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By Angela Kelly

Let’s hope Lewis can rest now and eventually return to his performances with all his usual impressive commitment. We need to hear that beautiful voice – and see Lewis back on form.

How can we condone competitive eating in 2023?

I CAN’T be the only person who feels that competitive eating events are completely at odds with life in a country where so many struggle just to pay for enough daily food.

Reading about eating champion John Dawes’ ability to eat 20 sausages and a kilo of mash in five minutes offers an uncomfortable reality.

Lewis’s fans step in for their hero

THE moment that singer Lewis Capaldi’s Tourette’s Syndrome symptoms prevented him from singing at Glastonbury made heartbreaking viewing.

Even for TV viewers not privy to that live moment at Worthy Farm, seeing the talented Lewis unable to carry on was very upsetting.

He had just had a three week mental health break in order to fulfil this appearance but, sadly, Tourette’s (the neurological condition which causes unwanted, involuntary muscle movements and sounds).is a cruel curse, striking sufferers randomly.

In the middle of all this, the audience came to the rescue, taking over the singing of his haunting hit Someone You Love. Unsurprisingly, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house - in my house, either.

Lewis also wrote the song and it’s opening line “I’m going under and this time there’s no one to save me” was particularly poignant.

Genuine affection between performer and audience is the staple of huge popularity, especially among today’s headliners. But the deal can still mean a “them and us” situation which puts our heroes on pedestals.

To see and hear the real empathy of an audience prepared to offer unconditional support was very touching. All of them knew that Lewis was in anguish, physical and mental, over his inability to perform as he wanted to, in spite of having already delivered some fabulous songs.

Their answer was simply to sing it for him.

Although Glastonbury like any major festival, is built on practical affection for enduring musical heroes, it was rare to see it in action in quite such a deliberate way when it was needed.

The fact that he wants his 18 year-old daughter to continue his legacy with rigorous “training sessions” seems an odd sort of suggested career path for anyone.

Consuming huge amounts of food in mere minutes feels wrong on so many levels when we still urgently need food banks and thousands of children attend school breakfast clubs just to give them a decent start to the day.

Surely promoting gluttony as entertainment - or, worse, as a genuine “sport” - is crazily out of kilter with Britain in 2023?

Cheesy chat-up lines still working

CHAT-up lines are always fascinating, don’t you think?

They are probably a great indication of the social trends of the time but most have one thing in common: they are relentlessly cheesy.

So it was reassuring to see the results of a poll of single Brits and what their current chat-up lines are.

Roughly a quarter of those aged between 16 and 29 (categorized as Gen Z) say they have used corny one liners on someone else compared to just 11 per cent of singles aged from 30 to 49.

The youngsters also prefer to deliver their chat-up lines via online dating rather than face-to-face.

According to them, the best flirty phrase was “ Is your name WiFi? Because I’m feeling a connection.”

Another ranking highly was “Is your name Google? ‘Cause you’re what I’ve been searching for.” Or “Are you a parking ticket? ‘Cause you’ve got fine written all over you” and “Should we get coffee? ‘Cause I like you a latte.”

When you’ve finished groaning, it is rather interesting that today’s youngsters still value this kind of preliminary social action. And quite touching that they believe it will work.

I think I still prefer the old classics like “You dancin’?” You askin’?” “I’m askin’.” “I’m dancin’“. How could that fail?!

Ellie’s heartwarming story of her roots

YOU really have to admire the attitude of Paralympic gold medallist Ellie Simmonds to her birth mother.

Ellie was born with dwarfism but has never let this define her.

At 10 days old, she went into foster care and was later adopted by a plainly remarkable couple who have done everything possible to encourage her and allow her to develop as an individual and as a champion, Ellie became the youngest of five children, growing up with adoptive parents Val and Steve in Walsall in the West Midlands. From an early age, she loved swimming and was just 13 when she won two golds for Britain at the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing.

She retired from sport in 2020 and it was then that she felt the urge to trace her roots. Now, in a new ITV documentary Ellie Simmonds, Finding My Secret Family, Ellie, aged 28, refuses to judge her birth mother, who already had a daughter without dwarfism.

Her birth mother had separated from Ellie’s father before she found out she was pregnant. She felt guilty about her daughter’s disability and wished she’d had an abortion or that her baby had died.

Ellie explains: “It sounds like she had a fear of not just me but of living with dwarfism.”

Ellie also realized that not enough was known or understood about dwarfism (achondroplasia, the most common form of dwarfism) then.

When Ellie ultimately discovered her mother, they met up and, critically, she told Ellie that she had suffered with guilt and selfhatred ever since.

She did, though, feel happy that Ellie’s adoptive parents and siblings had provided her with such a loving environment.

On that first meeting, they spoke for over five hours “and were howling with laughter as we’ve got the same sense of humour.” or email: help@aamail.org

Not every adoption story has such a happy ending and not every child has the courage and understanding of Ellie Simmonds. This proved a really heartwarming story all round.