Curse lifted

By Alex Hudson
BBC News

He tried yoga, hypnotherapy, acupuncture, pickled plums, mustard, vinegar and every single way you could imagine to drink water but now Chris Sands, the man who suffered hiccups for over two and a half years, has finally been cured.

After a chance diagnosis while filming for a Japanese documentary, the 26-year-old had surgery to remove a tumour found on his brain stem.

Surgeons believed this was what was causing the hiccups.

"When I found out, I just dropped," said Chris Sands.

"It was lucky there was a chair underneath me because I would have dropped to the floor. I was in tears and I didn't know what to do.

"It has ruined my life pretty much"

Chris Sands

"It could have killed me at any time."

Mr Sands, who is an aspiring musician and lives in Timberland near Woodhall Spa Lincolnshire, first got the hiccups in September 2006 and, after a few days, began searching for a diagnosis.

After finding that hiccups could be linked to brain tumours, he went to visit a doctor.

"They said, 'don't worry about it, it's probably just linked to your heartburn, here's some Gaviscon'," he said.

The hiccups went away but returned for good in February 2007.

What followed was a two-year search for something to stop the hiccups that took him to the other side of the world.

"When you first tell people about the hiccups they do laugh straight away and I suppose they don't think about how debilitating it is.

"It has ruined my life pretty much."

The problem has prevented him from working, driving, leaving home and even finding a girlfriend.

While searching for a breakthrough, Mr Sands appeared on television both in the UK and Japan.

From these appearances, a Japanese doctor called Dr Kagyama offered to come and stay with him in an attempt to find a cure.

"That crazy man was absolutely fantastic," Mr Sands said.

Dr Kagyama tried a number of alternative therapies over the course of a week and, as his patient put it, "he loved to torture people".

"He wanted to put a giant needle at the base of my neck in behind my ribcage all the way down into my diaphragm.

"He said 'look, if I hit an artery or anything en route, then, well, you're dead'."

Mr Sands politely declined the offer.

Brain tumour

Shortly after Dr Kagyama's visit, he received a phone call from the Japanese TV programme he had first appeared on, offering him the chance to try some new suggestions.

"They said they had such a massive response from the public.

"The programme had 400 or 500 different cures sent in and they wanted to fly me over to Japan to try them."

Straight off the plane, his first day was spent with a hiccup specialist who had been studying the condition for years.

It was there that he underwent the MRI scan that revealed the tumour.

"If they had done an MRI scan in England, they probably would have found [the tumour]"

Dr Condo

The man who diagnosed Mr Sands in Japan, Dr Condo, said: "CT scans are extremely poor at detecting in this area - unless you use an MRI scan you won't be able to detect it.

"If they had done an MRI scan in England, they probably would have found it."

But Chris is not angry about the way he way was treated.

In fact, despite being offered the opportunity to have the operation in Japan, he chose to return to England.

"Everyone else seems to mean harm to the NHS for various reasons but I really don't.

"They probably should have done [an MRI exam] but it just never happened.

"I don't blame anyone and I got treated well no matter where I went."

'Long haul'

Chris underwent a three-hour procedure last September which removed two-thirds of the tumour.

And the hiccups have subsided. Four months after the surgery he seems to be well on the way to being cured.

"I still get bouts [of hiccups] from time to time but I'm expecting that to completely disappear in a couple of months - it's just due to the swelling [from the operation].

"Before this whole thing started I hadn't even had a tooth out and now I've got a six-inch scar down the back of my neck, so they'd better go."

Before the surgery, Chris was warned that he may suffer some problems with his left arm and leg and may have to use a walking stick in the months following the surgery.

"Everything is slowly getting better but it is a long haul recovery.

"It's going to take 18 months but it is progressing.

"My left arm is still pretty rubbish but I'm just about able to play guitar again, which is really nice.

"We just had a band practice. I didn't perform very well but it's just nice to get back to that - such a good, positive feeling."

The Man Who Can't Stop Hiccuppingbroadcasts Tuesday 12 January, 2235 GMT, BBC One and afterwards on iPlayer.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Looking up?

A BBC poll commissioned with ABC News and Germany's ARD suggests that Afghans are increasingly confident about the future. The BBC has spoken to Afghans to get their reaction to the poll.

Afghan optimism grows: Survey

BAZ MOHAMMAD ARYUBMAL, TRANSLATOR, GARDEZ

The survey says that the people of Afghanistan are optimistic but we're not optimistic at all. We were hopeful in 2001 when we believed Afghanistan would prosper but with the civilian deaths and the corruption that followed, people have changed their minds.

The foreign forces bomb our villages and raid our houses at night. The West needs to remember that when one person is killed, there are many who mourn. People in Kabul are often mourning for their dead relatives from rural areas.

People are not just killed but imprisoned - I can promise you that most people held in US jails here have nothing to do with the Taliban. They are victims of conspiracies made up by people from their own villages.

In Afghanistan there are many private hostilities between families that go back a long way. Villagers use foreign forces to vindicate themselves of these and innocent Afghans end up in jail.

The people who should really be tried are the warlords who are now part of our government. The corruption is rife and nothing has changed in regards to drug trafficking, so people ask themselves why the government isn't doing anything to stop this.

The economy is doing well in urbanised areas but there are rural areas with high unemployment and where people are literally starving. People don't have food, don't have work and often they have friends or relatives who have suffered at the hands of foreign forces.

This is how young people turn to the Taliban - they get food and money, and they believe they're doing a good thing by fighting for freedom. We need to get rid of corruption and to adopt new strategies for this to change.

SULTAN MAHMOOD, FINANCE WORKER, MAZAR-E SHARIF

We have things now in Afghanistan that we couldn't even conceive of before. We have computers, universities and hospitals.

Of course we have our problems. Corruption is the biggest, we can see it in NGOs and in the government too. We're also seeing lots of civilian casualties, elderly people and children alike. Both the Taliban and the foreign troops kill our people. Our villages get bombed in the name of security and our people die.

A lot of money is spent on foreign troops. If half of that money was invested in the Afghan army, it would go very far. People respect Afghan troops more, they associate with them. Some of that money should also be spent in development projects, improving hospitals and roads.

But overall things are getting better. There are now lots of small industries growing in Mazar-e-Sharif and the economy is getting stronger. We've definitely progressed and I'm optimistic about the future.

MOHAMMAD LATIF, DOCTOR, KABUL

I'm surprised by the results of this survey because if you watch the media or go to certain parts of the country you see a very different picture. Every day people are killed. I think the survey must have been given a Western slant to promote Afghanistan and show Afghans that they are doing the right thing.

"The Taliban will get stronger if the US doesn't change its policies"

Mohammad Latif

The recent elections were corrupt and many people don't want Dr Karzai in power. People are angry at the corruption and lack of security in the country.

While the economy is working well for the rich, the poor people are getting even poorer. At the start of the war in 2001, people had very different hopes for the country and supported the work the US were doing. They hoped it would end corruption and finish off the narcotics industry, and that it would bring safety and security to the country.

Since then, there has been more and more anger towards the troops because they are not delivering what was promised.

I don't think this reflects directly in favour of the Taliban because people who don't support the troops don't want the Taliban either, but it could make the Taliban more confident.

There are big problems ahead and that the Taliban will get stronger if the US doesn't change its policies. Barack Obama needs to start respecting the Afghan people and involving them in every decision.

MUMTAZ AHMAD, US DEVELOPMENT AGENCY, KABUL

Some of the realities we face on a daily basis are harsh but soon this will be a peaceful country. People are fed up and the Taliban is losing support, they're getting tired of fighting.

"There are lots of sensitivities here and we couldn't just adopt a Western style of democracy"

Mumtaz Ahmad

People want education and basic health care and they don't believe the Taliban would be able to give them this. There was a lot of misery here when they were in power.

Things have been hard. We were at war for years and it takes time to come out of that. Now things are getting better and the economy has improved dramatically.

I'm not surprised that many people in the survey didn't think democracy was the best form of governance for Afghanistan. There are lots of sensitivities here and we couldn't just adopt a Western style of democracy, we would have to create our own style.

We need to respect religion and people's traditions and we can't allow them to be made fun of.

But if we amalgamate Islamic values, traditions and what we've learned from our history to create our own style of democracy, it will work. We must not force Western values onto Afghanistan - we've got a complex setting here and we need to respect all its facets.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Togo's Nations Cup exit confirmed

Venue and dates: Angola, 10-31 January Coverage: Final and semi-finals live on BBC TV, BBC World Service and commentaries on BBC Sport website. Live commentary on opening match on BBC World Service and BBC Sport website

Togo Prime Minister Gilbert Houngbo has demanded the football team should not compete in the Africa Cup of Nations even though the players want to play.

There has been confusion surrounding Togo's participation following Friday's deadly gun attack on their team bus in Angola which left three people dead.

Togo captain and Manchester City striker Emmanuel Adebayor had originally intended to return home.

However, in an apparent U-turn he wants to stay for the sake of the tournament.

Adebayor said the team thought that despite the attack on their convoy in the northern enclave of Cabinda, which killed an assistant coach, press officer and bus driver, and injured several others including players, life should go on and they did not want to be seen as ruining the Nations Cup.

Team-mate Thomas Dossevi also said the players want to honour those killed and French paper L'Equipe quoted Alaixys Romao as saying the team would not leave like cowards.

But Houngbo said the government was standing by its decision to call the team home.

The bi-annual tournament is set to begin on Sunday with the hosts Angola playing Mali in Luanda at 1900 GMT.

Togo are due to play Ghana in Cabinda in their first match on Monday.

Ghana have confirmed they will play in the competition. A statement from the Ghana Football Association read: "The Black Stars will be competing in Cabinda when the Africa Cup of Nations group matches kick off on Monday despite events of the past two days.

"Ghana's team at the competition has been assured of total security in the wake of last Friday's terror attack on group opponents, Togo."

Togo has demanded Angola explain why it was not warned of the dangers of travel in Cabinda, where the bus was ambushed.

Angolan officials had earlier expressed astonishment that the team had travelled there by road from their base in the Republic of Congo.

On Saturday, government spokesman Pascal Bodjona said Togo's players were returning home because they were in a state of shock.

"We cannot in such a dramatic circumstance continue in the Africa Cup of Nations," he told reporters.

He reiterated that message on Sunday, saying: "The government is maintaining its decision to call the team back home."

Adebayor said on City's website on Saturday he was returning to the UK.

But following a late-night meeting it appears the team now wants to stay.

"We are all heartbroken, it is no longer a party, but we want to show our national colours, our values and that we are men," said Dossevi.

"It was a decision taken nearly unanimously by the team which met during the night after having been reassured by the Angolan authorities," he added.

Romao said: "We have just had a meeting of the whole delegation and we will be on the pitch on Monday to face Ghana.

CABINDA

• Oil-rich province cut off from the rest of Angola by DR Congo
• Flec rebels fought for region's independence
• Rebels laid down arms in 2006 but some unrest continues
• Angola had dismissed concerns about staging games there

Optimism to horror after attack

Send us your comments

"People have died for the Africa Cup of Nations, others have been injured. We can't let them down and leave like cowards," he added.

"If we stay here it's for them, but also not to give any satisfaction to the rebels. Our government does not necessarily agree with us but we are all determined to play this competition."

Meanwhile, Kodzo Samlan, a spokesman for the tournament organisers, the Confederation of African Football (Caf), said he had spoken to Togo's players and "they confirmed they want to play".

Mr Samlan said Caf was still waiting for official confirmation from Togo's government.

Caf had earlier said it understood Togo's withdrawal, but that the six other matches scheduled to be played in Cabinda would go ahead.

In Friday's attack, several gunmen opened fire on the Togo team bus shortly after it had crossed from the Republic of Congo into the enclave of Cabinda.

Adebayor told the BBC the players and support staff were trapped on the bus for 30 minutes as Angolan police fought the attackers. They eventually had to flee under fire to get into the vehicles sent to rescue them, he said.

Togolese officials said the driver had died at the scene, while media officer Stanislas Ocloo and assistant coach Amalete Abalo died later in hospital.

The separatist rebel Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (Flec), which has fought for independence for several decades but entered into a ceasefire in 2006, later claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Angolan government, which had hoped the tournament would show how well it had recovered from the fighting, called the incident an "act of terrorism".

CAF president Issa Hayatou said he had received a guarantee that security would be increased for all teams and at all venues.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.