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Labour's Pink Bus, Grandmothers, Cancer-Spotting Dog, The Love Project

Is the colour of Labour's women's campaign bus patronising, or should it be ignored so people can focus on the issues affecting women? Jenni Murray presents.

Animation filmmaker Daisy Jacobs' greatest champion was her grandmother, Eileen, and it seems fitting that a film she made about Eileen has been nominated for an Oscar. The film - which last week picked up a BAFTA award -is based on the final months of Eileen's life. Daisy joins Jenni and journalist Michele Hanson, whose daughter Amy Hanson wrote that she "loved her grandmother 'more than any other living thing on earth".

Dogs can sniff out explosives, so why not breast cancer? Jenni talks to Dr Claire Guest who is convinced they can and is running the first canine breast cancer detection trial in the UK. Joining them is her dog, Daisy, who Claire believes saved her life.

The Love Project in Barrow in Furness has been collecting an oral history of women's experiences of romance, relationships and love from 1940s through to the present day. We hear from the women involved and the Project Director, Amanda Mortlock.

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58 minutes

Chapters

  • Labour's Pink Bus

    Duration: 13:02

  • Grandmothers

    Duration: 09:38

  • Breast Cancer Detection Dogs

    Duration: 08:32

  • The Love Project

    Duration: 09:37

Labour's Pink Bus

Harriet Harman has hit the campaign trail in her pink battle van - amid a storm of ridicule on social media.  Labour's deputy leader believes the van will help the party connect with women who did not vote in 2010. But Twitter users have attacked it as "patronising" and "sexist".  Ms Harman said she "signed-off" on the "eye-catching" colour scheme for the minibus, which will tour 70 constituencies across the UK in the run up to May's general election.  But does the ridiculing simply distract from the real issue – that woman voters especially among the working class are disillusioned with politics?

Breast Cancer Detection Dogs

Breast Cancer Detection Dogs

The charity Medical Detection Dogs in conjunction with Buckingham NHS Trust, has just started the first canine breast cancer detection trial in the UK. It’s hoped by the end of this year fifteen hundred volunteers will have been tested by the specially trained canine unit. The aim of the study is to gather a robust body of evidence which will establish just how accurate dogs can be in sniffing out the presence of breast cancer on breath samples supplied by women. The co-founder of Medical Detection Dogs, Dr Claire Guest, believes her own breast cancer was only detected at an early stage because of her pet labrador, Daisy. Claire tells Jenni why she believes dogs have a valuable role to play in addition to traditional screening.

The Love Project

The Love Project

The Love Project in Barrow in Furness has been collecting an oral history of women’s experiences of romance, relationships and love from 1940s through to the present day. Caz Graham has been to south Cumbria hear what they’ve been talking about and hears from the Project Director Amanda Mortlock along with Jill McLaughlin, Helen Wall, Pat Crellin and Irene Pritchard. And if you’d like to hear more love stories from Barrow you can log onto the project website on Valentine’s Day to hear a selection of the recordings they’ve made.

Grandmothers

Animation filmmaker Daisy Jacobs’ greatest champion was her grandmother, Eileen, and it seems fitting that a film she made about Eileen has been nominated for an Oscar.  The film, which last week picked up a BAFTA award, is based on the final months of Eileen’s life and in it Daisy explores how families cope with the decline and death of an elderly relative, and the impact illness can have on a family. Jenni is joined by Daisy, and Amy Hanson, who with her journalist mother Michele, wrote about caring for her grandmother for ten years after she suffered a stroke.    

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Jenni Murray
Interviewed Guest Daisy Jacobs
Interviewed Guest Michele Hanson
Interviewed Guest Claire Guest
Interviewed Guest Amander Mortlock

Broadcast

  • Fri 13 Feb 2015 10:00

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