This 95-year-old jazz piano player is booked solid since placing an online advertisement asking musicians to join him for a jam session.
Edward Hardy tickled the ivories in a jazz quartet for 40 years when he was younger. When he had to go into a care home for dementia, he needed to strike up a new band.
The World War II vet placed an ad on the website Gumtree and musicians have been beating a path to his door in Wookey, England, ever since.
At least 80 musicians jumped at the chance to sit in for a set. On top of that, the other three members of his former quartet — who he hadn’t seen in 30 years — all showed up because of the ad.
This past year saw giant leaps in how we cure cancer, with breakthroughs in treating Alzheimers and preventing Ebola. These technological developments – both big and small – promise better lives in the years to come.
Here are ten of the most positive health and science breakthroughs of 2015.
1. New Cancer Treatments Can Save a President–or a Baby
Esther Hyejin Chung, CC license
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter drew attention to new advances in immunotherapy treatments when it cured his brain cancer in just four months.
Here’s how it works: The human immune system doesn’t always see cancer cells, so they can grow unchecked. Immunotherapy changes the equation, strengthening the body’s immune system to include killing cancer. Laboratories all over the world announced breakthroughs this year.
Scientists in the UK were able to inject an altered cold-sore virus into cancer cells, signaling the immune system to attack tumors — and to maintain a “memory” that created new antibodies to kill future cancer cells.
Researchers in Texas used a similar method to cause prostate cancer cells to effectively “self-destruct” by exposing themselves to a newly trained immune system. Coupled with traditional radiation treatment, it led to a 20% improvement in the number of patients surviving at least five years following treatment.
New England Journal of Medicine
Other treatments opened new fronts in the battle against cancer. Researchers in New York were stunned when a combination of two drugs used together completely dissolved a Stage IV tumor in just three weeks(pictured in the CT Scan at left).
A previously untested form of gene therapy saved a baby’s life after months of cancer treatment failed. Doctors in London transplanted special “designer immune cells” into the one-year-old girl to fight cancer. The untried process cured her leukemia in a matter of months.
2. Ebola Eradicated in Africa–Vaccine Trial Proves 100% Successful
NIH, public domain
Ebola was eradicated in Liberia by May, in Nigeria in October, and both Sierra Leone and Guinea were declared free of the disease in December.
3. New Antibiotic Could Battle Resistant “Superbugs”
The global panorama, CC license, Flickr
Scientists in Massachusetts used an electronic chip to grow microbes in their native soil, creating a new antibiotic called Teixobactin. Believed to have “evolved to be free of resistance,” it could be used to treat “superbugs” that have grown to become immune to other antibiotics.
4. Breakthrough Can Deliver Medicine to the Brain for the First Time
Allan Ajifo, CC license
Doctors in Canada broke the so-called “blood-brain barrier” for the first time. They developed a method for penetrating the protective layer of the brain to allow medicine to be delivered directly to deadly tumors through the blood stream. The breakthrough allows easier and far more effective treatment of cancer, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimers.
5. Discovery Promises New Treatments, Possible Prevention of Alzheimer’s
Australian scientists solved the puzzle of how Alzheimer’s disease destroys connections in the brain. Their discovery of a battle between two proteins opens the door for new treatments and a possible cure or prevention of the most debilitating form of dementia.
6. Diabetes Rates Are Falling Substantially in the U.S.
Americans are drinking 20% less soda than in 1998, the number of people exercising regularly has increased by 17% since 2001, and children are consuming 5.5% fewer calories on average than they did in the 1990s. Another impressive trend: childhood obesity rates have plummeted by more than 40% over the last decade.
7. Ice Bucket Challenge Leads to ALS Breakthrough
Knox County Government, CC license
A social media craze in 2014, led to a breakthrough for treating–or one day curing–ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
The “Ice Bucket Challenge,” that urged people to record videos of soaking themselves with freezing water (to simulate ALS symptoms) raised a huge amount of money for research–three times as much money that was spent the previous year.
Giant whales leaped off the U.S. Endangered Species List entirely as their numbers rebounded. Humpback whales(pictured, right), on the list since 1973, were delisted in April.
There was also a baby boom going on among a clan of the world’s most endangered killer whales, orca researchers reported this spring. The births increased the population of Southern Resident Killer Whales by three percent.
9. Man Creates ‘Shoes That Grow’ So Poor Kids Don’t Outgrow Them
Practical tech can be more important than high tech inside developing nations.
Kenton Lee designed the shoe after realizing why so many kids he saw in a Kenyan village were barefoot — their parents couldn’t afford new shoes every time a child outgrew a pair. His invention gives them a shoe that protects them from soil-borne disease as they grow.
10. Ex-NASA Engineer to Plant One Billion Trees a Year Using Drones
A start-up plans to help solve the world’s climate problems by using drones to plant forests of seedlings.
The environmental engineer who worked 20 years with NASA wants to use drone technology to plant up to one billion trees a year, without having to plant each one by hand. Drones will fly two or three meters above the ground and fire out pods containing pre-germinated seeds that are covered in a nutritious hydrogel.
Make Your Friends’ Top Ten List, Share This… (Top 2015 Photo: ErAnger, CC)
If teens already have a hard time with positive body image and self-esteem, imagine how they feel going through the drudgery of chemotherapy or a long hospital stay, possibly losing their hair or a limb, and always giving up their individual freedom. Hospitals have many volunteers and programs to amuse little children, but when it comes to teens, there is little to take their mind off the misery.
That’s when “Design My Room” makes them feel like a firework.
Working with 36 hospitals across the United States, the nonprofit redecorates sterile patient rooms to look “more like home” for teens whose spirits could use a lift.
The formerly dreary atmosphere is transformed by new boldly-colored blankets, cozy rugs, movie posters, and sports memorabilia – each item geared to the patient’s interests. Once the teens are finished with their treatment, they can bring the new decor and gifts home with them.
The idea for Design My Room came from “Wish Upon A Teen” president Michelle Soto, who was inspired by working with older youth at a California children’s hospital.
“The sad truth is that most hospitals do not understand what teens want or need,” she says. “As a Child Life Specialist, I frequently had to tell 16-year-old cancer patients that, if you were not into balloon animals, toys for tots, or magicians, then we were pretty much fresh out of programming.”
A mother of three–two of which have special needs–Michelle understood the difficult trials that her patients were going through.
“On one especially bad day at work, when I had seen enough disappointed and lost faces of teens with cancer, I made a promise to myself,” says Soto on the Wish Upon a Teen website. “I would find a way to provide the resources that my teenagers needed and longed for.”
Since the Michigan-based program started in 2011, Design My Room has been averaging makeovers for 12 patient rooms a week, with remarkably positive results.
20-year-old Taylor Janssen was in the hospital for several weeks of therapy after becoming paralyzed in an accident. The sports fan was given a Detroit Tigers room makeover with game posters and fat-heads of his favorite players.
“What they came in and brought to my room is, you know, really special—to kind of make it a little more livable as I’m here going through rehab,” says Janssen. “It feels less like a hospital room and more like a place I can live and have friends come.”
Cohen, who played the title character in “Borat,” and Fisher, star of “The Great Gatsby” and “Wedding Crashers”, divided their contribution evenly between two international charities.
Half will help Save the Children immunize 250,000 Syrian children against a measles outbreak in their country.
Benny the shelter dog isn’t sure what to think when strangers show up outside his kennel door, but once he figures out he’s being adopted, his enthusiasm takes off like a rocket.
The eight-month-old pit bull mix had spent weeks living at the Los Angeles, California Carson Animal Care Shelter before being offered a forever home earlier this month.
A delightful video shows Benny, shy at first, retreating into the corner of his kennel as dogs bark and the shelter worker steps inside.
But, as soon as he realizes he has a new family, Benny’s ready to go — strutting his stuff on the way out and sniffing a few “good-byes” to those left behind — with nearly non-stop tail wagging along the way.
(WATCH the video below from Saving Carson Animal Care Shelter via Facebook)
“Everything’s bigger in Texas,” the old saying goes, and Texans are demonstrating their hearts are bigger than any storm.
Since December 26 when the Dallas area was hit by tornadoes — some with winds as strong as 200 miles per hour — so many volunteers have come to the rescue that recovery teams have sometimes turned them away because of an over-abundance of help.
Cities have started asking people to sign-up before arriving at disaster sites to better manage the volunteers. The city of Garland has set up a website specifically for people who want to help. In Rowlett, citizens have set up an unofficial Facebook page to let community members know what and where contributions are needed.
“This is an amazing community,” Rowlett resident Brandi Hurst told Good News Network. “Many restaurants and grocery stores have been giving away food to those affected, complete strangers have opened their homes and have been searching for missing pets— such an outpouring of love!”
Neighbors have been stopping by Moates Elementary School in Glenn Heights to drop off toys and food for displaced families sheltering there.
About 400 people showed up Monday at another elementary school to salvage desks, books, and other school supplies from the building that had been destroyed while unoccupied in Red Oak.
“This really hit home,” Periete Todd, a volunteer at the shelter, told KXAS News. “Everybody cannot just sit at home and not participate… It is awesome, it shows what a great community that we live in.”
Area Chick-fil-A restaurants discarded their “never open on Sunday rule” to make free sandwiches for first responders and storm victims.
This morning Chick-fil-A is breaking their own rule and cooking on a Sunday. For the best reason possible, to help feed those first responders and people in need affected by last night's tornadoes.
“A huge thank you to Chick-fil-a from the Garland FD!!!!” Garland firefighter Kevin Douglas wrote in a Facebook comment. “The sandwiches have been awesome and kept us going. God bless y’all!!”
Other first responders are getting financial help from the Dallas Police Department’s “Assist The Officer Foundation.” At least 17 officers had their homes damaged or destroyed in the storms. The foundation has handed out $20,000 in two days to help police officers and their families with temporary housing.
Dallas-based American Airlines has donated $100,000 to the American Red Cross’ relief efforts in the four-county area around the city affected by the storms.
And people are not forgetting the animals.
Volunteers are patrolling damaged neighborhoods, rounding up lost pets and helping them find their families. In the video below, Comia Peoples cried tears of joy after searchers reunited her with her dog, Lexi, after finding the pup in the ruins of her Glenn Heights home.
The Dallas Morning News put together a collection of 15 links to help people locate pets lost in the confusion of the storms.
Christian humanitarian organization World Vision normally sends relief packages around the world, but the storm hit close to home, so the group began distributing hygiene kits, family food packs, blankets and clothing from its nearby Grand Prairie warehouse.
Even as they were helping fellow Texans, there was enough charity in the Lone Star State to overflow to others. That same Grand Prairie warehouse also readied shipments for storm victims in Mississippi and Georgia over the weekend.
Photos: Kristina Ortega and Patrick Gustafson, Rowlett TX, Facebook
A busboy’s honesty has led to an avalanche of “tips” from people rewarding the 50-year-old man for his good deed.
As soon as Johnny “Thumper” Duckworth found an envelope full of $100 bills on the floor of the diner where he worked, he gave it to his boss and got right back to work.
His boss, Randy Emmons knew $3,000 was a huge amount of money for Duckworth, who has no car or home and whose wages are garnished to pay medical bills. He rides his bike through cold and snow to get to work on time.
It turns out the lost money belonged to one of his regular customers at Randy’s Southside Diner in Grand Junction, Colorado, who immediately rewarded Duckworth with $300 for returning the Christmas shopping cash.
”He’s one of the most honest people I know,” Emmons told TODAY. “That’s life-changing money for him, and for him just to turn it in like it’s nothing, that’s something to me.”
Duckworth’s integrity, even while facing poverty, motivated Emmons to set up a GoFundMe page called “Tip Thumper” to raise enough money to give a new start to the man who is sleeping on friends’ couches.
A genetically pure herd of American bison has been living in Utah’s Henry Mountains, a discovery offering new hope that wild herds can be expanded to once again roam freely in the West.
Most bison alive today have been interbred with cattle after the iconic prairie species was nearly hunted to extinction. But, scientists having run DNA tests on some of the 350 bison in the Utah herd have now confirmed they are direct descendants of roughly 20 wild bison transferred from Yellowstone National Park in 1941.
Farmers started cross-breeding cattle with bison in the 1800s hoping to create livestock that could flourish in the arid lands of the desert southwest. It was assumed that wild bison, roaming freely with cattle would also interbreed with domesticated livestock, but this rare herd has avoided that for 70 years.
The Utah herd, though grazing closely by cattle, showed no signs of brucellosis – a livestock disease that ranchers fear bison could spread if reintroduced to parts of the country.
“This is a remarkable finding considering these free-roaming, legally hunted animals live on unfenced public lands and graze alongside livestock,” Johan du Toit, wildlife ecologist from Utah State University, and one of the researchers said.
He adds that the herd could be an important resource in restoring bison to their historic range across the American West.
A bachelor’s over-the-top Christmas display attracted thousands of spectators — and even a wife.
Chad Koosman didn’t have much time for dating around the holidays. He was busy running 50 miles of wire and cord to power the 450,000 lights in his annual display.
But, like shepherds are attracted to a bright star in the Christmas story, his future wife, Angie, was drawn to see the fantastic display — and she saw quite a catch in the Minnesota bachelor, especially his charitable, giving nature.
Chad has been raising money for a Christian charity every year since he was in eighth grade. His light extravaganza has collected more than $400,000 in donations for the charity in eight years.
Drivers being pulled over for minor violations were skeptical, tearful, and ultimately thankful when a deputy sheriff handed them $100 bills instead of traffic tickets.
The sheriff’s department in Monroe County, Georgia sent out Deputy Timothy Campfield armed with a stack of money to surprise motorists.
“Use it on your young ‘uns,” he told one man he pulled over.
The new owner of a vacant house asked a homeless squatter on the property to leave, but then returned to offer the polite young man a job — and a room in the house.
James Eppler had been homeless since he was 16 and recently found shelter on the old house’s porch. When Chris Crever bought the property in Portland, Oregon, he confronted Eppler and told him he had to move on.
Eppler thanked Crever–which startled the new property owner into seeing him differently. The homeless man was grateful that Crever had been polite in telling him to leave, which made him feel like a human being.
The respectful exchange shifted everything.
The new owner offered Eppler a job helping to repair the house and told him he could live in one of its rooms temporarily. The homeless man suddenly had a place to sleep and to shower.
It was the last thing these Muslim families expected while dining out in America’s Deep South on Christmas Eve — a stranger’s random act of kindness was like a “light” in the darkness.
Eslam Mohamed was enjoying himself in a party of seven adults and five children at a local Olive Garden restaurant in Augusta, Georgia.
Mohamed wrote on his Facebook page that despite all the suspicions and political rhetoric about Muslims in America, the gesture shows “there is still light in the dark, there is still hope within the frustration.”
After the French Interior Minister called for strengthening security during Christmas worship services, a group of 12 Muslim men stood outside the entrance to one church in Pas-de-Calais to offer protection from any possible terrorist attacks.
The symbolic show of unity during midnight mass was organized by Hashim El Jazaoui of the Union of Muslim Citizens in the northern French area of Lens, reports Belgium’s RTL.
“We want to say that we are all together. We are brothers. We are in the same boat. If the boat sinks, we all sink. If mentally ill people want to kill us, they will have to kill us all together,” El Jazaoui reportedly said in a statement.
The warm gesture was received with gratitude by the clergy and the 200 Christians who attended Thursday’s service and offered words of peace to the Muslims.
She’d been in the hospital herself earlier this year for cancer treatment and knew from experience how much kids would rather be home for the holiday.
“When you’re at home, you have the best Christmas ever,” Sadie told TODAY. “When you’re in the hospital, you don’t have a very good Christmas. I just wanted it to be better for them.”
Sadie started her toy drive November 20 with a video asking for donations. She and her parents hoped to collect 300 toys originally, but box after box kept arriving until they had 1,276 items — bikes, scooters, giant stuffed animals, doll houses, Legos, and just about anything else a kid could hope for on Christmas morning.
A moving company donated a truck and labor to deliver all the toys to the hospital, right after Sadie posed for a photo with them in the family driveway.
The tradition at the hospital is for Santa to hand three presents to each patient, and another gift to each sibling. The hospital relies on donated gifts each year, but a spokesperson says this was the best selection of gifts they can remember, thanks to the sleigh-full that came from Sadie.
The homeless people of London weren’t expecting gifts on Christmas, and they definitely were not expecting them from a Muslim Santa Claus.
Nubaid Haroon decided to send out a compassionate reminder of his religion’s core tenant this holiday season by wrapping up presents he bought with his own money and delivering them to homeless people on the streets.
His goal was to challenge stereotypes about Muslims – and spread a little Christmas cheer at the same time.
“I think that a lot of people think because Muslims don’t celebrate Christmas that we don’t accept it when people celebrate Christmas,” wrote Haroon in an email to TakePart. “But in reality my family give chocolates and food to neighbors/friends regardless of their race/religion. It’s just about being one with the community.”
8-month-old Jett has been fighting a rare form of leukemia at the Children’s Hospital in Louisiana with few positive results since he was born.
His parents, Brittany and Tylan Self, having tried everything to aid their baby boy, heard that there was an experimental treatment available at John’s Hopkins hospital – 1,100 miles away in Baltimore.
Due to Jett’s weakened immune system, commercial flying could be fatal, and the 16-hour drive would be too long.
After searching high and low for a solution, James Davison, the owner of Davison Trucking, suddenly swooped in to save the day – literally.
James heard about Jett’s dilemma from Congressman Dr. Ralph Abraham, who served with him in the National Guard. Though he didn’t know the struggling family personally, he said he is happy to fly them to Baltimore in his private jet—especially when he heard the boy’s father serves in the Guard also.
They were his neighbors but so much more. Now he has honored their memory by buying their family home and donating it to Habitat for Humanity.
Bill and Janice Henning were like second parents to Lenny Bazemore, who grew up in the working class row houses in Norristown, Pennsylvania. Their son Curt was Lenny’s first childhood friend.
“I had a beautiful childhood—filled with family, friends and neighbors like the Hennings—and though we didn’t have much, we didn’t need much because we had each other,” Bazemore wrote to Good News Network. “I remember there were times when there wasn’t enough food, I remember poverty, but most of all, I remember love, good friends and a safe neighborhood.”
So when Curt, who had fallen on hard times, asked his old friend to buy the house where he grew up, the home across the street from where Lenny’s Mother still lives, it was nearly impossible to say no.
52 West Basin Street, just outside of Philadelphia, was where Janice and Bill taught the neighborhood boys the meaning of brotherhood, discipline, and caring for others. Before Janice passed she said to Bazemore, who grew into a successful businessman, “Please look out for Curt.”
The real estate investor and owner of Bazemore Design Group and Bazemore Enterprises wondered if he realistically could flip the property. How could he earn a return on his investment with a projected purchase price of $45,000?
“I drove around my old neighborhood thinking about what I could do to make it great again,” Bazemore says. “And then it struck me. ‘Don’t renovate the house for financial gain. Give it away to a family who needs it more than I do.’”
He decided to donate 52 West Basin Street to Habitat for Humanity of Montgomery County along with $50,000 to renovate and make it an energy efficient home. In 2016 it will go to a deserving family who will finally achieve their dream of home ownership.
“I’m thankful that I’m in a position to do something like this in my hometown,” said the entrepreneur, who also owns an art gallery and restaurant. “I’m blessed to have a successful career as a real estate developer and I believe that once you reach a certain level of success, you have to start giving back.”
After he purchased and donated the home, he moved Curt, who had no job, into one of his apartments in Manayunk and gave him a job.
“Donating the Henning house gave me a beautiful feeling, and it feels good do the Lord’s work,” Bazemore added. “Certainly, not everyone can give away a house. But in this season of giving, I hope that everyone will open their hearts and offer what they can to help someone else’s dreams come true.”
The Habitat for Humanity photo above shows Lenny at the ribbon-cutting, November 19, when work officially began on the Norristown residence where he learned the meaning of caring for family.
A woman who escaped a wildfire with her life was devastated to lose her most prized possessions in the flight but has a reason to be grateful this holiday, thanks to a local youth.
Deb was fleeing in her four-door sedan from the Pinery bushfire in South Australia in late November. She was carrying everything of value—baby pictures, photo albums, and laptop— when the air became so filled with dust and smoke that she became disoriented and bumped into another car.
After that, her vehicle stalled and wouldn’t start again. Deb had to abandon the car, and it was destroyed by the fire, along with all her prized possessions inside.
An apprentice training to be an auto mechanic, Fraser Hocking, decided to donate his old Pajero SUV to the couple after seeing an appeal on Facebook from community advocate, Mark Aldridge.
The 4-wheel-drive Pajero belonged to his mother who passed away last year, so Fraser figured it would be a “good legacy” to give it to someone who needs it.
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