DAILY STAR SUNDAY, April 24, 2011
FAMILY FEUD: Miley THE truce between pop princess Miley Cyrus and her dad has been blown apart over her bizarre “obsession” with Hollywood hellraiser Charlie Sheen. Miley, 18, spends hours exchanging messages with the actor, 45, who tweeted: “Always felt you were epic! Thanks for the love.” Miley replied: “I always felt the same way about you! You have taught me everything I know about winning. Duh!” Dad Billy Ray fears Sheen will be a bad influence.
Kidd: ‘I won’t quit, despite the cruellest cuts of all...’
RACE HERO: ■ Eddie battles on yesterday in the London Marathon, with the help of Sam
Picture: TERRY BRADFORD
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EDDIE’S BENEFITS FURY
MARATHON hero Eddie Kidd faces losing his vital home care and benefits because of Government cutbacks.
The motorbike daredevil – paralysed and brain damaged when a stunt went wrong – needs 24-hour help from a team of carers.
Brave Eddie is now into the second week of his 26-mile London Marathon effort that will take a month at the rate of one mile a day. By the time he finishes, Eddie, 51, and wife Sam fear his care package and £1,300-a-month benefits will have been slashed. Eddie said: “I’m appalled. I need care. It is not fair on me or the hundreds of other disabled people who will be affected by cuts.” Former pin-up Sam, 42, from Brighton, said: “These are savage cuts. Losing the care would badly affect his recovery. “The same is happening to thousands of other people. Their families will take up the slack but it is hard. “Why don’t the council fat cats take a pay cut? “This will also mean Eddie cannot do a lot of his charity work as he needs someone with him all the time. “I do my best but I am 5ft 2in and I can’t lift him as he’s 5ft 11in and 15stone. “We need the 24-hour carers. He cannot be left alone and he’ll go into a home over
■ by DEBORAH SHERWOOD deborah.sherwood@dailystar.co.uk
my dead body.” An assessment of his care is being carried out by East Sussex County Council. A spokesman said: “We do not give details of individual social care cases but clients are regularly assessed to see what their care needs are. “We have to ensure our limited resources go as far as they can to meet a growing population of vulnerable and elderly adults in the county. “The assessment process ensures those with critical or substantial care needs get the support that is appropriate to their circumstances.” Today Eddie is in Charlton, south London, after completing around seven miles of the marathon. He said: “This is my greatest challenge yet and my motto is ‘Never give up’.” He is determined to finish the course and raise £50,000 for Children With Leukaemia. The world champ jumped the Great Wall of China in 1993, inset, was a body double for Timothy Dalton in Bond movie The Living Daylights and soared over 16 buses and 40 cars in front of millions. But he spent 40 days in a coma after a stunt went badly wrong in 1996. Fans along the marathon route have been cheering him on and have donated £350. To support Eddie go to virginmoney giving.com/EddieKidd
DAILY STAR SUNDAY, April 10, 2011
Daredevil training for
Intrepid Dave not mutt off ■ by JONATHAN CORKE BLINDED police officer David ■ Rathband’s bid to run next Sunday’s London Marathon was
almost ended by a dog. The traffic PC, who was gunned down by twisted Raoul Moat last July, has overcome breathing problems, agonising pain and sickness to train for the race. But a stray labrador almost scuppered the amazing feat by “taking him out” on a training run. Luckily, a friend managed to save him from a serious tumble. David, 43, is on regular pain relief and has had to learn new breathing techniques. But amazingly he has vowed to finish the race in a “decent time”. Close pal Robin Palmer said: “People think he’s crackers but David doesn’t see it that way. “He’s still poorly, has difficulties with his breathing and takes regular medication for pain but David is a very determined person and to him it’s just a challenge. “And David being David he wants to get round in a time people think is decent. “Luckily, the dog didn’t do any serious damage. But avoiding loose dogs has been another challenge, as well as learning to run with a guide. “It sounds straightforward but it isn’t. There’s also running in crowds – David’s hearing is very acute now so he’s had to learn how to run surrounded by others.” David, from Northumberland, was shot in the face by Moat, 37, as he sat in his patrol car in Newcastle upon Tyne. Running with him will be Robin, friend and guide Steve White and another police officer injured in service, PC Gareth Rees, 35. Gareth was told he would never walk again after his legs were smashed to pieces in an horrific collision with a car two years ago. “Repaired” with the use of metal pins, the Hertfordshire PC contacted David to suggest they do the race together. He said: “David is an absolute inspiration. To go through what he has gone through and try to stay positive the way he has.” They will raise funds for David’s Bluelamp Foundation, set up to help injured emergency workers. Donations can be made via justgiving.com/PC-David-Rathband
Picture: STEVE LAWRENCE
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BRAVE: David, left, and Steve
/lmx
DAILY STAR SUNDAY, April 10, 2011
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the marathon with 3 bedroom sessions a week
IT’S READY EDDIE’S SACK RACE WHEEL ■ GUTS: Sam and Eddie
and, inset bottom, jumping the Great Wall
STRICKEN stuntman Eddie Kidd is training for the London Marathon by romping three times a week with his missus.
The 80s’ heart-throb was left brain damaged when a motorcycle leap went horrifically wrong 14 years ago.
But he has vowed to beat his disability and complete the gruelling 26-mile course using a specially-made walking frame. His former pin-up wife Sam Kirli says nothing holds back the 007 stunt double when they’re in the sack. Sam, 42, revealed: “Eddie may be paralysed but everything is fine in that department. “We are very loved-up.” They met 25 years ago and had a short fling before finally getting back together after a chance meeting at former Coronation Street star Chris Quinten’s 50th birthday in 2007. Eddie will shuffle along the race route at a rate of one mile a day, taking four weeks to cross the finishing line. Each step will be agony for the 51-yearold who was nearly killed during a £5,000 challenge to jump his motorbike over a speeding car at the Bulldog Bash rally in
EXCLUSIVE
■ by DEBORAH SHERWOOD
Warwickshire in 1996. He suffered serious head and pelvic injuries and doctors warned he could be in a coma for ten years. But he regained consciousness within six weeks of the accident. In his career, Eddie made 12,000 motorbike jumps, including soaring over 16 buses and 40 cars, crossing a 200ft ravine and even leaping the Great Wall of China. He starred in a Levi’s TV ad and stood in for Harrison Ford, Pierce Brosnan, Michael Douglas and Roger Moore in movies. The former world champ will start the marathon with the rest of the field at Blackheath on Sunday. He will be helped on his way by Sam and a team of carers, physios and friends. He hopes to raise £50,000 for the charity Children With Leukaemia. Along the route he will be joined by celeb pals Ray Winstone, boxer Michael Watson, ex-EastEnders Carol Harrison and John Altman, newsreader Angela Rippon and The Bill star Chris Ellison. His speech is slow and any movement is a huge effort but Eddie is relishing the task ahead. “This is my biggest challenge, even more difficult than when I jumped over the Great Wall of China,” he said at home near Brighton, East Sussex. “My motto is never give up. They said I’d never walk again, bugger that. I’ll do the marathon even if it kills me.” ● To support Eddie go to virgin moneygiving.com/ EddieKidd
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DAILY STAR SUNDAY, May 1, 2011
RIGHT ROYAL HANGOV UP FOR IT: ■ A reveller crowd surfs in
Kelvingrove, Glasgow, while, below right, Cardiff girls get into party mood as do Newcastle lasses, below left
9
FEELING HEAT: Gaddafi
Mad Dog begging for talks
OUR brave RAF boys have brought Gaddafi to his knees. Yesterday the Mad Dog dictator offered a ceasefire and agreed to talks if NATO stopped bombing him. He stopped short of resigning so NATO and the Libyan rebels turned down his offer. After weeks of Allied air strikes Gaddafi appears to be looking for a way out. “Let us negotiate with you, the countries that attack us. Let us negotiate,” Gaddafi said yesterday. NATO dismissed the offer and said air strikes on government forces in Libya will continue as long as civilians are threatened. “We need to see actions not words,” said an official. Yesterday NATO planes hit three targets close to the television building in Tripoli. Rebel spokesman Colonel Ahmed Bani said: “Gaddafi is playing dirty games. We don’t believe him and we don’t trust him.”
COURAGE: Eddie with Ray
Marathon Ed’s SOS massage
BRAVE Eddie Kidd needs a helping hand to finish his London Marathon. The motorbike daredevil, paralysed after a stunt accident, has managed six miles in two weeks using a walking frame. He was joined yesterday by Madness singer Suggs, Cash In The Attic’s John Cameron, EastEnder John Altman, comedian Joe Pasquale and actor Ray Winstone in Greenwich, south-east London. Eddie, 51, undaunted after a hamstring injury, appealed for a physio to volunteer for twice weekly massages on the 26-mile walk. His pin-up wife Sam, 42, and carers are helping but he is six days behind schedule. But Eddie, from Brighton, Sussex, said: “Rome wasn’t built in a day, I am determined to keep going.” The walk will take more than a month but he hopes to raise £50,000 for Children with Leukaemia.
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DAILY STAR SUNDAY, May 8, 2011
BB STAR’S HELL AS PSYCHO SET FOR RELEASE REUNITED: ■ Chanelle with Jack last week. Inset below, with son Blakely
DEVASTATED: Eddie
Lost ring blow for hero Kidd EDDIE Kidd is appealing for help to find his wedding ring after losing it during his gruelling London marathon. The motorbike daredevil, who was paralysed in a stunt accident 15 years ago, has completed nine miles of the 26-mile course in three weeks, with the aid of a walking frame. Eddie, 51, is devastated by the loss of the £1,000 titanium ring decorated with a diamond and a motorbike chain design. It came off in Creek Road, Greenwich, south-east London, last Wednesday. “I feel sick, the ring has huge sentimental value,” said Eddie, from Brighton, Sussex. He and his wife Sam, 42, who were married last year, searched the area without success. “It would be wonderful if it turned up,” he added. Last week he was joined on the route by celebrity pals including actor Ray Winstone, who has paid for the couple to stay in a hotel each night so Eddie can rest properly. So far, Eddie has raised £21,000 for Children With Leukaemia and the Eddie Kidd Foundation and hopes to raise another £30,000. Despite losing almost a stone in weight he is determined to succeed. “I will finish no matter what, even if it kills me,” he said.
Chanelle in terror over mum’s killer ■ by SUSAN HILL
susan.hill@dailystar.co.uk
BIG Brother star Chanelle Hayes is living in fear after being told the man who murdered her mum could be out of prison within a month.
She was just six months old when Andrea Sinclair, who worked as a prostitute, was strangled and mutilated by one of her clients.
Now, Keith Pollard is set to get parole and Chanelle, 23, is terrified. The babe has a ten-month-old son, Blakely, by ex-boyfriend Middlesbrough footballer Matthew Bates, 24. A source close to Chanelle told the Daily Star Sunday: “She’s had to live with what happened to her mum ever since she discovered the horrific details and it’s something that haunts her every day. “She received a letter in the post last week saying Pollard was due for parole. Her heart sank as the enormity of what was happening started to hit her. “She telephoned the police liaison officer straightaway to find out more about when he was coming out and where he would be living. “The officer told her he may be out within a month. “She asked where he’s going to be living but they didn’t have that information. She’s distraught. She genuinely fears he’s going to come after her.” Chanelle, who was born in Styal prison, Cheshire, when her mum was jailed for prostitution, is considering moving in a bid to stop the convicted murderer from finding
for hijacking a Spanish fishing boat in the Indian Ocean. A Madrid court heard Raagegeesey Adji Hamanwere and Abdou Willy were part of a group that seized the Alakrana in 2009. Other pirates escaped with a £2million ransom.
Picture: WENN.COM
TWO Somali pirates ■ were each sentenced to 439 years in prison
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The Sunday Telegraph |
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MAY 22 2011
| 21
NEWS REVIEW
T
Telegraph Sport For breaking news and insightful comment telegraph.co.uk/sport
THIS IS EDDIE’S BIGGEST LEAP OF FAITH
GETTY; REX; JANE MINGAY
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‘O
hmygod! Is he still doing the Marathon!?” asks a woman, stopping to watch. Her eyes fill with tears. It is, indeed, a poignant sight. A severely disabled man summoning up every ounce of inner strength to walk the 26.2 miles of the London Marathon. The race finished nearly five weeks ago. Kate and Wills are married (he was inching through Deptford then); Osama bin Laden is dead. But this competitor still has 11 miles to go. Today he’s in Limehouse, fighting the daily horror of moving again. I ask the woman if she recognises him. She shakes her head. When I tell her, she clamps her hand over her mouth and walks off, crying. Eddie Kidd was bestknown for flying through the air on his Honda CR500, aka “Sid” (as in Vicious). Fans think of him in many ways: jumping a 120ft railway cutting at 90 miles per hour when he doubled as Harrison Ford in Hanover Street; beating Robbie Knievel (son of Evel) to become stunt-bike world champion in 1993; modelling a six-pack and a pair of Levi’s in a framed poster; and, in his greatest spectacle, soaring over the Great Wall of China in 1993. Today, there’s only sheer willpower to move him along: first, to raise his right foot from the ground; then the huge effort to will his hip to flex, his thighs to lift and his feet to bend. Only after a laborious amount of hard work does he drag his feet to take another step. This appalling change is the result of an incident 15 years ago. The Bulldog Bash is an annual motorcycle festival, held at Long Marston Airfield, near Stratford-uponAvon. The event started as a small gathering organised by the Hells Angels. But by 1996, when Eddie Kidd was one of the star attractions, it had graduated to rock music, beer tents, racing and stunt riding. “When he did the jump, he landed slightly on an incline and hit his chin on the petrol tank,” says his wife, Samantha. “He was knocked unconscious and was carried up the slope on his bike, then he dropped 20 feet and landed on his head.” Eddie broke his neck, shattered his pelvis, and was in a coma for three months and two weeks. He now has neural damage, which has sabotaged the circuitry of his mind. “He wants to say walk, but the messages aren’t getting through,” says Sam. “Eddie can’t stand up by himself, can’t sit up by himself, can’t feed himself, dress himself – you know, bathroom, all that sort of thing.” Samantha, 42, a former model, is small and punchy, with a voice that could carry across continents. “Head up, Eddie! Nice and tall! Come on, honey!” She is also one of the few people who can understand what Eddie says (though even she struggles to interpret his strangled grunts occasionally). For a wheelchair-bound man, Eddie, 51, looks unusually fit. He is tanned, handsome and muscly – Samantha says that working out in the gym helps sustain him. Certainly the accident hasn’t damaged his sex appeal, or ability. He fell in love with the mother of his
One step at a time: Eddie Kidd with his wife Sam less than halfway through the London Marathon. On a good day, he completes a mile; often the distance is much less
Up and over: the Great Wall leap, modelling, and an early practice
third child during his three years at the Felden Croft Rehabilitation Centre, near Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire. Olive Reynolds was a physiotherapist’s assistant. They separated when Callum was one. He has three children from three different mums. “He’s the male version of Ulrika Jonsson,” Samantha jokes. He has Candie, 28, with Deborah Ash, Hot Gossip dancer and sister of actress Leslie Ash; Jack, 17, with Sarah Carr, ex-Stringfellows waitress; and Callum, now 10.
VIDEO ONLINE See our interview with Samantha Kidd telegraph.co.uk/telegraphtv
He got together with Samantha in 2007. They were married last year and live in Seaford, East Sussex. Sam says the marathon was his idea. The couple were at the Children with Cancer UK’s summer party in Battersea Park two years ago when Eddie suddenly announced, “I’m going to walk the London Marathon for them.” (Eddie O’Gorman, the charity’s founder, and a close friend, had two children who have died from cancer.) Sam thought he was joking, but when she realised he was serious, the couple set about raising £2,000 for the walking frame, which was designed by Eddie’s former motorbike mechanic and nicknamed
&O]N NOM@NNAPG <I? DO]N ODMDIB &O]N EPNO <H<UDIB OC<O C@]N BJO NJ HP>C >JPM<B@
Ellma – Eddie’s Lovely London Marathon Aid. The marathon routine involves Sam and a carer (three work on a shift system) getting Eddie up, washed and dressed. They give him vitamins and a protein shake and then at 9am he starts walking. He rests every 300 yards or so and walks until lunchtime (pasta), after which he is normally so tired he has a nap in the Winnebago (also donated). Then it’s more walking. To watch him struggle so hard to cover so little ground is shocking. On a good day he can walk a mile; often it’s far less. “He’s taken on probably the biggest challenge of his life,” says Samantha, “It’s stressful, it’s tiring. He is pushing his body to the limit. It’s just amazing that he’s got so much courage.” The beginning of the Marathon was a trial for Eddie. He lined up with all the other celebrities, but then had to wait two hours while everyone else ran ahead. “So he didn’t get in anyone’s way or create any accidents,” Sam says. “He was saying, ‘Rub down my legs! Stretch out my legs!’ He just wanted to go.” Eddie says he is inspired by the sick children: “The more I do, the more lives I save.” His target was £50,000 but he’s already raised £43,000, so this has been increased to £100,000. “That’s Eddie all over, he always wants to go one better,” says his wife. Eddie Kidd, who grew up in Islington, north London, had his life changed by a trip to the cinema. “He saw this film about Evel Knievel and that night said to his dad, ‘I’m going to be the best stunt man in the world’, and his dad said, ‘Yeah, yeah, go back to bed’,” says Sam. But his father encouraged him to join a motorcycle stunt group and by 15, Eddie was jumping over double-decker buses. His love for his father, who was a boxer and delivery man, runs deep. He fondly recalls the good-humoured response when at the end of one particular stunt he
crashed into his dad and broke his collar-bone. “His dad said, ‘Son, don’t crash again.’” And he never did, says Sam. “Even the accident wasn’t a crash. I correct people all the time about that.” She adds: “His father was very instrumental in helping Eddie fight back after the accident and not give up.” He still gets depressed, however, especially in the winter when it’s harder for him to channel his energy into charitable events. “Charitable work keeps him going.” His father died 10 years ago and Samantha says Eddie has only just stopped crying. She first met Eddie in a restaurant when she was 18, and he was in his twenties, modelling for Levi’s. “He was just a very beautiful, handsome man, very funny, very witty, very sexy – he was the love of my life.” They had a brief romance. But Eddie’s heart was elsewhere. Then they met again at a friend’s 50th birthday party. He asked her to marry him six weeks later. “I’d never got over him.” But life is hard. His routine is no longer hob-nobbing as a double with Hollywood stars such as Roger Moore, Michael Caine and Pierce Brosnan. Instead it’s coping with wheelchairs, pills, complications from bladder paralysis, social services. “He had no insurance and his money ran out an awfully long time ago,” she says. The couple live off benefits in a rented bungalow. Eddie had to sell one of his bikes to pay for speech therapy. “He was really upset. He wanted it to go to a museum so he could be remembered for what he did. But it was bought by a private collector.” He used to qualify for 24-hour care – “he can’t even turn himself over in bed” – but that is about to be cut back to 14 hours a day. “I will never get a good night’s sleep again,” she says. But for now the couple are focused on crossing the finishing line at Buckingham Palace on June 1 or 2. Eddie says when he walks down the Mall, he’ll be wearing a Kidd tartan kilt in memory of his dad. “We’ll spray him with some champagne like they do at the grand prix,” says Samantha, “because this is Eddie’s grand prix.” And with that Eddie gathers himself and begins the huge effort of taking another stride. To donate, visit virgin moneygiving.com/eddiekidd
real life SPY
DISABLED FORMER STUNT MAN
EdDie kidd
finishes his greatest feat — the london marathon
photos: ALPHAPRESS. EXPRESS SYNDICATION. GETTYIMAGES
ddie Kidd is as careful about what he eats and drinks now as E he was in his days as one of the
world’s greatest stunt riders. But he allowed himself a large glass of champagne as he celebrated the greatest achievement of his life -completing the London Marathon after a mammoth 46 days. “This has been the hardest chal lenge I’ve ever taken on and I’m so proud to have completed it,” Eddie tells hello! as he sips bubbly just moments after finishing the race on London’s Mall. “Now it’s on to the next challenge – Mount Everest!” You wouldn’t put it past him either. For the former movie stunt man, who used to work alongside the likes of Harrison Ford and Sir Michael Caine, refuses to be beaten, defying medical advice to complete the marathon. To get round the 26-mile course, Eddie, who was left brain damaged and paralysed after a motorcycle stunt went wrong 15 years ago, used a custom-built, three-wheeled tricycle called Elmer. He walked in 20-minute bursts, from 6.30 in the morning until 8.30 at night, with an hour for lunch. On a good day, the 51-year-old would travel as far as three-quarters of a mile before retiring to his speciallyadapted motor home. By the time Eddie crossed the finishing line, he had raised more than £75,000 for the charities Children With Cancer UK and The Eddie Kidd Foundation. The final moments brought whoops of joy from the hundreds of people who had turned up to see him, including long-time friends Ray Winstone, The Bill’s Graham Cole and former EastEnders star John Altman. Eddie even managed to walk the final few steps unaided and, with tears in his eyes, uttered the words “Unbelievable” and “Wicked,” before taking a well-earned rest in his wheelchair. “Ray and I walked with him for some of the marathon and the res ponse he got from people was amazing,” says John. “There were people chucking notes down from tenement blocks – and I mean five and ten-pound notes, not empty bits of paper – so affected were they by his bravery.” With him virtually all the way round was Eddie’s wife, actress and former model Samantha Kirli. But she admits she had grave reservations about him taking part. “He’s an incredible man who has fought back from the most serious adversity but I thought this was a challenge too far,” recalls the 42-year-old. “There was a point,
during his training, when he was getting up at dawn, drinking a glass of carrot juice, walking on his frame along Brighton seafront and then putting in hour after hour at the gym. Frankly, he looked exhausted. I thought, ‘My poor baby, you shouldn’t be putting yourself through this!’ “But Eddie was determined from the start and the more I said, ‘Don’t do it’, the more he resolved to complete those 26 miles!” Samantha, who will celebrate a year of marriage to Eddie at the end of July with a party in Brighton, where the couple live, admits her h u s b a n d ’s d e t e r m i n a t i o n t o complete the race put a strain on their relationship. “We argued all the way and really tested the boundaries of our relationship,” she says. “But, in the end, what he’s done has brought us closer together, closer than we’ve ever been before.” DETERMINED TO SUCCEED Eddie is taking time to recuperate before planning the next stage of his life. “The next challenge,” says Samantha, “will be to get him talking properly, to give him back his independence by allowing him to converse with people.” The still-handsome former biker is also co-writing a trilogy of inspirational children’s books entitled Utopia, with a main character called Kidd Finn! Both those challenges will require a lot of sitting and close concentration, so Eddie is deter mined to do something outdoors. “Which is why I want to climb Mount Everest,” he grins. Samantha rolls her eyes at the thought of him taking on a challenge which would defeat most able-bodied people, never mind someone who spent 40 days in a coma and was left brain damaged and paralysed, barely able to speak, after a stunt at the Bulldog Bash Rally in Warwickshire in 1996 ended up with him crashing into an embankment on landing. “The guy never gives up and has this steely determination to succeed, which is one of the many reasons I love and admire him so much,” says Samantha. “And if Eddie says he is going to take on Everest, then we’ll do what we can to make it happen. “And I’d be with him every step of the way. I’d follow that man H to the ends of the Earth.” Find out more about Eddie’s fundraising at eddiekiddfoundation.com. Part of the money he raised will go to Children With Cancer UK childrenwithcancer.org.uk REPORT: TIM OGLETHORPE
Eddie approaches the end of the London Marathon cheered on by pals Ray Winstone (left) and Graham Cole. Below: starting the race, 46 days earlier, with wife Samantha. Bottom: the daredevil stuntman leaps 80ft across the River Chelmer, in Essex, for the film Heavy Metal. Eddie’s career ended in 1996, when he landed badly after a stunt and was left with brain damage
‘This has been the hardest challenge I’ve ever taken on… Now it’s on to Mount Everest!’
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▲ Lightning flashes around the ash plume above the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcano chain in Chile. The plume spread ash over six miles and even into neighbouring Argentina
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▲ Alex Fletcher and Jess Fox are joined on the Hollyoaks set by a raptor, one of 13 animatronic dinosaurs in a new exhibition at Chester Zoo
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▲ Former stunt rider Eddie Kidd – with Linda Robson, Graham Cole and Michael Watson – celebrates after completing the London Marathon nearly two months after starting it
t Sir Richard Branson unveils the Virgin Active London Triathlon Celebrity Team of Mealnie Chisholm, Stacey Solomon, Sam Attwater and Chloe Madeley
t David Hasselhoff appeared in Covent Garden after being turned into an ice lolly by Del Monte Smoothies. David was named the smoothest TV star of 2011
t Chantelle Houghton calls for a ban on wild animals in circuses at College Green, Westminster
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Sussex Express N, Friday, June 10, 2011
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www.sussexexpress.co.uk STA social events start up again SEAFORD Twinning Association are now resuming their monthly social events. Members welcome anyone interested to join them for these Saturday events. On Saturday June 18 there is bingo with a fish and chips evening. It starts at 7.30pm (doors open at 7pm) in 37 Church Street in the council chamber. Admission costs £1 bingo cards are £1.50 a book and fish and chips costs £3.50. To book the meal ring Garry on 01323 491317 in advance of the day. There will also be the STA raffle and donations of prizes are welcome. The annual general meeting of STA is at 7.30pm on Wednesday June 29 at 37 Church Street, with an American Buffet (bring and share buffet), and is open and free to all.
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Eddie Kidd finishes the London Marathon n by SAMANTHA CLARK samantha.clark@sussexnewspapers.co.uk
FEARLESS former stuntman Eddie Kidd, who suffered a brain injury during a motorbike crash, has completed the London Marathon.
It took him 43 days to finish the 26 mile course using a special frame to help him walk – the accident left him paralysed in 1996. His website said he had raised almost £80,000 for Children with Leukaemia and the Eddie Kidd Foundation. Eddie, 51, who lives in Seaford, said: “I would also like to thank all my fam-
ily, friends and fans, and Emma Andrews from The Business Promoter, for all her hard work with the media coverage. My biggest thanks goes to my beloved wife Sam, thank you for believing in me.” Crowds of supporters cheered him on as he walked his last steps with the help of his wife Sam and celebrity pals Ray Winstone and former The Bill actor Graham Cole. Eddie was joined along the route by celebrity friends including comedians Bobby Davro and Joe Pasquale, as well as ex EastEnders star John Altman. Former boxer Michael Watson, who suffered horrific injuries in the ring, presented Eddie with his finisher’s medal when he finally crossed the
line. Watson, who was in a coma for 40 days after a fight with Chris Eubank in 1991, completed the marathon in seven days in 2003. Former British record holder Eddie spent the last 15 years confined to a wheelchair following a tragic motorcycle jump accident back in 1996. This accident left him feared dead and he lay in a coma for several months. When he woke up from the coma, he was left with a brain injury which restricted his speech and movement. When asked what his next plans were, Eddie quipped: “Mount Everest but first I’m co-writing my children’s book, with author, Emma Andrews called Utopia and the main character is Kidd Finn - watch this space.”
Children with Leukaemia researches and treats childhood leukaemia, helps children with the illness and their families. The Eddie Kidd Foundation supports the treatment and rehabilitation of stunt performers and professional extreme sportsmen and women. Fourteen times World Champion, stunt double to a stream of Hollywood A listers, he spent more than a year training, with the devotion of personal trainer Matt of Riptide in Brighton and learned to walk again in a special custom made frame. To find out more and to sponsor Eddie visit www.eddiekidd.co.uk. Photo provided courtes of www. mobisphotos.co.uk – charity event professional photography.
Eddie Kidd with his wife Sam and actor John Altman
Tennis club open day A FREE open day will be staged at Seaford Tennis Club where anyone can give the sport a try. The event is on Sunday June 19 in Belgrave Road from 10am to 4pm. It is open to both adults and juniors. Attractions include free coaching, ball machine, short tennis, speed gun, games and more. If anyone signs up as a new member on the day they can get a discount on membership. For further details contact Steve Williams chairman on 01323 492662.
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Town council holds surgery PEACEHAVEN Town Council will hold its monthly town council surgery this Saturday (June 11) from 10am to 11am at Community House, in the Meridian Centre, Peacehaven. Town, district and county councillors will be on hand to answer residents’ queries relating to town matters. No appointment is required.
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Fiery show to illuminate town and harbour A SPECTACULAR outdoor performance with music, daredevil aerial feats and fireworks will transform Newhaven Harbour into a fire lit, maritime wonderland for night this summer. Newhaven Cormorant! is a collaboration between Brighton creative producers Zap Art and celebrated French street arts company Generik Vapeur. The free event on July 16 will feature fire boats, floating sculptures, choirs and performers and a breathtaking finale taking the performance right out into the harbour.
Dave Reeves from Zap Art said: “Newhaven Cormorant! will turn Newhaven Harbour into a stage for one night, using performance and pyrotechnics on land and sea to create something magical. “The scale of the event is huge – it will be accessible to everyone and a wonderful show for families.” Newhaven Cormorant! is the second part of a project with Zap Art and Generik Vapeur, as part of the European project ZEPA, or European Zone of Artistic Projects. The first event Photo Communale saw
Generik Vapeur bring a giant roaming camera to Newhaven, photographing the town and the people. The resulting images will be used as part of Newhaven Cormorant. The event will feature international and local participants, as Zap Art and Generik Vapeur have been working with artists, community groups and educational organisations. Newhaven Cormorant! is free and takes place in Newhaven town centre and Newhaven Harbour on July 16, 2011 from 8.30pm to around 11.30pm.
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