Lockdown babies, Breast cancer study, Femgore, Chess Masters

Woman's Hour

BBC

Society & Culture, Health & Fitness, Personal Journals

4.2 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 17 March 2025

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Five years on from the first Covid lockdown, what can be done to support the 200,000 ‘Lockdown babies’ born when lockdown was at its most restrictive, between 23 March and 4 July 2020? These babies have extraordinary young-life stories: Mums giving birth alone; doctors in hazmat suits; babies meeting fathers and grandparents for the first time online; no health visitors; no family cuddles; no baby groups. Now aged four and approaching five, lockdown seems to have had lasting effects on some. What can be done to help? Nuala McGovern is joined by Nicola Botting, Professor of Developmental Disorders at City St George’s, University of London and co-lead on The Born in Covid Year – Core Lockdown Effects (BICYCLE) study, Jane Harris, CEO of Speech and Language UK, and mum of three, Frankie Eshun.

Girls Aloud singer Sarah Harding died of breast cancer in 2021 at the age of 39. Inspired by her desire to find new ways of spotting the disease earlier, the Breast Cancer Risk Assessment in Young Women (BCAN-RAY) study was set up in May 2023. Led by Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust with funding from the Christie Charity, Sarah Harding Breast Cancer Appeal, and other charities, it is one of the world's first research programmes to identify breast cancer risks in younger women without a family history of the disease. Nuala speaks to Anna Housley, who has taken part in the study.

Nuala talks to Emma van Straaten, whose 10,000 word entry, This Immaculate Body, won the inaugural Women’s Prize Discoveries in 2021, an award set up to inspire unagented and unpublished women in the UK and Ireland to write their first novels. That submission is now a published book - It is about Alice, who has been cleaning Tom’s flat for over a year, and becomes infatuated with him, a man she has never met.

A new TV series, Chess Masters, started last week on BBC2. It’s badged as Bake Off with kings and queens. Camilla Lewis, the woman behind the new show, was inspired to create it by her teenage daughter, Jasmine, who became obsessed with the game during lockdown. They join Nuala to talk about how to turn a board game into must-watch television.

Presenter: Nuala McGovern Producer: Rebecca Myatt

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	He tells her that she will be sent to France as a secret agent, and if she's caught, she's going to be shot.
0:09.3	I'm Helen Obalam Carter, and this is history's secret heroes, where I shine a light on extraordinary stories from World War II.
0:17.6	What they wanted was someone to get themselves arrested and sent to Auschwitz.
0:22.0	Tales of deception and incredible acts of resistance and courage.
0:26.3	She was a born soldier.
0:27.4	She's a freedom fighter in its widest sense.
0:29.9	The brand new series of history's secret heroes.
0:32.8	Listen first on BBC Sounds.
0:36.4	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:40.7	Hello, this is Newell O'Magherin, and you're listening to The Woman's Hour podcast.
0:45.8	Hello, and welcome to Monday's program.
0:48.5	Now, if you gave birth five years ago, you will no doubt be familiar with the term lockdown baby. Yes, it is five years
0:56.5	since we went into lockdown and those that had a baby during that extraordinary time all have
1:02.4	a story to tell. But what about those children now? What impact did it have on their development
1:08.2	been born during a global pandemic, where we're going to hear
1:12.0	from mothers and also about an ongoing study on the effects of lockdown about what is known so
1:17.5	far. Some of you may have thoughts on this. The number to text, 844, I'll give you more ways to get
1:23.2	in touch in a moment. Now, during that time, many of us turned to various pursuits to stave off the
1:28.9	monotony. Chess was the game that one of my guests turned to. She says it alleviated her depression.
1:35.6	Her mother then decided to pitch chess masters as a TV show. Yes, it's on air now, so we're going to
1:42.1	speak to both of them. Also today, the author Emma Van Stratton, who wrote The Immaculate Body.
1:47.5	Her debut novel is where a cleaner becomes obsessed with the man she is cleaning for, although she has never met him.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.