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Woman's Hour

Paris Paloma, Repair Cafes, French conjugal rights, Gynae care in Wales

Woman's Hour

BBC

Society & Culture

4.13K Ratings

🗓️ 2 February 2026

⏱️ 52 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Last week a report from the Welsh Health and Social Care Committee revealed that women in Wales felt that they were being failed by gynaecological cancer services, with many facing long waiting lists to see a specialist or start treatment. Anita speaks to Jess Mason who was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2022, Lowri Griffiths, Director of Policy, Research and Insight at Tenovus Cancer Care and Aarti Sharma, Consultant Gynaecology Oncology Surgeon, University Hospital of Wales.

Politicians in France have moved to abolish so called "conjugal rights," the concept of a marital duty to have sex with your partner. A bill approved on Wednesday in the French National Assembly adds a clause to the country's civil code, which currently defines the duties of marriage as "respect, fidelity, support and assistance," and says couples commit themselves to a "community of living." The proposed law makes clear that "community of living" does not create an "obligation for sexual relations." Anita is joined by the French journalist Anne-Elisabeth Moutet.

Across Wales more than 700 women volunteers regularly bring faulty toasters, ripped jeans, wobbly chairs and other broken stuff back to life for free. They are part of Repair Café Wales, a charity that spans 134 locations. They are launching 'Fix It February', a month-long campaign to inspire people to repair one broken item instead of replacing it. Anita is joined by Repair Cafe Wales director Phoebe Brown and Lucy Harris, one of the volunteers.

The writer and performer Paris Paloma has a new single out today about women’s bodies called Good Girl. Paloma joins Anita to sing and talk about her music, including her 2023 track Labour about women’s unpaid work which started a social media trend as women around the world related the song to their own experiences with sexism.

Presenter: Anita Rani Producer: Rebecca Myatt

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.

0:07.6

Resolutions, ideas of being different.

0:10.3

Can we create long-lasting change?

0:12.2

Doctors Chris and Zand Van Tullochin are on a mission to help us take better care of ourselves.

0:17.1

You tried, it didn't work, what could you put in place?

0:20.2

And chartered psychologist Kimberly Wilson is on hand to help make sense of mental health.

0:25.2

We are constantly being told what's wrong with us, but there's so much that's right with us.

0:30.7

Reset and recharge with what's up docs and complex with Kimberly Wilson.

0:35.2

Listen on BBC Sounds.

0:37.9

Hello, I'm Anita Rani and welcome to Woman's Hour from BBC Radio 4.

0:42.8

Just to say that for rights reasons, the music in the original radio broadcast has been removed for this podcast.

0:49.1

Good morning. Welcome to the programme.

0:51.4

Flicking through the papers this morning, it was lovely to see a photo of the female power couple, Madonna and Tracy Eamon in the papers today. If you follow Madonna on her Instagram, you'll have seen that she's in Margate and is raving not just about Dame Tracy Eamon, but also about the seaside town itself. She says, whenever I go there, I feel like I've entered a dream,

1:12.4

but has she been spotted in Dreamland?

1:14.3

Well, it brought a smile to my face, so I thought I'd share it with you.

1:17.7

On the programme today, Harris Paloma, she is here,

1:20.8

and she's going to be treating us to a live performance.

1:24.3

We are looking also at why women in Wales are being let down by gynecological cancer care.

1:30.1

They're feeling unheard and ignored.

1:32.4

We'll be hearing more.

1:34.3

And are you someone who likes to fix things?

1:37.1

Can you pick up a toolkit and have a tinker?

...

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