SEVEN people have lost their lives in the devastating Portugal wildfires.
Hundreds have been forced to leave their homes which will leave you wondering which areas have been impacted by the blazes.
You will need to get in touch with your travel advisor to see if they will find alternative accommodation if you were due to visit the country.
It’s also vital to make sure your travel insurance is valid.
Several areas across Portugal have been impacted by the wildfires.
There are more than 100 active wildfires around the country which have been burning for days.
It has been reported by Portuguese authorities that there is a high risk of the fires breaking out over the central and northern regions.
70 residents were forced to leave the area between Porto and Aveiro in the north.
Land and homes have been ravaged by the fires in Braga and motorways have been closed between the Lisbon and Porto.
Temperatures have exceeded 30C in Portugal and seven people have died from the fires so far.
The Foreign Office is not advising against travel to Portugal as some areas such as the Algarve and Madeira have not been impacted.
However, you should check if the specific area you were due to travel to has been affected by the fires.
You need to speak to your travel operator as the place you were meant to go to may not be accessible anymore.
However, if you choose to cancel your trip, you may not be eligible for a refund.
This is because the UK Foreign Office does not tend to advise against travel due to fire risk, so operators are unlikely to cancel holidays unless the place you’re staying is directly affected.
You need to make sure your travel insurance policy covers you if the place you were travelling to is affected by wildfires.
Some policies may have cover for natural disasters which include hurricanes, floods, wildfires and earthquakes.
If you booked your trip as a package holiday, the provider will most likely offer you an alternative accommodation.
You may also be able to move your travel dates but if you booked everything separately yourself, the airline may still expect you to travel.
However, you still may be able to postpone your accommodation or travel and find somewhere alternative to stay in a safe area.
CHANNEL 4 presenter Steph McGovern is set to make her acting debut in the upcoming BBC comedy drama Smoggie Queens.
Filming has wrapped on this brand new series set in Middlesborough, which celebrates the vibrancy of the town’s LGBTQ+ community.
Smoggie Queens, created and written by Middlesborough native Phil Dunning, is a heartfelt comedy that revolves around a group of friends who are fiercely proud of their North Eastern roots.
The storyline follows volatile Dickie, played by Phil himself, and his eclectic group of companions as they navigate the ups and downs of life and love.
Dickie’s pals include drag queen Mam (Mark Benton), self-styled “hun” Lucinda (Alexandra Mardell), awkward Sal (Patsy Lowe), and newcomer Stewart (Elijah Young).
Former Steph’s Packed Lunch presenter Steph McGovern is one of the new actors set to join the cast, but her character has not been revealed yet.
The supporting cast for Smoggie Queens is a star-studded lineup, featuring Drag Race royalty Michelle Visage and Peaky Blinders actress Charlotte Riley.
Michelle takes on the role of Elaine, an uptight office assistant.
She expressed her excitement about the project, saying: “Filming Smoggie Queens was an absolute joy, and I am so excited for everyone to meet Elaine, who I had so much fun playing – wait until you meet her!
“The script is brilliant, the costumes are amazing, and I loved being amongst Middlesbrough royalty for the day! I’m an official Smoggie now!”
Charlotte, who is from Teesside, added: “Being back in Teesside working with Phil and the team on this incredible project has been the most awesome experience.
“Not sure I’ve met a more funny and fabulous cast.
“We had the best laugh ever making this show and I can’t wait to watch it. Just so, so grateful I got to be a part of it.”
Phil Dunning shared his gratitude for the talented ensemble, gushing: “I feel so stupidly lucky that such an incredibly talented cast agreed to come and be part of Smoggie Queens.
“They were an absolute dream to work with and I’m in awe and adulation of every single one of them.”
Smoggie Queens is set to premiere on BBC Three and iPlayer this autumn, but an official release date is yet to be announced.
WHEN Keira Smith married her husband Shaun in 2013, she knew they were facing an uphill battle to have children naturally.
He was taking medication that affected his fertility, so in 2018 Keira was delighted to get pregnant via IVF.
However, 34 weeks later that joy turned to devastation when their baby Mali died three days after birth, due to medical negligence.
Keira, 39, who works in HR at Cardiff Metropolitan University, told The Sun: “I met Shaun in 2009, and we had a fabulous life together, going to festivals and travelling.
“Then in 2012, the year before we got married in Jamaica, he was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis, a painful condition which causes red patches and sore joints.
“He took Methotrexate to combat it, but knowing it could affect his fertility, we had sperm samples taken.
“We did try to conceive naturally, and Shaun came off medication, but was in immense pain so we had IVF via the NHS, at the Welsh Institute of Fertility in Cardiff.
“It was about a year before I was at the point of having an embryo implanted, in spring 2018.
“When it was successful, we were over the moon and – this is something I beat myself about for ages afterwards – I told people that it all seemed quite easy.
“I wasn’t that sick, and didn’t even feel that tired.”
Because she was an IVF patient, Keira had regular check ups, and when she was just over 34 weeks, she saw a consultant.
The scanner was broken but he confirmed what her midwife had told her – that the baby was breech, meaning it was lying feet first.
After the appointment, she popped to the loo and there was a “show” – a sign she was in labour already.
Keira said: “The maternity unit confirmed I was in labour and transferred me to Bridgend Hospital, where my waters fully broke.
“The consultant there told me, ‘You need a C-section, but we don’t want to deliver too early, the longer she’s in there the better’.
“To begin with, I felt fine and there were no contractions.”
But the next day, Keira’s contractions began, although a consultant told her she wasn’t dilated.
I bathed her, brushed her hair, dressed her, and she passed away peacefully in my arms. Going home without her was the worst moment of my life
Keira Smith
“The pain was getting worse. I told the midwife, ‘I can feel my body pushing, I’ve got no control’,” she said.
“It all felt so alien to me as I’d never given birth before.
“I was alone with Shaun when suddenly I put my hands down and the baby’s feet were outside my body.
“It all kicked off: I was screaming, ‘The feet are out, the feet are out!’ and Shaun was in the corridor shouting, ‘She’s in labour, she’s been telling you and telling you but you haven’t listened’.”
The next two hours were a blur of panic as Keira was wheeled to a delivery suite and gave birth naturally.
“I was begging for a C-section but by then it was too late, there was no going back,” she said.
“Mali was born, silent: they spent 16 minutes resuscitating her, but she’d been without oxygen for at least that long, and probably longer.
“Then she was whisked away to the Special Care Baby Unit.”
Keira added: “One thing that sticks in my mind was midwives congratulating me on the birth.
“They kept saying she was doing well for a baby that had been without oxygen for so long.”
Baby Mali was transferred to a bigger hospital, the Royal Gwent in Newport.
For the first 24 hours, the couple had prepared themselves for the news that Mali might be disabled, but now medics told them the devastating truth: she was not showing any real signs of life.
“She was small at 4lbs 9oz but she was perfect: her heart, lungs, size,” Keira said.
“They told me if she’d been born by C-section she’d have had every chance.
“After three days, they gently told us we needed to think about withdrawing life support.
“I wasn’t really functioning, but I remember thinking I didn’t want to prolong the pain for her.
“We said our goodbyes. I bathed her, brushed her hair, dressed her, and she passed away peacefully in my arms.
“Going home without her was the worst moment of my life.
“The bottom had fallen out of my world, and I couldn’t believe other people were still going about their daily lives.
“It was surreal, it felt like madness.”
By Sam Blanchard, Health Correspondent
URGENT action is needed to fix NHS maternity services as half of them are below standard, inspectors warn.
An audit by the Care Quality Commission found massive variation in mum-and-baby units but also “common areas of concern” across England.
It rated 48 per cent of 131 inspections “inadequate” or “requires improvement”.
A shocking 65 per cent did not meet “good” safety standards.
Official figures show the number of women dying during pregnancy or shortly after the birth of their baby is at a 20-year high.
The CQC said many clinics do not properly report or learn from safety incidents.
Mums-to-be often face long delays due to short-staffing, it added, and their concerns are not always taken seriously.
Communication with families is not as good as it should be, either.
Nicola Wise, hospitals director at the CQC, said: “Although we’ve seen examples of good care and hardworking staff doing their best, we remain concerned that key issues continue to impact quality and safety.
“Disappointingly none of those issues are new.
“We cannot allow an acceptance of shortfalls that are not tolerated in other services.
“We must do more to ensure that poor care and preventable harm do not become normalised.”
The national review inspected all maternity services that had not been visited and rated since 2021.
It said some failings could be fixed within hospitals but others would need more cash and action from the Government.
The report said scandals at the East Kent hospitals and Shrewsbury and Telford were not isolated and families are being let down nationwide.
A review is already under way in Nottingham, which saw family outcry at a public meeting with the local hospital on Wednesday.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said maternity care is “one of the biggest issues that keeps me awake at night worrying.”
He said: “We’re keen to make sure that lessons are applied right across the country.
“We are determined to get this right.”
Shortly afterwards, as the couple registered both Mali’s birth and death, Keira received a call.
It was 2wish charity, set up by Rhian Mannings, offering her help and support.
“That call was everything I needed that I didn’t know I needed at the moment in time,” said Keira.
“They organised counselling and other therapies. I would have been lost without them.”
But grief was taking its toll on her marriage to Shaun.
While Keira cut herself off from the world, and stayed at home, taking time off, her husband coped by going back to work and continuing with normal life.
“I was in a big hole of grief and didn’t want to rejoin the world. He was as bereft as me in other ways,” she said.
“I would get comfort from going to her grave, in a local cemetery, but that would just floor him.”
When I first heard Macsen cry, it was like I’d taken a breath for the first time in 18 months
Keira Smith
The couple tried to heal their pain by having IVF again.
Keira said: “I knew I couldn’t replace Mali but I needed a child with me.
“I was convinced the IVF would fail, but I got pregnant straight away.
“The emotional strain and worry was horrendous.
“For me, nothing would feel right until I walked through the door of my home with my new baby.
“Shaun and I started to pull apart from each other – and then Covid hit, which made things worse.”
Happily, on May 18, 2020, Keira gave birth to a healthy 7lbs 5oz boy called Macsen, an ancient Welsh name.
But it was too late for the marriage, and the couple split two months later.
“When I first heard Macsen cry, it was like I’d taken a breath for the first time in 18 months,” she said.
“But as overjoyed as we were, the damage had been done to our marriage.
“Bereaved parents go one way or the other, and we weren’t going to survive that.”
Supported by friends and family in the town of Abertillery, Monmouthshire, Keira got back on her feet, and worked out a co-parenting routine with her ex, and they’ve raised Macsen side by side ever since.
But she was determined to give back to 2wish, the charity that helped her when she was so low.
Two years ago, she walked with a group of bereaved parents and supporters to the top of Kilimanjaro, raising £60,000, and now she is trekking to Everest Base Camp to raise more money.
“For me it’s another journey I can take with Mali,” she said.
“It’s about furthering her legacy and her memory: we’re trying to raise awareness and raise as much money as we can for an amazing charity.
“I live at the bottom of a mountain, so I’ve been training there, but I’m worried about the altitude too – you just don’t know how you’ll cope until you are there.”
Last year also saw the conclusion of the legal case Keira and Shaun made against the hospital.
It had already admitted negligence after an internal investigation, but Keira felt real change was needed.
“I wanted justice for Mali,” she said. “And they didn’t deny liability.
“I have a massive amount of respect for the NHS, but ultimately the system failed Mali, and we need to do as much as we can to make sure that no one else goes through what we went through.”
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Find The Sun’s betting publishing principles here
Matchday 1
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