Lowri Lewis

The Times • 2nd January 2025

Funeral director wins £60k over sacking during cancer recovery

A Scottish funeral director who was unable to work for two years with cancer has won more than £60,000 after bosses sacked her for not being on call.Janie Crampshee won the discrimination payout after an employment tribunal ruled that Dignity Funerals “didn’t give her a chance” when she returned to the job after undergoing chemotherapy and radiotherapy.The cancer patient — who described the role as her “dream job” — said that as part of her recovery she was initially going to be unable to be on...

The Times • 13th December 2024

Insolvent seafood company ignored manager’s safety warnings on dead crabs

A health and safety manager has been awarded more than £9,000 at an employment tribunal after his former bosses ignored his complaints about 12 tonnes of rotting dead crabs.John Coleman, who worked for the Orkney Fishermen’s Society, which subsequently fell intoadministration, told the tribunal that he witnessed a staggering amount of dead crustaceans arrive via skips at the brown-crab factory where he worked.Crabs should be cooked only when they are alive for health and safety reasons, yet thes...

Mail Online • 26th October 2024

Are dog walkers ruining your local park with 'scary' packs of pets?

By LOWRI LEWIS and ISAAC CROWSON and TOM HUSSEY Published: 13:35, 26 October 2024 | Updated: 15:09, 28 October 2024 A furious 'war over walkies' has broken out between pet owners, who say they're 'terrified' by large packs of dogs in their local open spaces, and professionals who claim a limit on the numbers they can walk at any on time put them out of business. This week a coroner called on Home Secretary Yvette Cooper to introduce a limit to the number of dogs which can be walked at on...

The Mirror • 27th September 2024

Queen Camilla's son says she was 'pinned down in her bed by a ghost'

Tom Parker Bowles says his mother Queen Camilla was once pinned down to her bed by a 'ghost' but reckons she would have told the apparition where to goQueen Camilla was once pinned down in her bed by a ghost, her son Tom Parker Bowles revealed. But the 49-year-old food writer said: “She’s made of fairly strong stuff and probably told the ghost where to go!” He described Bolehyde Manor near Chippenham, Wilts, where he lived with his mum and her then-husband Andrew Parker Bowles as “very haunted”....

BBC News • 25th April 2024

Annette Hewins: Mother was ‘collateral damage’ says daughter

A woman wrongfully jailed for a triple murder in south Wales was “collateral damage” as police sought a conviction, her daughter has said. Nicole Jacob said her mother Annette Hewins had her character and vulnerability “exploited” because she was a young parent. Annette was jailed after being convicted of arson with intent to endanger life, following the death of Diane Jones and her two daughters on Merthyr Tydfil’s Gurnos estate in 1995. Her conviction was quashed in 1999 after she had served t

Wales Online • 7th April 2024

13,000 trees are being planted in memory of this extraordinary man

Thousands of trees are being planted in memory of a carpenter who helped build the Senedd by the construction company he worked for. Robert Procope worked at Churngold Construction for decades before he died in 2020 and was helped build the Senedd structure which opened in 2006.

He is now set to have 13,000 trees planted in his memory in the Robbie Procope Memorial Woodland in Carmarthenshire starting from April 5. “He was a good friend to a lot of us,” said a manager for Wales at Churngold Con

Wales Online • 4th April 2024

Woman heartbroken after decorations stolen from relatives' graves in Cardiff

Four people from the same family have had decorations stolen from their graves in a cemetery in Cardiff. Samantha Power, whose mother, grandparents and uncle are buried in Cathays Cemetery, visited this week and found decorations had been taken from her relatives' graves.

“I visit them regularly to keep their resting place nice and someone thinks it’s ok to steal off the dead,” said Samantha Power, 42. Ms Power and her sister Johanne Brekke had decorated her mother’s grave with solar lights, a

Wales Online • 27th March 2024

Trees ripped up in Cardiff park just months after they were planted

Trees planted just months ago have been ripped from the ground in a Cardiff park in an act of vandalism which the council says they won't be able to fix until the autumn. “It was lovely to see families and little ones there on Monday for the start of the holidays, and then we have a bin overflowing with tree stumps which is just wrong,” said local resident Lisa Wright.

All eight trees planted in a park in the Whitchurch area of Cardiff in November 2023 were ripped out according to Geraint Willi

Wales Online • 16th March 2024

Shop owner still unconscious two weeks after being hit by car

A grandmother and long-running business owner remains unconscious after being hit by a car nearly two weeks ago. Sharon Warren, 60, suffered serious injuries after the incident on March 3 including a brain bleed, a fractured neck and pelvis and broken legs according to her son Dean Warren, 38.

Mrs Warren runs one of Cardiff's oldest baguette shops, Baguettes & Bagel on Senghenydd Road. Since the incident, the community around her in Cathays has raised over £3,000 to keep her shop going, The Car

Wales Online • 30th December 2023

Talented artist dies aged 32 just months after brain tumour diagnosis

A talented artist has died months after being diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumour. Lazaros Sofikitis was months into beginning a full-time career as an artist when he was diagnosed with glioblastoma at the age of 32.

His mother Chrisoula Konstantakou, known as Chris, claimed when he first went to see a doctor he was offered antidepressants for his headaches, eye pain, and lethargy. She claimed Lazaros’ brain tumour was missed and she wonders at how much more time they may have had with hi