Lawmakers and prominent social media personalities have in recent days rallied against a proposed New York City rule that some say would crack down on the city's beloved pizzerias.

A paraplegic man with polio who spent hours of his childhood in a hole in the ground in Mumbai, as his mother believed blood flow to his legs may cure the disease, and was “carried everywhere” until the age of 14, has said “you should never give up” as he defied the odds to become a professional wheelchair sportsman and father a child in his 50s. Jignesh (Jig) Vaidya, 52, who was born in Mumbai, India, but now lives in Leicester, contracted polio aged two as he was not “vaccinated at the right time” because his family could not afford it. This resulted in him being paralysed from the waist down, and he was hospitalised for at least six months at the age of four, with his legs in plaster to keep them straight. After this, Jignesh’s doctor said “there’s nothing we can do”, and since his family could not afford a wheelchair or further treatment, and his access to education was limited due to his disability, he remained at home for several years, with his mother Nirmala, now 83, “doing everything for him” – washing, feeding, changing and carrying him. Defying his difficult beginnings, Jignesh has spent his life moving across the world, becoming a professional wheelchair basketball player and enjoying a successful career, currently working as a project assistant at Maximus UK and broadcast assistant at the BBC, all before the birth of his now 20-month-old son, Jesse. He has not forgotten where his life began, however, and told PA Real Life: “As an Indian remedy, (my mother) dug a hole outside our house in the sun and put my whole body in it for six hours every day, neck down, in 30-degree heat. “She put really heavy bangles on both my legs and asked me to sit on the wall for three, four hours a day, dangling them, as she thought, ‘Jignesh will walk one day’.” Jignesh said his mother believed in Indian medication and thought the blood flow may help to cure his polio – a serious infection caused by a virus – but Jignesh described it as “hell”. From that point on, he thought, “this is going to be my life, this is it for me, it’s not going to get any better”. “I thought, ‘I’m going to be a loser – I hate to say that word – I’m not going to have any friends, and I’m going to be asking people for help all my life’,” he added. At the age of 14, Jignesh was given a wheelchair after his community rallied to raise some funds and he was finally able to go to school. He said he had to “catch up to the people who were ahead of (him)”, but he loved having some independence and no longer having to be carried by his family or others. He experienced a major setback when he moved to Dubai at 16, as he gave up his wheelchair to support another young boy with polio in Mumbai, and this left him in a dark place, mentally, as he had no “freedom”. Since then, however, he has moved to Leicester, received an “amazing education”, competed as a professional wheelchair basketball player, skydived, and fathered a son called Jesse, despite doctors saying this would not be possible. Jignesh said: “You should never give up in this life, and don’t be afraid to open up and ask for help. “Do what you’re best at and, if you work at something every day, whatever your goal is in life, you will get there. “It may take some time, maybe even years – it took me until the age of 20 to learn how to write my name in English – but I didn’t give up and look at me now.” From the age of 14, when Jignesh received his first wheelchair in Mumbai, he said he started to “flourish” and enjoyed going to school. However, he was subjected to discriminatory comments by his teachers, with one saying: “He’s handicapped, he can’t go at the front, put him in the back.” Since Jignesh’s late father Laxmikant, 66, was working in Dubai at the time, he ended up moving out there for two years at the age of 16 – but because his family could not afford to send him to school and he no longer had his wheelchair, he said he spent two years “looking out the window, watching people go by”. He said “there was nothing for (him)”, apart from a taxi ride once a month, and this significantly impacted his mental health, as he felt this had reversed all the progress he had made. “There was one point in my life, in those two years, where I was going to dark places and crying all the time,” he said. “I thought, ‘If mum’s not here, I could jump out the window and nobody will know. I can end it’, because I thought, ‘This is it, I can’t go back to what I had, I’m stuck’.” After his father earned enough money from those two years in Dubai, he and his family moved to the UK in 1988, when he was 18, and this is when everything changed. He received a new wheelchair in March 1989, aged 19, and started full-time education in September 1990, aged 20, where he learned English, maths, and how to use computers – and given he had impressive upper body strength and speed, he started playing sports as well, including wheelchair hockey and basketball. “I was a coloured person, a new arrival, couldn’t speak the language, and yet I was treated like everyone else,” he said. “I just thought, ‘Wow, I’m a part of society, I’m not being treated like a dog, like I was in Mumbai’, and if an opportunity comes in, I will take it, as there’s no going back. “When I started playing sports, I knew there and then that this is it, this is my life, this is my path.” Jignesh has since gone on to compete as a professional wheelchair basketball player internationally in places such as France, play for teams including MK Aces Wheelchair Basketball Club and Leicester Cobras, coach at the Coventry Crusaders club, skydive, and father Jesse with his partner Julie, 40, a teacher – confounding doctors. He goes to his local Nuffield Health gym every day, completing workouts and classes which have been adapted for him, and this helps to slow the progression of his polio as muscle weakness can increase over time. He “cherishes” being able to work with the “amazing” staff, including his personal trainer Matthew Molloy, in an inclusive environment where he is part of a team, supported, and everyone can “flourish”. Looking back, Jignesh realises why his mother, who he now cares for, would say, “everything happens for a reason”, and he is extremely grateful for his family’s love and support. He is excited to watch Jesse grow up, and he wants to continue encouraging disabled people to stay active, fight for their rights, and “never give up”. “I never thought that when I was in that hole, or when I was in Dubai and had nothing, that I’d be where I am today,” he said. “Sometimes, when I’m driving, I think, ‘This could be a movie; I’m going to wake up and be back in Mumbai’, so every day now, I pray and say, ‘Thank you’.” To find out more about Nuffield Health, visit: nuffieldhealth.com Read More Trypophobia: ‘Mushrooms, Beanie Babies and Doja Cat - I lived in fear for 30 years’ Lucozade addict drinks eight bottles a day and says it’s harder to quit than class-A drugs Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 19, 2023--

Meghan Trainor and her husband Daryl Sabara have welcomed their second child, a son named Barry Bruce. Trainor, 29, and Sabara, 31, shared a joint post on Instagram on Tuesday to announce the baby news. In addition to their newborn, the pair are also parents to a two-year-old son, Riley. In the caption, Trainor revealed when the baby was born and formally introduced him. “On July 1st (our seven-year anniversary of our first date) we welcomed Barry Bruce Trainor into the world,” she wrote. She went on to share that she welcomed the infant via Caesarean section before thanking her medical team for their support. “He was a big boy at 8lbs 7oz...and sideways (transverse), but we had an amazing, successful C-section, and I finally got my skin to skin time!” the “Mother” singer wrote. “Thank you to all of the incredible doctors and nurses who took such great care of us.” The Instagram post included multiple photos of the newborn with his mother and father, along with snaps of the singer in a hospital bed. In the comments, fans and celebrities celebrated the baby news, with Paris Hilton writing: “Congratulations sis! So happy for you!” “Go Mama!! And welcome to the party, Barry!! What a lucky dude!” Mandy Moore added, while Gina Rodriguez wrote: “He is perfect!!! Congrats sweet superhero mama!!!” In January, Trainor revealed that she was pregnant with her second child when she confirmed the news in an interview with People. At the time, she said she was “ just so grateful [that she could] get pregnant”. “I’m crushing it. This is amazing,” she said in a statement to the magazine at the time. “This is my dream. I’m halfway there - I want four kids!” She went on to reflect on how her second pregnancy was different from her first. “It’s like a real pregnancy,” she said. “The first one was like make-believe. I had no symptoms with Riley to the point where I was like: ‘We need to go to the doctor. There’s nothing in me.’” Since then, Trainor has also opened up about how her first experience with childbirth impacted her mental health. In April, she revealed that she struggled with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after welcoming Riley via Caesarean section. During an interview with Today, she said that after she’d had her child and returned from the hospital, there were times she felt like she was still in the delivery room. “I was like: ‘It’s so weird,’ to my therapist and my doctors,” the “Made You Look” singer recalled. “I was like: ‘It’s like I’m back in my room.’ At nighttime, when the pain would kick in. I was like: ‘Daryl, I’m still on the table, I know she’s inside me.’” Trainor said that the feeling, which went on for “months,” ultimately led to her diagnosis. “They were like: ‘So we have to work through this. That’s a sign of PTSD,’” she recalled. “And I was like: ‘Oh, I didn’t know that.’” PTSD is “a mental health condition that’s triggered by a terrifying event through either experiencing it or witnessing,” as noted by the Mayo Clinic. According to the Postpartum Support International, approximately “nine per cent of women” experience PTSD after childbirth Read More Meghan Trainor reveals the symptom that led to her postpartum PTSD diagnosis Meghan Trainor’s ‘big boy’ sex story with her husband is not what you think Meghan Trainor apologises for ‘careless’ teacher remark: ‘I’m so so sorry’ How to go sober if your partner still drinks The shared symptoms of menopause and young onset dementia Fiona Phillips Alzheimer’s diagnosis at 62: 7 ways to reduce your risk

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Just like the way our wardrobes cycle through trends with the months that pass, so too do allergies. As the year rolls on, some of us are still constantly sneezing and fighting the urge to rub our itchy, bloodshot eyes with the changing of the seasons. This reality is something that the roughly 50 million allergy sufferers in the U.S. alone know all too well. Some of them may also have noticed that, in addition to becoming someone that should probably start buying tissues wholesale, allergies can dramatically impact your skin.

Dean Gaffney has credited the medical team of ITV’s I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! for catching a sign of bowel cancer early and “saving” his life. The former EastEnders star said he underwent a medical examination in 2020 as he was being considered for an appearance on the show’s Covid-safe version at Gwrych Castle in Wales. The doctors flagged that Gaffney was "losing blood somewhere" after routine blood tests and initially thought he could have anaemia or an iron deficiency. Speaking to the Mirror, Gaffney, 45, admitted he “thought they were being a bit over the top”, but following a colonoscopy, doctors found a number of polyps in his large intestine and referred him for surgery immediately. “There is no doubt I’m A Celeb and its medical team saved my life. I might not be here today if it wasn’t for them finding what they did,” he said. Gaffney divulged that he was admitted to hospital “within hours” and was “under general anaesthetic” when “they took it out”. Recalling the moments after he woke up from the surgery, Gaffney said the doctor told him: “Had you not come to us today, in three years that could have turned to bowel cancer. You’ve been very lucky.” “I still remember his exact words,” Gaffney said. “I feel so, so lucky. It’s made me so careful about checking my stools.” Gaffney wants to raise awareness around bowel cancer, following in the footsteps of the late Dame Deborah James, who died last June of the disease. He described the Bowelbabe activist and fundraiser as “an inspiration to so many”. “I have so much respect for her fight and the awareness she raised for bowel cancer,” he said. “If I can do a small fraction of that for men, it’d make me very happy.” Detailing what the doctors had found in his large intestine, Gaffney said the polyps were “massive” and one was “20mm, which is big for a polyp”. “They didn’t mess about, they put me under general anaesthetic, operated and burned the polyps away. When I came round, I could see the doctors were slightly angry with me and it was serious,” he continued. “They didn’t mince their words and said how lucky I was it had been found now. I was stunned.” The doctors wanted to know why Gaffney had not noticed blood in his stool, to which he replied that he did not “make a habit of looking at my stools”. “Any time I’ve ever seen a bit of red I just think, maybe I’ve had peri-peri sauce,” he added. “I’m so grateful to the people on the show for bringing it to my attention. I check my stools all the time now. I’d urge others to do it too.” Read More Pierce Brosnan says he simply ‘doesn’t get angry’ Bowel cancer ‘red flags’ that can show two years before diagnosis Hairy Bikers star Dave Myers says one food has helped him return to work after cancer treatment GB News in ‘significant breach’ of Ofcom rules over Covid vaccine claims Ex-Corrie star Chris Fountain shares updates after heart surgery for ‘mini-stroke’ Bo Jackson says he will undergo procedure after year-long battle with chronic hiccups

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Fanatics Inc., the online sports-apparel giant, is offering customers up to $150 in merchandise credit if they sign