1. Mum died after doctors told her she was “too young” for bowel cancer.
Perth woman Kathy Narrier said she knew her daughter, Nicole Yarran, was sick, well before the final diagnosis.
“Early in 2015, that’s when I started realising that she was losing a lot of weight,” Kathy told ABC’s 7.30. “She had no energy. If you knew Nicole you knew there was something wrong.”
But the doctors disagreed and it wasn’t until Nicole, aged 32 and expecting her third child, underwent a routine ultrasound earlier this year that bowel cancer was detected.
By that time, it had spread to her liver. “It was a death sentence,” Kathy said. The mother-of-three died in September this year.
“She told him the symptoms, that she had bleeding from the bowel,” Kathy explained, adding the doctors said she was “too young” for bowel cancer.
“He boiled it down to irritable bowel syndrome and kept giving her medication for that. They wouldn’t do the stool test, no colonoscopy or nothing. They just said that she was too young.”
Kathy is speaking out to raise awareness and to warn others: if you believe something is wrong. Really wrong. Speak out and don’t take ‘no’ for an answer. “Don’t take their word,” she said.
According to Bowel Cancer Australia, the disease remains the second most common cause of death from cancer. And, speaking to the ABC, colorectal surgeon Dr Graham Newstead said its diagnosis among young people is on the rise.
“We’re seeing younger people with bowel cancer whereas in the past, when I was a medical student, it was a disease for people well over their 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s,” he said.
2. Potential identity breach of James Bulger’s killer on Facebook.
An investigation has been launched into a Facebook post potentially identifying Jon Venables, now 35, who was convicted of killing two-year-old James Bulger in 1993.
According to the BBC, the Attorney General’s Office in the UK has confirmed a potential breach of a court order that prohibits the identification of Venables, as well as his murder accomplice Robert Thompson.
Venables and Thompson were 10 when they led Bulger, who was almost three, away from a shopping centre in Merseyside in the UK. The toddler was found murdered and tied to train tracks two days later.
The pair were imprisoned until 2001, when they were released on a ‘life licence’ – meaning they could be recalled at any time. A worldwide ban on publishing anything revealing their identities was also enforced.
Venables was recalled back to prison in 2010, after child pornography was found on his computer. And he was recalled only last month on a similar charge. The day after this latest news was made public, the offending photograph was shared online.
According to News Corp, the image was posted on November 24, had been shared 121,000 times and had attracted 2,600 reactions as well as thousands of comments.
3. Coroner cannot identify the cause of Matthew Leveson’s death.
The only person who really knows how Matthew Leveson died is his much-older boyfriend who hid the 20-year-old’s body from his family and NSW police for close to a decade.
But when Michael Atkins was given the opportunity and protection to finally tell the truth during a Sydney inquest he instead said Matthew could be alive and living in Thailand, AAP reports.
Deputy state coroner Elaine Truscott on Tuesday said she could not make a finding as to the cause and manner of Matthew’s death in September 2007 after a lengthy and eventful inquest.
“Ultimately, the lies that Mr Atkins told during the course of his evidence to the inquest, as with other lies he has told to a range of people … give rise to a considerable degree of suspicion that Mr Atkins had some connection with Matt’s death,” she said in her written findings.
“However, it does not follow from that degree of suspicion that I can find that Mr Atkins was involved in any acts which were causative of Matt’s death.”
The now 54-year-old was acquitted of his boyfriend’s murder or manslaughter by a NSW Supreme Court jury in 2009.
It wasn’t until he admitted lying during his inquest evidence in 2016 that he gave the information that in May 2017 led police to Matthew’s remains in a national park south of Sydney.
Atkins did so as part of a deal to avoid perjury and contempt charges.
Ms Truscott said Atkins’ latest account – that he panicked and buried Matthew’s body after finding him dead from a drug overdose – had not been tested by a police investigation.
She said there were no further forensic or police investigations that could be pursued in relation to Matthew’s death.
“Ultimately, there is no forensic evidence which identifies the cause of Matt’s death,” Ms Truscott said.
The magistrate said she was sorry Matthew wouldn’t be with his family next week to celebrate his 31st birthday and noted it had “truly been a privilege” to be his coroner.
4. Where is Dorothy? Sex doll worth $4500 pinched in Melbourne burglary.
A busty, blonde life-sized sex doll has been stolen from a Melbourne adult shop by a burglar wearing a pair of stockings on his head… Just in time for Christmas with the fam.
Dorothy – or the “perfect companion for lonely nights” – retails for $4500 and was wearing a pink negligee at the time she was stolen from the Moorabbin shop.
The man used bolt cutters to break the fence, and a fire hydrant to access the store, at around 6am on Sunday, News Corp reports. He was wearing stockings on his head to obscure his identity.
Dorothy, alongside a dozen other life-sized titanium alloy dolls, were awaiting his arrival with anticipation.
He chose the blonde, who is 168cm tall and, according to the manufacturer, “developed from superior materials for soft, ultra-realistic feeling skin”.
Police have issued a description of the man – of solid build and wearing a dark coloured jumper with a red stripe across the chest – however are likely resigned to the fact: he’s unlikely to emerge from newly inhabited love nest any time soon.
5. Ed Sheeran tops Spotify’s most streamed list because, of course.
The Grammys may have dissed Ed Sheeran, but Spotify says he is the most streamed artist of the year.
The streaming service announced on Tuesday that Sheeran tops its 2017 list with 6.3 billion streams. He also has Spotify’s biggest album of the year with Divide, streamed 3.1 billion times, and the top song with Shape of You, logging 1.4 billion streams.
Sheeran received two Grammy nominations last week, but was shut out of the major categories, including album, song and record of the year.
No female acts were in the top five most streamed acts of the year.
Sheeran was followed by Drake, The Weeknd, Kendrick Lamar and The Chainsmokers.
Rihanna is the most streamed female performer of the year, followed by Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez.
Spotify says hip-hop streams increased by 74 per cent in the last year, while Latin music jumped 110 per cent.
6. Measles alert for Melbourne Christmas shoppers
Christmas shoppers in Melbourne have been urged to watch out for measles symptoms after a woman diagnosed with the disease spent time in the city while infectious.
The woman, suspected of picking up the illness overseas, went shopping in Brunswick and the CBD while infectious on Wednesday and Thursday, Victoria's deputy chief health officer Dr Brett Sutton said.
It's the 12th measles case confirmed in Melbourne in recent months and people who visit areas where the woman shopped may be at risk of contracting measles, with symptoms possible to emerge through until December 18.