Hello and welcome to The Blackpool Lead.
It is all-too-easy to end up believing that all of the hate you read online is representative of the real world. I know that I am guilty of it.
But speaking to Nudrat last week, a woman who came to Blackpool from Pakistan via Saudi Arabia, was a timely reminder that people in real life are - mostly - significantly kinder.
She has lived in Blackpool since 2017 and says she has never faced racism since arriving.
That’s a wonderful thing - but her son has experienced some of that and overcame it to deliver a remarkable set of GCSE results. Both of them say, that incident aside, they have always been welcomed in Blackpool.
So today’s story is one about overcoming difficulty - but also an resoundingly positive story about how Blackpool welcomes people.
Blackpool briefing
🖊️ Fears that the case of Preston Davey has led to a decline in the number of people coming forward to adopt locally have been dispelled by Lancashire’s main adoption agency.
Adoption Lancashire and Blackpool accepts that the number of children needing adoption is much greater than the availability of families looking to adopt.
However, the agency, which is run in partnership with three local authorities, host agency Lancashire County Council, Blackpool Council and Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, says the case has had no bearing on the figures.
The horrific and tragic case of little Preston culminated in his killer, former teacher Jamie Varley, 37, being given a whole-life order on June 18 after being found guilty of murder, child cruelty, sexual offences and indecent images relating to the 13-month-old toddler.
Varley and his partner, John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, who was convicted of offences included causing or allowing Preston’s death, and sentenced to 25 years, were in the process of formally adopting the youngster.
After the case concluded, a probe began into how the pair were accepted as adoption candidates by Adoption Now, a company providing services to Greater Manchester councils, including the toddler’s home authority, Oldham Council.
🩺 The Lancashire and South Cumbria Cancer Alliance has been recognised for its work to improve earlier diagnosis and outcomes by being shortlisted for a Health Service Journal award.
It comes after data showed that the alliance, one of 21 across England, had the biggest improvement for diagnosing cancers at an earlier stage.
The team is up for the Excellence in Narrowing the Health Inequalities Gap.
There are eight other finalists, with the winner announced in London on November 19.
Overcoming primary school bullies to become a Blackpool maths prodigy
By Luke Beardsworth
A mother has spoken of her glowing pride after her son achieved remarkable GCSE results - after his education in Blackpool started with him moving school because of bullying.
Nudrat Khawaji, 44, came to Blackpool in 2017 after first working in Saudi Arabia and was born in Pakistan.
Her son Shahmeer Amir has one eye on a place at either Oxford or Cambridge after top GCSE results in subjects that include Maths, Further Maths and Extended Maths.
Nudrat works at The Harbour, a mental health hospital in Blackpool, and has been doing so since she settled in Blackpool. When she moved, her son Shahmeer came with her.
She told The Blackpool Lead: “I wanted to do higher training and it’s the best in the UK. I did all of the exams to work in the UK and moved here in February 2017. We spent the first few months in Preston but I got a job at The Harbour in Blackpool.
“We loved Blackpool immediately so we moved. Since then, we have been in Blackpool and bought my property here - despite all the other doctors who live in Preston.”
Both Nudrat and Shahmeer have been very positive about their experiences in Blackpool - stressing that it is a welcoming and inclusive place.
But Shahmeer’s education got off to a rough start when he attended Mereside Primary School and faced bullying over his name, culture, background and ambitions.
Nudrat told us: “There was unfortunately quite a bit of bullying aimed at Shahmeer in that school and we had to change.
“Students would make fun of his name, they’d sing funny songs about him. I had to write a long letter to the school headmistress and intervene.
“It caused him a lot of stress, he’d be walking around school on his own, he wouldn’t be able to make friends.”