Every day, Glen Oliver orders his coffee and pays for the car behind him at an Ontario drive-thru cafe. One morning, that fateful purchase changed someone’s life and saved them from suicide. Hear The Good News Guru serve up the inspiring story (from the October 26, 2018 Ellen K. Morning Show on KOST-103.5 radio in Los Angeles).
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The US Food and Drug Administration has just granted a “Breakthrough Therapy” designation to a treatment that uses psychedelic mushrooms as a therapy for treatment-resistant depression, according to a survey administered by Tripsitter.com.
The FDA designates a drug as a Breakthrough Therapy if preliminary clinical evidence shows that it may demonstrate substantial improvement over available therapy. Breakthrough Therapies are supported by the FDA throughout the clinical development program to ensure as efficient a process as possible.
The treatment was developed by Compass Pathways, a life sciences company dedicated to accelerating patient access to evidence-based innovation in mental health.
Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris, Head of the Psychedelic Research Group at the Imperial College London, said: “In our 2015 study, we provided psilocybin to 19 patients in a clinical setting, coupled with psychological support, and found promising signals of efficacy and safety as treatment for treatment-resistant depression.”
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Treatment-resistant depression is a huge unmet need, affecting 100 million people around the world who do not respond to existing treatments. Depression is one of the fastest growing health problems we face today, and mental health disorders are the leading cause of ill-health and disability worldwide. The Breakthrough Therapy designation for psilocybin therapy highlights the importance of supporting early research that can be translated to clinically meaningful outcomes.
“The Breakthrough Therapy designation is a strong endorsement for the potential of psilocybin therapy. We look forward to learning more as further clinical studies are carried out, by our team at Imperial College as well as in Compass’s multi-centre trial,” added Dr. Carhart-Harris.
The approval comes just weeks after researchers from Tripsitter published an article calling for psilocybin mushrooms to be reclassified from a schedule I drug—one with no known medical potential—to a schedule IV drug such as prescription sleep aids, but with tighter control.
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Studies in animals and humans both show low potential for abuse, the researchers say. When rats push a lever to receive psilocybin, they don’t keep pushing the lever like they do for drugs such as cocaine, alcohol or heroin. When it comes to human studies, people who have used psilocybin typically report using it a few times across their lifetime.
As for safety, studies show it frequently falls at the end of the scales with the least harm to users and society, say the researchers—and there is no known level of possible lethal overdose.
“We should be clear that psilocybin is not without risks of harm, which are greater in recreational than medical settings, but relatively speaking, looking at other drugs both legal and illegal, it comes off as being the least harmful in different surveys and across different countries,” says Dr. Matthew Johnson, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
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That being said, researchers don’t recommend releasing psilocybin into patients’ hands even with a prescription. “We believe that the conditions should be tightly controlled and that when taken for a clinical reason, it should be administered in a health care setting monitored by a person trained for that situation,” says Johnson. The researchers foresee that the process for psilocybin use in the clinic would be similar to how an anesthesiologist prescribes and administers a drug, minimizing the potential for abuse or harm.
George Goldsmith, the executive chairman of Compass Pathways, said: “This is great news for patients. We are excited to be taking this work forward with our clinical trial on psilocybin therapy for treatment-resistant depression. The FDA will be working closely with us to expedite the development process and increase the chances of getting this treatment to people suffering with depression as quickly as possible.”
Cure Your Friends Of Negativity By Sharing The Good News To Social Media – File photo by Ginko, CC
This tennis team not only earned approval from the crowd for their winning serve—but also for their emotional sportsmanship when things got rough.
At the 2018 Invictus Games, an athletic tournament for injured and disabled military service players in Sydney, Australia this week, while thousands of people enjoyed its inspirational platform, one match in particular struck a chord with the players.
UK tennis player Paul Guest was engaged in a match alongside his Dutch teammate Edwin Vermetten, competing against an American team, when a helicopter flew over the stadium.
Guest, who had serve with the British Armed Forces, uses a wheelchair due to neck and spinal injuries sustained while on duty in 1987. Years later, he was diagnosed with PTSD – so when he heard the aerial vehicle buzzing overhead, he suddenly became overcome with anxiety.
His teammate, Edwin Vermetten, noticed that Guest was visibly upset and immediately abandoned play so he could rush over to the UK veteran and console him during his time of need.
Vermetten embraced Guest and whispered words of encouragement until he could recover from the debilitating episode.
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The Dutch player later revealed that he was able to bring Guest back to his senses by singing the “Let It Go” song from the hit Disney flick Frozen.
“I took him by the face and said ‘Look at me. We are a team so let it go,” Vermetten told an Invictus reporter. “Look into my eyes and sing the ‘Frozen’ song, and we did. For him, this was the moment he let go, and he did, he literally let it all go.”
"I'm not used to people being there to cheer me on but it's what Invictus is all about. All the nations are cheering every single one of us on" A special moment for #TeamUK competitor Paul Guest at the Wheelchair Tennis #IG2018 pic.twitter.com/xHc8exdOLb
— Help for Heroes (@HelpforHeroes) October 22, 2018
After the emotional exchange, Guest then went on to deliver the tie-breaking point that brought victory to the UK-Dutch team.
Score Big With Your Friends By Sharing The Story On Social Media – Photo by Tracey Nearmy / Getty Images for Invictus Games Sydney
Quote of the Day: “Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you’ll start having positive results.” – Willie Nelson
Photo: by zoghal, CC license
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As a means of easing “range anxiety” for electric vehicle owners, this startup plans on making car charging as easy as ordering a pizza for delivery.
Sparkcharge is a company that is developing a service that will allow EV drivers to order small, portable charging units to their location at the press of a button. They just need to open an app, ask for a charger delivery, and wait for a driver to show up for $20 worth of electricity that would get them approximately 100 miles.
Additionally, the battery pack can produce 1 mile’s worth of charge every 60 seconds, which is reportedly 14 times faster than standard home-based charging units.
Sparkcharge, which is based out of Buffalo, New York, was recently awarded a $1 million prize in a tech competition. The company plans on using the funds to hire staffers and manufacture the charging devices so they can ship out at least 1,000 units by 2019.
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Though they will initially be partnering with road maintenance companies, they hope to one day partner with platforms like Uber and Lyft as a means of making the service more accessible.
“We’ll have this really good landscape, so EV owners can have a charge delivered to them wherever or whenever they want,” the company’s CEO told Forbes.
“It’s the way the infrastructure should be,” he added. “If you want a pizza, you open up your phone, you hit a button and it’s delivered. We thought, ‘Why can’t we do that for electric vehicles?’”
Power Up With Positivity By Sharing The Good News With Your Friends – Photo by Sparkcharge
Lisa Nagengast was desperately trying to find someone who could take her sick brother to the hospital—and, in her haste, the wrong number she dialed became the perfectly right number.
She had just gotten off the plane in Tampa, Florida last weekend after visiting her brother Greg Holeman in Columbus, Nebraska. She’d spent the week caring for the 48-year-old Army veteran after his risky spinal fusion surgery.
Everything seemed fine when she left—but after the plane landed she heard an alarming voicemail from Holeman who said he was in extreme pain.
The veteran had no money to get to the hospital in a taxi, and wasn’t sure if ambulance fees were covered by his insurance, so he gave his sister the contact information his social worker, and Lisa hurriedly dialed the phone number.
“A young woman answered, [and] I assumed it was the social worker Pam,” Lisa wrote in a Facebook post. “I told her who I was, why I was calling, gave her the whole story, and asked what can we do to get him to the hospital.”
The woman passed the phone to her manager, a young man named Jason Voss. Lisa reiterated her dilemma and asked for help. The man said he had drivers on hand and would try to find someone who was free to help.
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Fifteen minutes later, Lisa got a call from someone named Zach Hillmer, who said he would be able to give Greg a ride to the hospital—all he needed was a phone number and address.
Frustrated and anxious, Lisa snapped at the man, demanding to know why he didn’t have this information on file. Zach simply responded by saying: “You called Jimmy John’s.”
After a few stunned moments of silence, Lisa confirmed that it was indeed the local sandwich shop before apologizing profusely for the mistake. Zach insisted he still wanted to take her brother to the hospital—he just needed the address.
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Because he, himself, is also a veteran, he took extra gentle care of the sick man, who was later that evening given a free taxi ride home from the hospital, and is now doing fine.
Lisa has since expressed her overwhelming gratitude towards the sandwich restaurant’s employees.
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The restaurant manager, Jason Voss, said that he didn’t hesitate to help the frantic woman.
“I was pretty sure she had no idea it was Jimmy John’s,” Voss told The Washington Post. “I didn’t think I needed to say anything. It didn’t seem relevant at that moment.”
Furthermore, he believes that anyone would have done the same thing if they were in his shoes – he just happened to be the one who answered the phone.
“I feel like stuff like this happens all the time, and it’s interesting people are taking an interest in it now,” he added. “People feel like they need something, anything good right now. Something like this is really small, but if it helps people, that’s good.”
Deliver This Good News Story To Your Friends On Social Media – Photo by Lisa Nagengast
Elon Musk has just announced that the first of his speedy transportation tunnels beneath Los Angeles will be open to the public in just a few short months.
Earlier this week, Musk published a tweet saying that a 2-mile transit tunnel is set to open on December 10th with free rides offered to the masses starting the very next day.
The tunnel was constructed by the Boring Company, an infrastructure and construction firm founded by Musk as a means of building his Hyperloop project. The tunnel, which was built in Hawthorne, has initially been designed to whisk cars along at speeds of 155 miles per hour, although the system will eventually be able to carry passengers and bicycles.
Currently, private cars will be able to drive onto elevators that will carry the vehicle down into the tunnel where it can then be autonomously carried on a platform to its proper destination.
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“The purpose is to demonstrate that a lift can be built in very small footprints and within existing buildings, whether they are houses, office buildings, or retail parking lots,” says the company’s website.
“Looking forward, one could have a lift in the basement of every office building, allowing extremely convenient commutes.”
Pretty close, actually
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 22, 2018
On the East Coast, Musk has already received several green lights from state legislators to begin construction of a hyperloop system that will combat traffic jams by whisking passengers from Washington DC to New York City at speeds of 700 miles per hour.
(WATCH the Boring Company’s 2017 simulation video below) – Photo by the Boring Company
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It was June of 1988. Out of a 13-year-old’s early summer boredom, I had pitched a tent in our rural Virginia yard with the intention of sleeping in it for the night, but I was staying late in the house to finish watching the Lakers’ play-off game.
It was almost midnight and my dad had been asleep upstairs for hours when someone knocked on the front door. It never occurred to me not to answer it.
On the other side was a woman in her thirties in an evening gown with a bloody gash on her forehead. She was awkward and a bit embarrassed, but she asked if she could use our phone to call her boyfriend to get a ride home. I escorted her to our rotary dial on the kitchen wall and watched her struggle to finger the numbers correctly. After several false starts, I offered to dial for her. She said, “Sure, go ahead, you can talk to him, too.”
Once she stammered out the number, I found myself with a ringing phone on my ear and no idea what I was supposed to say. There was a groggy hello on the other end and I think I said, “Hi. Um, your girlfriend is at my house and she would like a ride home. Can I give you directions?”
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He was mostly incoherent. I tried several times to explain where I lived, but he was unable to sensibly indicate that he had any idea what I was talking about. I’m not entirely certain that he was even fully conscious. After getting little more than grunts from the other end, I hung up, looked at my guest, and said, “Want to sleep in my tent?”
I treated her forehead with hydrogen peroxide and bandages and then left her in the bathroom while I found another sleeping bag for the tent. When I came back into the house, she was sitting on the couch looking like she was trying to figure out where she was. I accompanied her into the darkness of the yard, unzipped the door to the tent, and turned my lantern on. I was just starting to realize that she must be exceptionally drunk. I was 13, remember, and I had not been around that level of inebriation, but she certainly wasn’t a threat and I felt bad for her. Plus, what an adventure!
To my surprise, she didn’t pass right out. In fact, she seemed to want to talk. She explained how she and her boyfriend had had a nice dinner date with lots of wine followed by a nasty fight on the ride home and she had gotten out of the car to walk. He drove off and she found herself in farming country on an unfamiliar road. She had stumbled in her high heels on the gravel shoulder and hit her head, which she said, felt much better with the bandage on it. Our porch was the only light she could see, plus my dad’s nursery business was right beside the house and didn’t know what else to do. She began to sob after telling this story.
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I didn’t know what to say and figured that she would cry herself to sleep, but I was still trying to be a good listener. She dried her eyes with my pillow case and said that when they drink, they often fight, but he had never left her like this before. She then looked at me with eyes that appeared to be clearing a bit from the fog. “Do you think I should just end it?”
I didn’t say anything, hoping that it was a rhetorical question. She maintained eye contact. Oh, man, she really required an answer from me; nodding sympathetically was no longer getting the job done. “Are there still good times? I mean, you said it was a nice dinner. Do you have fun together?”
She brightened at my question and was able to recite all sorts of pleasant times they had spent together. She and I ended up talking for hours. Somewhere in the very early morning hours, she reflected on what a rather ludicrous night it had been. She finished with, “But at least I got to meet the coolest kid ever.”
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My heart swelled as I fell asleep. The next morning, which always starts with the sun rise when you’re camping, I took her back into the house and we called her boyfriend again. This time, he was deliberate, articulate, and anxious to come pick up his girlfriend. He knew exactly where we lived and, though it was pretty clear that he didn’t remember my call from the night before, he thanked me for helping and said he was on his way.
About this time, my dad walks down the stairs in his boxers in a classic pre-coffee early morning fog. I was able to get him turned around before either of them saw each other, but I did quickly explain that there was a woman in the house. He asked, “Oh, does she want a kitten?”
We had advertised that we were giving away a litter of kittens which my cat had just weaned. His assumption made reasonable sense: why else would a stranger be in our house at 7am? Overhearing, the woman said, “You have kittens? I really want one!”
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Six months later, I was working in the nursery and a customer got out of her car carrying a beautiful cat. She walked straight up to me and said, “Hey coolest kid ever. Remember this kitty?”
We had a nice chat and when she shook my hand to say goodbye, I saw an engagement ring on her finger. I stared at it and she said, “Yeah, we do have fun together. Thanks for helping me realize that.”
I never did tell my dad the whole story… until now, I guess.
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Quote of the Day: “All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on.” – Havelock Ellis
Photo: Copyright GWC
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Instead of leaving thousands of workers without jobs, the Spanish government has worked with labor unions to execute a transition deal that will help coal miners with the shift towards clean energy.
Since Spain will be closing down the majority of their coal mines by the end of this year, the government will be investing $285 million (€250 million) to ensure that coal miners can maintain their livelihood.
The investment will help to provide an early retirement for miners over the age of 48, and it will help implement restorative environmental measures in coal communities and retrain coal miners to begin working with safer, more modern green technologies.
The agreement will ensure that over 600 workers will be able to benefit from social aid during the transition while 60% of coal miners will be able to opt for early retirement.
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According to The Guardian, the measure is being hailed by mining unions as a landmark initiative to benefit the industry’s struggling workers.
“Spain can export this deal as an example of good practice,” said Montserrat Mir, the Spanish confederal secretary for the European Trades Union Congress, according to the news outlet.
“We have shown that it’s possible to follow the Paris agreement without damage [to people’s livelihoods]. We don’t need to choose between a job and protecting the environment. It is possible to have both.”
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So many youngsters dream of one day getting to meet a Disney princess – so imagine this bride’s delight when a little girl thought she was a Disney princess.
Olivia Spark had just tied the knot with her husband Caleb in Akron Falls, New York when they went to a nearby park to take wedding photos.
As Olivia was posing in her gorgeous white gown, she was suddenly approached by a little girl excitedly yelling: “Cinderella! Cinderella!”
The exuberant child was 5-year-old Layla Lester. Layla’s mother says that even though Layla’s autism makes it difficult for her to connect with strangers, she was overjoyed to meet a real-life princess in the park.
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“I was flattered,” Olivia told WAFF. “I was, like, in tears that she thought I was a princess, and it just made my day absolutely more amazing than what it already was.”
In a Facebook post that was published by Olivia’s mother-in-law, she says that the newlyweds spent some time chatting with the youngster before the bride told Layla that she had a ball to get to.
Before the new acquaintances bid adieu to each other, Olivia’s wedding photographer, Nicole Wickins, snapped some photos of the sweet exchange.
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Upon sharing them to social media, the heartwarming story was shared dozens of times by local media outlets. People were so touched by the adorable pictures, members of the community created a GoFundMe page to send Layla to Disney World so she can meet more of her favorite princesses. In just 10 days, it has already raised almost $12,000.
“We have talked to Layla family and we cannot wait to see Layla face as I planned to give them this great donation,” says the page’s description.
Since the initial meeting between “Cinderella” and Layla, the two have reconnected over a picnic in the park so Olivia could give presents to her new friend and take pictures with a giant pumpkin carriage similar to the one in the Cinderella movie.
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Layla’s mother says that she has been joyfully overwhelmed by the amount of kindness shown to their family since their encounter with Olivia.
“She is the epitome of what a real-life princess would be,” Ms. Lester told the news outlet. “She’s kind and she’s sweet and she went out of her way to be nice to Layla.”
Be Sure And Share This Sweet Story Of Fairytale Magic With Your Friends On Social Media – Photos by Nicole Wickins Photography
In a bid to fight the dangers of opioid addiction, this pharmaceutical company is giving away thousands of free overdose reversal kits to libraries, YMCA centers, and educational institutions across the country.
Emergent BioSolutions recently bought out the company that is responsible for making Narcan, the only FDA-approved naloxone nasal spray that can reverse opioid overdoses. Earlier this week, they announced that they would be attempting to protect American youth by giving away free Narcan kits to all 16,568 public libraries and 2,700 YMCAs.
The company has already been working through their Narcan in Schools program to distribute their kits to every US high school, as well as colleges and universities that grant two and four-year degrees.
“These two programs reflect our commitment to educating the public about the potential risks of opioids and the critical role of naloxone during an opioid overdose emergency and reinforce our mission – to protect and enhance life,” said Emergent Senior Vice President Doug White in a statement.
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In addition to giving away the lifesaving drug kits, the company will provide educational materials and training on opioid awareness to school nurses, librarians, and other community leaders.
“Public libraries are at the heart of every U.S. community and collaborate each day with partners to address critical local needs,” said Michelle Jeske, Denver Public Library City Librarian and member of the Public Library Association Board.
“During the current opioid crisis, libraries are working with other public agencies to identify and share vital information and resources, host community forums, and provide staff trainings to respond to overdoses,” she added. “This is one step of a long journey toward lasting community-based solutions.”
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Sometimes it’s the little things in life that mean the most to us – and for Roy Palmer, it’s dancing and going for walks on the beach.
That’s because he spent ten years in a wheelchair due to his multiple sclerosis.
Then in 2017, he heard about an experimental stem cell therapy called HSCT (hematopoietic stem cell transplantation) on a BBC television program. Though the treatment has had miraculous results amongst other disabled patients, it is still a risky procedure that doesn’t always work for some people.
Regardless, the 49-year-old dad from Gloucester, England visited his doctor and begged for the treatment.
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After undergoing the procedure, Palmer knew that it had started to work when he suddenly felt a cramp in his leg; it was the first time that he had felt anything in his disabled limbs in 10 years, and the sensation caused him to burst into happy tears.
Now that he has regained control of his legs once more, Palmer loves to dance with his wife and inspire others who may have lost hope in their physical abilities.
“I’ve been given a second chance at life and I started volunteering at my local police station,” Palmer told BBC. “We went on holiday not so long ago to Turkey and I walked on the beach. Little things like that, people do not realize what it means to me.”
(WATCH the emotional BBC video below)
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Quote of the Day: “Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.” – Helen Keller
Photo: by Chris Lewis, CC license
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In the first study of its kind, cannabis oil has been shown to significantly improve the symptoms of Crohn’s disease and the quality of life of sufferers.
In a randomized, placebo-controlled study, researchers from Israel have shown that cannabis can produce clinical remission in up to 65% of individuals after 8 weeks of treatment, even though – contrary to previous medical thinking – the treatment was shown to have no effect on gut inflammation.
Lead researcher Dr. Timna Naftali explained: “Cannabis has been used for centuries to treat a wide range of medical conditions, and studies have shown that many people with Crohn’s disease use cannabis regularly to relieve their symptoms. It has always been thought that this improvement was related to a reduction in inflammation in the gut and the aim of this study was to investigate this.”
The Israeli team from Tel Aviv University recruited 46 people with moderately severe Crohn’s disease, and randomized them to receive 8 weeks of treatment with either cannabis oil containing 15% cannabidiol and 4% tetrahydrocannabinol or placebo. Symptom severity and quality of life were measured before, during, and after treatment using validated research instruments. Inflammation in the gut was assessed endoscopically and by measuring inflammatory markers in blood and stool samples.
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After 8 weeks of treatment, the group receiving the cannabis oil had a significant reduction in their Crohn’s disease symptoms compared with the placebo group, and 65%met strict criteria for clinical remission (versus 35% of the placebo recipients). The cannabis group also had significant improvements in their quality of life compared with the placebo group.
“We have previously demonstrated that cannabis can produce measurable improvements in Crohn’s disease symptoms but, to our surprise, we saw no statistically significant improvements in endoscopic scores or in the inflammatory markers we measured in the cannabis oil group compared with the placebo group,” said Dr Naftali. “We know that cannabinoids can have profound anti-inflammatory effects but this study indicates that the improvement in symptoms may not be related to these anti-inflammatory properties.”
The study has not yet been published in a scientific journal, although it was presented by Naftali at United European Gastroenterology (UEG) Week 2018 in Vienna.
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UEG is the largest and most prestigious gastroenterology meeting in Europe and has developed into a global congress. It attracts over 14,000 participants each year, from more than 120 countries, and numbers are steadily rising.
Looking ahead, the research group plans to explore further the potential anti-inflammatory properties of cannabis in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease. “There are very good grounds to believe that the endocannabinoid system is a potential therapeutic target in Crohn’s disease and other gastrointestinal diseases,” said Dr Naftali. “For now, however, we can only consider medicinal cannabis as an alternative or additional intervention that provides temporary symptom relief for some people with Crohn’s disease.”
(Source: United European Gastroenterology)
Cure Your Friends Of Negativity By Sharing The Good News To Social Media – Representative photo by jpalinsad360, CC
Dyson, the renowned British tech company responsible for revolutionizing vacuum cleaners, has just announced that it will soon begin manufacturing electric cars.
The company is set to begin construction on an automotive factory based out of Singapore in December. With completion of the facility projected in 2020, Dyson representatives say that they expect to launch their first car in 2021.
It will be the company’s first automotive manufacturing facility in the world. It is also part of Dyson’s $3.2 billion global investment in “new technology,” according to Forbes.
“Singapore has a comparatively high cost base, but also great technology expertise and focus,” says Dyson CEO Jim Rowan in a statement. “It is therefore the right place to make high quality technology loaded machines, and the right place to make our electric vehicle.
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“It is a fast-moving, exciting, and pivotal project for Dyson; thank you for all you are doing to help us realize our ambitions,” he added.
The facility will employ thousands more workers in addition to the 1,100 Dyson employees currently stationed in Singapore. According to BBC, the company already employs thousands of workers across China, Malaysia, the UK, and the Philippines.
Speed This Story Over To Your Friends By Sharing It To Social Media – Representative photo by Kazuhiro Keino, CC
One might not think that a monster costume could save the lives of children, but this guy is dedicated to using his frightening appearance to help sick kids.
Ravi Katapadi has spent the last five years dressing up as mythological creatures and movie monsters so that he can raise money for children whose families cannot afford life-saving surgeries.
He first got the idea to use elaborate costumes for fundraising back in 2014 when he saw a news segment about a newborn baby who had lost the use of her right hand due to a doctor’s negligence. Heartbroken by the story, Katapadi wondered how he could help.
Since he makes money working as a day laborer, he didn’t have enough cash to pay for the surgery himself – so he conferred with 15 of his friends and asked them to help him make a costume for the upcoming Krishna Janmashtami festival.
The 2-day Hindu festival celebrates the birth of Krishna with festivities and parades. As a means of taking advantage of the festivities in his home of Udupi, Katapadi and his friends agreed to create a detailed costume of Faun, a character from the Pan’s Labyrinth movie.
The costume took one month to make and 12 hours for Katapadi to put on. Once he had successfully donned the full costume, he wore it for 36 hours straight in order to raise the most money, even though the outfit prevented him from eating or drinking for the duration of the festival.
In a matter of days, he had raised the $113,000 he needed to pay for the child’s surgery.
Now, every year since his initial inspiration, Katapadi and his team have worked tirelessly to use their creations as a way of paying for poor children’s surgeries. Their efforts have resulted in the successful treatment of 11 children.
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This year in particular, they are attempting to raise an additional $27,000 in order to pay for four different medical treatments. The young benefactors range from a 13-year-old boy who needs kidney transplants and a 4-year-old girl fighting blood cancer.
Katapadi has already managed to raise a large portion of the costs with his most recent costumed appearance, but he hopes that his team’s crowdfunding page will be able to help make up the difference.
(WATCH the video below)
Share The Incredible Story Of Dedication With Your Friends On Social Media – Photo by Milaap
A 13-year-old boy has just been named America’s Next Top Young Scientist in recognition of his ingenious method for making pancreatic cancer treatment more effective.
Rishab Jain was awarded the prize for creating an algorithm that used artificial intelligence to accurately locate and target the pancreas in real-time during a cancer patient’s MRI radiotherapy.
Pancreatic cancer is the third-leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States. An inherent challenge of radiation treatment for pancreatic cancer resides in tracking where the pancreas itself is located on any given day. Firstly, it is often obscured by the stomach or other nearby organs, which makes it difficult to locate. Furthermore, breathing and other anatomical changes may cause the pancreas to move around in the abdominal area. As a result, radiotherapy treatment can inadvertently target and impact healthy cells.
“Last summer, I went to visit my brother in Boston and came to know about some pancreatic cancer research and how difficult a problem it was to solve,” Rishab told Good News Network. “I learned about how deadly the disease was and how it had such a low survival rate. At the same time, I was also learning about artificial intelligence and wondered if I could apply my knowledge to solve this real-world problem – I also had a family friend pass away from this disease.”
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Rishab then developed and tested his algorithm using images of the human digestive system, and found it could correctly detect the pancreas with a 98.9% success rate. The innovation aims to improve accuracy, reduce invasiveness and increase efficiency during treatment, resulting in better quality of life and chance for survival among patients.
The teen, who attends seventh grade at Stoller Middle School in Portland, Oregon, competed alongside nine other finalists during a live competition at the 3M Innovation Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. In addition to receiving the Top Young Scientist prize, he was also awarded a $25,000 prize.
“My eyes almost filled with tears after hearing my name announced—I was blown away to receive the title,” Rishab gushed. “For the past year, I’ve been working on this project and have been putting in a tremendous amount of hard work. It’s amazing to see my project coming along, and all the challenges and fun I had along the way.”
(WATCH the video below) – Photo by Discovery Education / Andy King
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We hear so much in the media about when airlines and flight crews do something wrong – but this is a tale of when one of these airlines did something right.
Back in August, my friend Christine and I were preparing to leave Atlanta, Georgia for a 10-day vacation in Lisbon Portugal.
We discovered as we were going though TSA pre-check, however, that Christine had accidentally brought her expired passport. We immediately called a friend to go retrieve the correct one and bring it to the airport, but there was little hope that they would make it there in time, during Atlanta rush hour traffic.
I waited as long as possible before going through security and to the gate. I decided to ask the gate agent what time the flight officially closed. She told me and then asked me why. I explained the predicament we were in and asked about later flights for my friend. She was sympathetic and looked for other departures, but there was nothing available after the expected passport arrival time that would allow her to make the connection at JFK to Lisbon.
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To my delight, I had been upgraded to Delta Comfort and settled into my seat as I texted to find out the status of the passport. A little while later an employee approached me about switching seats and said to gather my things. It turns out there was a couple who had paid for their upgrade and there was a TV monitor missing from the wife’s seat. I was hoping to just sleep for the overnight flight, so was happy to take the missing-monitor seat.
I was starting to think our whole trip seemed doomed, until, few minutes later, the employee came back and said “Aren’t you the one who spoke to me about your friend waiting for her passport?” I said, yes, and realized it was the same gate agent who I had spoken to before. She said, “Call her and find out where she is, we are being delayed due to the missing monitor. I will do all I can to get her on the plane.”
Christine called me back when she had her valid passport in hand and I went to the front of the plane to get the gate agent. What seemed like an eternity later, Christine was on the plane!
The gate agent mentioned there were some seats in the back where we could sit together and followed us back, since people had already begun to move around, and waited until we were seated. We were so grateful for her caring so much to help. Then, to top things off, she came back a few minutes later and told us she was able to get Christine’s bag on the plane too!
Once we got over our shock of how lucky we were I grabbed Christine and went to take a photo with Delta angel Janira Ricketts, the person who made it all possible for us.
We were truly blessed that day to have her as our gate agent.
Fly This Story Over To Your Friends By Sharing To Social Media – Photo by Adriana Cadavid
