Woman's Hour - Cycling in lockdown; Breast cancer; Expert online masterclasses; Shelley Klein

Episode Date: May 14, 2020

Cycling is seeing a huge increase in popularity thanks to people avoiding public transport and wanting to get some exercise. In today’s Woman’s Hour Corona Diaries, Krysia Williams talks about the beauty of cycling in lockdown, and how the Bristol Bike Project – where she works – has been supporting key workers in moving around the city. Every year, 55,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer - and 18,000 of those come from screening. Since lockdown there’s been a 70% drop in GP referrals, according to data from Prevent Breast Cancer. Jenni talks to Lester Barr, consultant breast surgeon and founder and chairman of the Prevent Breast Cancer charity, about why early diagnosis is so important and what women should be doing at the moment if they’re worried. Shelley Klein grew up in the Scottish Borders in a house designed on a modernist open-plan grid; with colourful glass panels set against a forest of trees. Years later Shelley returns to look after her father, Bernat Klein, an uncompromising and ground breaking textile designer who is now in his eighties.. Shelley joins Jenni to talk about intense father daughter relationships, her deep attachment to the house and surrounding landscape and the challenges of returning home to care for an elderly relative. Reported cases of domestic violence in Russia have more than doubled during the country’s coronavirus lockdown, according to the Russian human rights commissioner, She said in a statement last week that complaints and reports made to Russian non-governmental organisations spiked from roughly 6,000 in March to more than 13,000 in April, It’s in stark contrast to what Russian police are saying. Jenni talks to the BBC Russian's women's affairs reporter Nina Nazarova.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. I'm Natalia Melman-Petrozzella, and from the BBC, this is Extreme Peak Danger. The most beautiful mountain in the world. If you die on the mountain, you stay on the mountain. This is the story of what happened when 11 climbers died on one of the world's deadliest mountains, K2, and of the risks we'll take to feel truly alive. If I tell all the details, you won't believe it anymore. Extreme, peak danger. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

BBC Sounds. Music, radio, podcasts. Hello, Jenny Murray welcoming you to the Woman's Hour podcast for Thursday the 14th of May. Good morning. In today's programme, the online masterclass. What can you learn from an expert like Margaret Atwood on fiction or the ballerina Tamara Rojo that you wouldn't get from an ordinary course taught by a tutor. The see-through house, Shelley Klein's story of going to her father to take care of him and struggling with his rather uncompromising

ideas about what did and what did not belong in his immaculate home. We meet Katie in Gdansk who's making masks at home. Today's Woman's Hour Corona Diarist is Krisha Williams from the Bristol Bike Project and domestic violence in Russia. Women's rights campaigners say cases have more than doubled. The police say they've fallen. Why the discrepancy and why is it being treated as a family matter now as you may have heard in the today program this morning concerns are being expressed by nhs providers and concerned charities that the nhs can't deliver all that is now being asked of it because of the coronavirus breast cancer is proving to be of particular concern. Every year some 55,000 women are diagnosed and 18,000 of those are discovered as a result of screening. But the

NHS screening programme has been suspended and the charity Prevent Breast Cancer says there's been a 70% drop in GP referrals since lockdown began. Lester Barr is the founder of the charity and a consultant breast surgeon. Lester, how concerned are you about these figures? Yes, well, there was indeed a dramatic drop in referrals as soon as lockdown was announced. We think because people were fearful of going to their GP and certainly fearful of coming to hospital where they might pick up the virus. And as a result of that, hundreds of breast cancers each week that would normally have been diagnosed are not being diagnosed and we're at a

point now where it's important that we get all those women whose cancers have not yet been picked up into our breast clinics so that we can catch up on that backlog of cancers not yet diagnosed. Is this a problem caused by the suspension of the screening program or is it primarily because women are actually too frightened to even go to their GP? I think it's a bit of both. The message I think though is that the NHS is back in business as far as possible. Breast clinics are as safe as they can be. They're generally manned by a specialist team who are not treating COVID patients. The staff are now wearing PPE, there's social distancing, there's hand sanitiser on the way in and the way out, the equipment's being cleaned

in between uses. So it is actually very unlikely now that you will pick up any virus if you come to a breast clinic. And so I would urge women to not be afraid, not to be fearful, to check the symptoms and to contact their GP, come back into the NHS breast clinic system so that we try to catch up now on the cases that have not been coming forward. Just remind us of what sort of symptoms we should be looking for. Well, the common symptom, of course, is finding a lump. But there are other symptoms such as unexplained nipple inversion or bleeding from a nipple, indentation of the skin of the breast, a lump under in March and you've not come forward yet to have it checked out, reassuringly, a delay of perhaps two months or even three months doesn't seem to actually matter a great deal in most cases,

because the outlook, the prognosis seems to be unchanged. Our concern, though, is that there are maybe women who are delaying coming forward. They're planning not to come for maybe four months, five months, six months. And that sort of delay does mean that a small lump becomes a big lump. A small operation becomes a big operation. More treatment's needed. the outcome is less certain. So I think the message I want to get across is that it is really important to not be fearful, to come forward, get things sorted, and you'll be really very well looked after. So go to your GP, get a referral. If you then do come to the breast cancer special unit and it is peak. The NHS is now beginning to get back into action for normal things. And a priority has been getting breast clinics back up and

running again. So breast clinics are open for business. And we should have the capacity to deal with you, deal with you well, and they're as safe as they can be. So I think the message is contact your GP. They may not see you in person, but they can still over the phone talk to you about your symptom and arrange an urgent referral. And you should be seen within a couple of weeks of having that phone call with your GP. So you don't necessarily have to risk going into the GP if you're scared of Covid symptoms? No I think we're finding that many GPs are happy to make that assessment on the phone and then arrange a referral to the breast clinic without having to go to the GP surgery and then when you get to the hospital as I say we'll try and make things as safe for you as

possible. Lester Barr thank you very much indeed for joining us this morning and of course if you have worries about this do let us know and we will make sure that there are advice items on the Women's Hour website. Now lockdown has seen an explosion in the number of people signing up to online courses from baking bread to painting to learning a musical instrument but a number of these tutorials are being led by expert practitioners in their field. Margaret Atwood will teach you how to write fiction. Kitchen Quarantine lets you cook every day with the chef Massimo Bottura from his kitchen in Modena, Italy.

Or you can learn the guitar with the folk singer Laura Marling. But what do the experts offer that other online courses can't? Well, we're joined by the journalist Helen Bosway and by English National Ballet's Artistic Director and Lead Principal Dancer Tamara Rojo. She's been teaching ballet classes online.

Here she is at work. Tamara, thank you very much for joining us this morning. Why did you decide to set up these classes, which sound to me pretty advanced? They are advanced. I agree on that. And they were two main motivators for me. One was the fact that the dancers of the company were going into lockdown straight away, literally from Friday to Monday. And I was worried. We didn't know for how long.

We didn't know how much time we would have to return to performance shape. And so I wanted to continue to give them access to the everyday training that they need to just keep the bare minimum, which is ballet class. But ballet class is more than training for a dancer. It's also a psychological support. It's the one moment of caring for themselves in the day before they face rehearsal. It's a lot more. It's a community group thing. So I was trying to give them still something to hold on to during this time.

But of course, I also am very aware of the company's vision that what we want to do is to share it with the world. We want to share the best that we do with the world. So your classes are not for beginners. What others is English National Ballet offering for people who might not be so experienced? Yes, so we're offering beginners classes. We're also offering dance classes for those that have moving impediments. We have a very long lasting program for Parkinson's. So we have a lot of experience in teaching ballet for people that have

limitations of movement. So we're continuing to provide those from home. And we're also doing a Wednesday watch party where we share pieces of our performances that have been recorded for archives. So they were not recorded to share, but we're sharing them for a limited period of time to give people something to see, something to raise their spirits and to give the fans of ballet at least a once a week opportunity to see what they like. How are you managing to do the courses without charging people?

Well, this is for now what we can do. I mean, almost 90% of our workforce is furloughed, which is also why it's down to me to teach because everybody else is furloughed. But so for now, we are able to do this for free, but we are also aware that this cannot continue forever and that, you know, other people that make a living from teaching need to be able to charge. And so we will only do it for for a period of time until we we are able to to have a different plan. We're coming back into the studios.

And then it's right that once it's safe for everybody to go back into the studios, then people need to return to their teachers and their companies. Tamara Rojo, thank you very much indeed. Helen, if I can bring you in here. What expert courses have caught your eye? Well, yesterday night I signed up to Hayne's dance class, which is on Zoom. They're going to be doing that every Sunday. They did their first one last week.

So that's the band Hayne. They did their first one last week and it was hosted by Face magazine. And that just seemed really fun. I've also sat in on some writing workshops with the author and poet Rupi Kaur. One that's been on my radar for a couple of years now is the Masterclass series. I get adverts from them up on my Instagram feed regularly. I've dropped hints to my husband and my son to buy me a year's pass,

and as yet that hasn't come to fruition. So the idea that Anna Wintour, who, you know, as a magazine person, you can get classes from her on leadership is amazing. Margaret Atwood, Annie Leibovitz, Shonda Rhimes, that kind of thing. It's amazing to me. From a fitness point of view, there's a yoga channel called Yoga with Adrienne. She's based in America. She's absolutely fabulous.

My son did her classes and learned how to do a headstand. She's just absolutely wonderful. And whether you're a beginner or you're advanced, it's a safe, good way of learning yoga. So Helen, what do experts offer that ordinary courses taught by tutors can't? I think it's a sense of familiarity is the first thing. You know the person, you understand them, they have some sort of shiny thing that you're attracted to. So I think that's the first thing. And obviously they're passionate and they've succeeded. So that's a good thing. And I think if you imagine a lot of people going into this haven't used their learning muscles for quite a while. So it's really good to maybe be taught by someone that you immediately feel engaged and energized by. I think there's also the fact that I watched some of Tamara's video footage knowing that I was coming onto the show and you're just blown away by it and the fact

that someone who has that level of skill is prepared to share it with you. It's quite awe-inspiring. I looked at some of the feedback that had come through from her classes, and I'll just read a couple. There was someone who said, tuning in and following along from upstate South Carolina. Tamara's class is of an honour. Thank you with my whole heart. You're keeping me going physically and mentally.

And then someone else, Anna Deming, had written, toddler in bed and a couple of hours off, catching up on work to treat myself to a class with the English National Ballet. Thank you for sharing. So I think that in these extraordinary times, and I think Tamara alluded to it as well, that a lot of the free things that people are doing aren't going to last forever. But there's a sense of generosity or sharing and when you're out on your own to be able to say a face that you know a voice that you know someone that you admire teaching you how to do kick-ups in the garden teaching you how to keep yourself fit it motivates you a little bit more to do something and try something. Helen I know some of the experts are

pretty open about not necessarily having had training. Like Laura Marling, the folk singer, let's hear from her. I'm not actually a trained musician, so I don't know the names of the chords. I call this one, the beginning one, a four shape because it looks like a four. So I'm going to teach you the way to play the song but also I think what's more interesting is how you use the shapes in this tuning because this is the you know I've looked at love from both sides now from up and down and still somehow it's life's illusions that I recall I really don't know life at all slightly not the right key for me but so many great songs were written in this tuning

Helen what's the best way to work out the quality of a course? I think you have to start with thinking about what you want to get from it. So there has been an exponential increase in people signing up for courses. I think that there's a statistic from the World Economic Forum that says that spending has gone from 18.66 billion in 2019 and is predicted to go to 250 billion in 2025. Lots of established organisations that run these things have said that their uptake has been huge over the period of COVID. But I think that before you part with your cash, you need to stop and think. I, for example, when I say that I want to do the masterclass, it's £170 for a year's access, which is phenomenal. But looking at some of the feedback on it,

you have to be prepared to say, OK, I am going to commit some time to doing this over a period of time. If you're not sure about that, maybe first of all start by trying something for free and checking because a lot of classes, so for example on Coursera, they'll offer free courses for 14 days so you can test it and see, do I like this? Do I feel into this?

Do I feel I can give the time to this before you actually sign up and then part with your money? That's good sense. Helen Busway, thank you very much indeed. And Tamara Rojo, thank you. You must have been delighted to hear how much people are loving what you're doing. And we'd like to hear from you. If you've taken up any of these masterclasses with experts, do send us an email or a text. We'd love to know what you're up to.

Now, Shelley Cline is a writer who grew up in the Scottish Borders in a house designed on a modernist open plan grid with colourful glass panels set against a forest of trees. It was called High Sunderland and it was rather like living in a work of art. After her mother died, she went back to her childhood home to take care of her father, who was now in his 80s. Bernhard Klein was a brilliant textile designer who, as she describes in her book The See-Through House,

her nickname for the building, was pretty uncompromising about what should and what should not have a place in the interior. Here she describes his response when she brought in six little pots of herbs and began to arrange them on the kitchen windowsill. Berry appeared at my shoulder. Berry, would you mind putting those somewhere else? Shelley, why? They look nice here.

Berry, why don't you put them in your bedroom, if you wouldn't mind? Shelley, but they're herbs. They're for cooking with. Barry, they'd be better off in your bedroom. Shelley, I'm not trotting through to the bedroom every time I need a bit of time. Barry, suddenly you can't walk a little? Shelley, irritated. What have you got against herbs? Berry, they're messy. Shelley, they're plants.

Berry, they're messy plants, except for the chives. Shelley, and the chives have what going for them that the others haven't? Berry, they're vertical. Shelley, through gritted teeth. All plants are vertical. Berry, but some are. Shelley, through gritted teeth. All plants are vertical. Berry, but some are more vertical than others. Shelley, you're joking, right? Berry, they spoil the line of the house.

Shelley, the what? Berry, patiently, as if explaining something to an imbecile. The line of the house. And that was that. I knew immediately there was no point continuing to fight the Herb's Corner, or, in this case, Windowsill. Shelley, why was he so pernickety about the line of the house? I think probably because, you know, in a modernist house or in that type of building, anything that isn't sort of square on does look sort of out of place. And that made

him extremely uncomfortable. We've heard his response to the herb pots that you tried to bring in. What did he make of your furniture when you started bringing your furniture in? Yes, well, I had a few pieces of sort of Victorian furniture. And I did feel as though I was almost smuggling it into the house as contraband because he really didn't approve of that. You know, he would like it in its own sort of environment, but in his house, in this modernist structure, again, he found it deeply distressing. What was it like to live there as a child in something you describe as a work of art? I loved it as a child. It had the open plan nature of it meant I could sort of see

or be close to my mother, my father, you know, all the time. And and if i wasn't if i couldn't see them i could i could hear them i love the fact that the outside it was an inside out house so the outside came in and um i think that really put me in touch with nature i've always had a deep affinity for the natural world so there were there were amazing qualities to this house that influenced my childhood and then as I grew older in my teenage years it it caused quite a few problems because I think as I say in the book, for instance, my bedroom door, well, there wasn't a bedroom door. And I wanted that privacy, as all teenagers do. And I wanted something I could slam when I was in a bad mood.

Yeah. How did your mother cope with your father's extreme tidiness and determination that everything should look just the way he wanted it um well she she adored the house and she adored my father so uh that helped um but she wasn't rather like me she wasn't the tidiest of people and um she had we we called them mum's cupboards. And in mum's cupboards, it was just a matter of just stuffing everything in. And they were treasure troves to me as a child because they were this jumble of stuff. But they, you know, it wasn't how my father enjoyed a cupboard. All his were extremely neat. You describe him as the kindest, most generous man, but also one of the most difficult. How did it fall to you to go home and care for him

after your mother died, knowing that he could be so difficult? Well, I knew for a fact that none of us, there's a brother and sister, Gillian and Jonathan, who we all agreed that we couldn't sort of expect Barry to move away from this house because he was so attached to it. I am freelance. I don't have a family. So it sort of naturally fell to me to go back and look after him. But we muddled along in our own strange way. I do feel that there is still, however many advances there are, you know, for women these days,

I did feel a little bit like the Victorian spinster who was expected to go back to care for her father. But on the other hand, it was also a privilege. How difficult actually was he as he got older and more needy? Do you know, I think actually he got easier the older he got. He, a lot of the things that he would never have allowed when I was a child, he's sort of softened slightly. So in that respect, he was a much easier person to live with. He allowed me to have a dog, for instance, although actually it wasn't much of a choice. I didn't give him a choice. But as a child, I would have had to have, you know, begged and pleaded and signed contracts and all sorts to have an animal. Whereas he was he was a much gentler man as he grew older.

Why did you continue to live there for four years after your father died? Hmm. I think it was it was just a process. I mean, like my father, I was very attached to the house. And it was another process of grieving. It kept both my parents alive for me being there. And I didn't want to hurry at all to move on. And fortunately, my brother and sister were very kind and told me to take my time, and I did. You say at one point in the book that you were hefted to the house.

I think that's the term that they use in the Lake District about sheep on a hill farm, that they are hefted to the house I think that's the term that they use in the lake district about sheep on a hill farm that they are hefted to that area why do you use that term? Because it perfectly described how I felt about not only the house but about the landscape around the book and the Scottish borders in general I do feel hefted to both of those things in that it is in my blood, it's sort of part of me. And that's what the word heft means, that sheep who have lived in the hills for generations kind of know the landscape in their very being. So if you sell a farm with this type of sheep on it, you usually sell the sheep with the farm.

Obviously, I couldn't sell the house with me in it, but I do feel as though that's where I belong. Shelley Klein, thank you very much indeed for being with us this morning. And the book is called The See-Through House. Thank you. Now still to come in today's programme, domestic violence in Russia. As the number of cases has doubled during the lockdown, why are the police saying the numbers have fallen? And why is it considered a family matter? And today's Woman's Hour Corona Diarist is Krisha Williams of the Bristol Bike Project. And the UK government has now said face coverings should be worn on public transport

and there's advice on how to wear and make a cloth face covering on the Government UK website. We've been talking to women around the world who've dragged out their sewing machines to make masks. Kedi is from Chechnya and she now lives in Gdańsk in Poland. With the help of her translator Maria Margaronis spoke to her and to fellow mask makers including a Polish psychologist. My name is Hedy Alieva and I am a refugee from Chechnya. I have been living in Gdańsk for a couple of years. I started making the masks to slow down death. I run after my husband was killed. I know the price of life. When I first heard about coronavirus in Italy, it gave me an idea that we can find our own way to fight it. That's why I talked to my sister and also my friend, Dr. Dorota Jaworska

from Gdańsk University. I am a psychologist at Gdańsk University. One month ago, Hedy and her sister and me, we were conducting the sewing workshop for refugees in Warsaw. When Hedy and Amina realized that the epidemic situation was so serious, they immediately decided we will sew protective masks day and night. And they immediately organized a real tailor workshop in a clothed school, which the headmistress agreed to share for us. This is quite a new skill for me.

I was already 42 when I first learned. I was crying, but learning. The needs are great because the Polish authority didn't prepare enough masks, even for hospitals, even for specialistic hospitals. Hedy said we saw war and death and we don't want our Polish friends to die. I keep talking to people wherever I meet them, in shops, in the streets, trying to convince them to wear masks. And I also add, you have to stay among the living ones.

When these women came to Gdańsk and our major, he asked them, what is the most important in life? And Hedi answered, just life. As a Muslim, I cannot express the fact that I want to love, that I have a desire for men, for sexual life. And so this is my way, yes? I saw, I dance, I cook. And this is my expression of how much I love life. And Hedy was talking to Maria Magaronis. Russia's Human Rights Commissioner said in a recent statement that reported cases of domestic violence have more than doubled since the coronavirus lockdown. Complaints made to non-governmental organisations showed a rise from roughly 6,000 in March to more than 13,000 in April. But the police are saying there's been a fall of 13% in the number of domestic crimes during the lockdown compared to the same period last year.

Why is there such a discrepancy? Well, Nina Nazarova is BBC Russia's women's affairs reporter. Nina, why is there such a stark difference in the figures? Hello. There is indeed a stark difference in the figures. And surprisingly, it makes perfect sense because abuse victims in Russia don't really tend to go to police because the police is probably the last place for them to go as they don't have any real legal mechanisms or willingness to help them. But why? Where does the law stand on domestic violence in Russia? Why are the police not approachable?

So there is no special law against domestic violence in Russia. And by current law, let's say if a man beats his partner for the first time and not badly enough to put a woman in hospital.

So he just gets, in best case scenarios, he gets a fine of, I think it's approximately 55 pounds. And fines don't stop violence. So in this case, it's like a cage 22. So the police chiefs say they don't see the need to improve the laws because the number of cases are very low. And people just don't go to the police because they don't expect them to help.

So that's why the statistic is so low. So obviously the figures are coming from women's organizations, from non-governmental organizations. And what help is there for victims who do seek help from those kind of people well there are ngos and there are some shelters in various parts of russia and that's probably the the help that women can get and for instance in late march i interviewed a woman who i identify as maria in my story and her husband attacked her right after the first President Putin's address to the nation

when Putin declared a national lockdown. And according to Maria, her husband got so stressed because he was so afraid of economic consequences for him personally and his family that he basically went berserk, trashed their house, their apartment, and beaten Maria for the first time ever. And Maria was lucky because she managed to escape with her two children and they went to a shelter in a Moscow suburb. So that's kind of a happy ending

because she's not in danger anymore. But this particular shelter, for instance, has only nine places for women with children. And Maria and her children occupy already three of them. It means like only six places were vacant for other victims. Now, we know that governments across the world seem to be finally acknowledging this problem. I heard one former police officer in the UK on the Today programme this morning

describe domestic violence as the other pandemic. What are the Russian authorities doing? Well, there is an initiative group in Russia, including a member of parliament, Ksana Pushkina, and other lawyers and activists and NGOs who campaign for specific domestic abuse law. But I don't think that there is a strong political will to change things for now. The good news is that the awareness is rising and for instance there was a very good case of awareness rising during the lockdown

recently when TV star Regina Todorenko she made she's a very popular TV star and she was awarded a title of woman of the Year in the Glamour magazine recently. And she made some very rude, victim-blaming remarks in one of her public speeches. And the public outcry was so great, so the public was so furious with these remarks,

that Glamour magazine took away the title, and then this TV star took her time to look into the problem and she made a documentary, she made a lot of excuses and she actually donated a lot of money to an NGO helping to fight domestic abuse. So the things are changing, but probably it will take a few more years to introduce the law and to change them forever. Nina Nazarova, thank you very much indeed for joining us this morning. Now, you may well have noticed there are lots more cyclists on the road than you've ever seen before. It's partly people finding it's a good way to get some exercise, but increasingly, I think, as more of us are given the okay

to go back to work. It's a perfect way to travel without having to risk public transport. Well, in today's Woman's Hour Lockdown Diary, Chrystia Williams joins us to sing the praises of the bike. She works at the Bristol Bike Project.

Chrystia, what made you so passionate about bikes um hi jenny yeah thanks for having me on um i guess my passion about bikes came from and the feeling of independence that they give me and you know i've not always loved cycling i think as a kid i um i actually really hated cycling I found it scary and clunky and I found it difficult being on the road and then as I later in life I saw bikes as being a way to get around a city really quickly and I learned to fix my own bike and suddenly I felt very empowered being on my bike so I think that passion comes from my personal feeling of of independence really. And what's the idea behind the Bristol Bike Project?

So the idea is we want to make cycling accessible to everybody. So we kind of recognise that all the benefits that cycling can bring or having access to a bicycle can bring in terms of freedom of movement to be able to get around. But also the physical and the mental health benefits as well. sadly bikes aren't accessible to everybody at the moment not everyone can afford to access a bicycle so we exist to try and get bikes to as many people as possible but we also are there to try and teach skills around maintenance as well so that people feel empowered to be independent on their bikes. Why do you focus so much on understanding the mechanics of the bike? It's an interesting question. I think, you know, for me personally, as I mentioned before,

there's something about being able to fix your own bike which adds to that sense of empowerment. So, for example, if you're cycling along and you hear kind of squeaks and creaks and you're not quite sure what they are, or you think that, you know, you're not sure if your brakes are working or you get a flat tyre. If you're not able to do that work yourself or kind of understand what's going on, it can feel very disempowering. You have to ask someone else to help you or you can feel unsafe on your bike. But if you gain some of that knowledge, and it can be very simple knowledge, the basics to gain,

then it can really add to that sense of empowerment that you're not having to rely on anyone else, but that you can do that work yourself. Now, even though you say bikes can be very expensive, there are reports of bike shops actually selling out of stock at the moment. What do you reckon has been the impact of the pandemic on this um you know i think clearly what we're seeing is a lot of people are turning to bikes because um it doesn't feel safe to get on public transport at the moment we're being told not to get on public transport so a lot of people are turning to cycling and they're really feeling the benefits that they're getting from that not only just in in terms of being able to get to and from work in a way that feels safe, but also the physical and the mental health benefits that come with it. You know, I think, like you say, we're seeing lots of bike shops selling out bikes. And certainly what we're experiencing at the Bristol Bike Project is we can hardly keep up with demand.

There is a potential impact as well that isn't often talked about, which is a lot of people are going for new bikes as well and that can add to the kind of waste that we're seeing when it comes to kind of the throwaway culture that we have so one of the things that we focus on at the Bristol Bike Project is encouraging people to get bikes out of their shed that they've not used in years and whether it's for themselves or whether it's to donate to us so that we can do them for other people thinking about that huge resource that exists in second-hand bikes. You know, so many of us have got a bike that we've had in our shed for years that we've not touched.

And those things can really be brought back into our community for good use. Krisha, what advice do you give about safety? Because I have to say, I've noticed a lot of cyclists riding for abreast because there's very little traffic even though the legal limit is is too abreast what do cyclists need to know as traffic builds to keep themselves safe well i mean there's a lot of resources that you can access in terms of safe cycling and as you say the legal limit is too abreast and that is generally seen as a safe way to cycle. I mean, I think a lot of the time the focus is put on cyclists to kind of be safe. But not enough attention is given to the fact that cars also make roads feel very unsafe because of cars driving over the speed limit and driving too close to cyclists as well.

So I think we also have to think about the education that there is around what is a safe distance to pass a cyclist and that kind of thing but you know we've heard this announcement from the government about the money that's going to be invested in cycling infrastructure and really that is one of the ways that we can make cycling safe is to have the right infrastructure to have cities that are designed around active travel, so cycling and walking as well, so that there is safe space for cycling, not just in a socially distant world, but beyond the pandemic as well. I was talking to Krisha Williams. Lots of response from you to the question of getting treatment for breast cancer if you feel you have symptoms. Denise in an email said, I was diagnosed with breast cancer last year after a

routine mammogram. No signs, no symptoms. The lump was too small to be palpated. It had a core of aggressive cells which were fast growing. I was lucky to be diagnosed before COVID but have been receiving treatment throughout these last few months. The staff I've encountered on my journey have been professional and conscientious about keeping everyone safe. I would encourage every woman to take up their opportunity to have screening. My story may be very different if I had not gone to my screening appointment. Emma said in an email, I found a lump three weeks ago. I rang my GP, got an appointment straight away due to an empty surgery. I got my referral to the breast clinic within days due to a lack of patients. My outcome was good, thank God. Others should do the same.

On online learning, Sarah said on Twitter, I'm learning British Sign Language. As a stroke survivor who had speech difficulties, I've taken the opportunity. I've always wanted to learn, so in lockdown it seems a good activity. And then on cycling, Helen sent an email and said, With the 2020 aim of completing a sprint triathlon at the age of 62, I had my bike serviced just before lockdown began. I hadn't ridden it for at least three years, and even then, only locally. It's been a revelation.

In the last eight weeks, I have cycled more than 200 miles. I've discovered quiet country lanes and beautiful views. I feel fitter than ever and have just enjoyed the feeling of freedom this has given me when the rest of life has been one of restrictions. Thank you for all your comments this morning. Tomorrow, Jane will be here.

She'll be discussing how lockdown has affected relationships between the generations. And she'll consider how government messaging for the over 70s has changed. That's tomorrow, three minutes past 10 with Jane. From me for today, bye bye. I'm Sarah Trelevan, and for over a year, I've been working on one of the most complex stories I've ever covered. There was somebody out there who's faking pregnancies. I started like warning everybody.

Every doula that I know. It was fake. No pregnancy. And the deeper I dig, the more questions I unearth. How long has she been doing this? What does she have to gain from this? From CBC and the BBC World Service, The Con, Caitlin's Baby. It's a long story. Settle in. Available now.