporter, and, if you're lucky, a bit of office gossip.

By the very nature of our work, we should be out of the spotlight, but hopefully this will show journalists are human beings too!

In fact, you only have to look at this picture of me interviewing former England rugby captain Martin Corry to know professionalism can easily give way to awe in the blink of an eye. He's a real gentle giant. Very big arms. Anyway...

One thing people who don't work in newspapers don't realise is that news is seasonal. Sounds strange, doesn't it? Nevertheless, it's true. Summer holidays, in particular, can be pretty lean for regional newspapers. Contacts jet off to sunnier climes - damn them! - and at the schools, one of our biggest source of stories, the teachers elbow the pupils out the way as they race for the exits and a long six weeks off.

January is another slow time for us. For the Christmas editions, when mince pies and eggnog take priority over contacting the press, we have to stockpile stories in order to fill our festive editions.

Come January, and we're down to the bare bones. This year has been no different. Those drawing the conclusion that it's not coincidental we are launching the blog this week would not be too far wide of the mark.

As in, bang on.

Hopefully, the digital age will open up a whole new vista for us, but more importantly, for you. Get to know us. Learn about what we do. Criticise us and praise in, hopefully, equal measure.

But most importantly, get involved in what we do. It's your community, so it's your newspaper.

- Emma Ray