Looking for love

Date walkers looking for romance

Comedian Shappi Khorsandi goes looking for love on the Isle of Wight, a place she had not visited since she was on a school trip in the '70s.

Ms Khorsandi joins a quirky modern mating ritual known as speed dating.

Straight off the ferry Shappi heads for the nearest supermarket worried that her flip flops wouldn't cope with the serious mileage a speed date walk required.

This lot looked like serious walkers.

The pub was swamped with people wearing badges with a number on and excited nervous chatter.

Everyone keen to get walking talking and sussing out if their partner for life would be standing there before them come the next blow of the whistle.

A conga like trail of pairs left the pub with Shappi joining in or match making depending on what was required.

"Every time the whistle blows people swap pausing first to tick or cross the person they've just met."

At the end of the date matches means swapping phone numbers and that could mean a date.

Organisers made the point at the start that:

"It is recommended that walkers are on their best behaviour and do not use foul or sexually suggestive language."

Heeding this advice Shappi is instantly drawn to islander Graham, who repeatedly states:

"I'm not in the least bit interested in pairing with anyone. I will be single for the rest of my life."

"I think he's playing hard to get", says Shappi.

The organisers were the same team behind the Isle of Wight walking festival.

They now admit that "six days prior to the event we only had two men signed up, and as most of the ladies came from the mainland, it did seem a little unfair bringing them over to the Island for nothing."

However they needn't have worried as on the day walkers came from all over and eight ladies had to be turned away!

Walkers came from Berkshire, Salisbury, London, Harrow, Dorset, Somerset, Reading, Kent, Birmingham, Southampton and of course the Isle of Wight.

At the end of the day there were 12 matches during the walk - after walking four miles on a freezing cold day, everyone went home with a rosy glow in their cheeks.

Fresh air, exercise and romance - obviously a winning combination.

Links relating to this story:

• Speed dating explained

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Absconding patients

Patient escapes from psychiatric unit

We investigate how vulnerable patients are absconding from a psychiatric unit in Southampton by scaling the security fence.

Inside Out filmed mentally ill patients climbing the 20-foot-high fence at the Royal South Hants Hospital on five different days.

Presenter Chris Packham says he was shocked by how easy it was for patients to abscond from the Department of Psychiatry.

"Many of the patients have been sectioned under the Mental Health Act because they are a danger to themselves or others," he said.

"But they were climbing out in broad daylight, in full view of the hospital and the CCTV cameras, and nobody made any effort to stop them."

One mother tells the programme how her son has absconded more than 50 times in a couple of months.

"My son is very low I don't know if he's headed to the nearest bridge to jump.

"I don't know what he has in his mind and I don't want to think about what other patients may have in their head."

Hampshire Partnership NHS Trust now admits that 26 different patients have climbed the fence over the past four years.

Chief Executive Martin Barkley

Security boosted

Chief Executive Martin Barkley tells the programme that security will be improved and that work will start soon to make the fence harder to climb.

But he says that some patients are free to leave anyway and he denies that sectioned patients have been absconding on a daily basis.

"The facts of the matter are that on average it has been one patient every two months since 2002, except in July and August of this year when there has been an escalation in that behaviour."

"It is not a secure hospital that is geared up to keep patients in hospital who are determined by whatever means to leave."

But Inside Out showed its footage to the man responsible for safeguarding sectioned patients in England.

Chris Heginbotham, Chief Executive of the Mental Health Act Commission

Commission intervenes

Chris Heginbotham, Chief Executive of the Mental Health Act Commission, said he would be sending one of his commissioners to talk to the health trust about security.

"It is really very surprising that a patient was able to climb out in broad daylight," he said.

"The suicide rate is very high for patients who abscond, so with any patient who is able to climb out in that way there is clearly a danger of self harm, possibly suicide."

Links relating to this story:

• Absconding patients

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Football therapy

Football - turning lives around on and off the pitch

Can football succeed where anger management has failed?

Inside Out features the story of three Oxfordshire teenagers who have been the victims of domestic violence.

So far, they have been using drinks, drugs and violence to cope with the trauma.

But Stephen Fontaine, a former footballer, is attempting to turn their lives around by getting them to play football.

He met the girls – Jade, Laura and Becky - through their counsellor nearly two years ago.

Their stories brought up memories of Stephen’s own childhood problems.

Troubled teenager to top talent

Stephen Fontaine focuses on football as therapy

Thanks to a lucky encounter with a teacher who spotted his talent, Stephen turned from a self-destructive child into a talented football player.

He wants to do the same for these three girls.

So, he organises a charity football tournament and gets the girls to play in a team alongside girls from stable families for a better balance.

Although the girls lose all their games in the tournament, they are certainly not disgraced.

And the training and teamwork has started to make a real difference to their lives.

Links relating to this story:

• BBC Sport - Football

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