Leicester City manager Nigel Pearson pinpointed "unforced errors" as a key reason for his side's disappointing display in their 2-0 defeat to Swansea.

The Swans' Ivorian striker Wilfried Bony scored in each half to consign City to a third consecutive away defeat, with Leicester again unable to find the net on the road.

With Swansea comfortable in possession and accurate with their passing, City's time with the ball was limited.

When they did get hold of the ball, City were sloppy, conceding possession far too easily, particularly in the first half when they failed to register a shot.

Pearson said City's carelessness with the ball was a big part of their downfall.

"We didn't perform as well as we should have done, basically," Pearson said. "The key things in that: we didn't manage the ball well enough.

"When you play against a side who enjoy playing a passing game themselves, you can ill afford to make too many unforced errors when you've got the ball, and we did that far too often in the first half.

"It made it a frustrating afternoon for the players. I think they felt unable to turn that around in the first half.

"It was a disappointing performance, but we will improve on that."

City improved in the second period, but did not have enough quality to find a way back into the match.

Pearson said: "Players can have off-days, we probably had too many who had an off-day today.

"It's hard enough carrying one or two who are just a little bit under par, but we certainly didn't perform in the way that we know we can."

Young goalkeeper Adam Smith was City's deputy for the match after Ben Hamer broke his finger in training on Friday. Pearson confirmed Leicester's usual second-choice stopper will be out for three to four weeks with the injury.

In a bizarre incident before the match, Smith and Kasper Schmeichel had told City staff they thought the goals were too high and, as a result, Pearson requested to the officials that they be measured.

Pearson said: "The goalkeepers felt that they were a bit high, and I thought it might be in everybody's best interests, to get it checked out. It was quite light-hearted really, I think the officials were slightly surprised, but everything was fine.

"We could have done with them being a bit smaller today!"

Leicester Tigers slipped to a 15-3 defeat against the Scarlets in their European Champions Cup clash in south Wales.

It was a bitterly disappointing performance from Tigers, who were looking to back up their opening game win over Ulster.

But their hopes were hit by their own errors as the home side were gifted two tries and ran out worthy winners.

Tigers began the game brightly as they took the game to their Welsh hosts and both wingers Blaine Scully and Miles Benjamin tested the Scarlets defence out wide.

Benjamin's sortie into the home 22 ought to have led to Tigers taking the lead. The ball was fed across the face of the posts to Anthony Allen but with the line at his mercy the Tigers centre spilled the ball.

Leicester did go in front in the 14^th minute when Owen Williams landed a penalty after Scarlets had been penalised at a scrum and at that stage the visitors had a good grip on the game.

However, that all changed in the 22^nd minute when Benjamin fumbled the ball close to his own line and Harry Robinson scored the easiest of tries.

Rhys Priestland missed the conversion and then two more penalties but it was clear that Scarlets now had belief in their ability to rattle Leicester and they moved into an 8-3 lead when Steve Shingler, having taken on the kicking duties, landed a penalty after Tigers had been penalised for offside.

There was still a chance for both sides to miss penalties before half-time arrived but there was little doubt one side was considerably happier than the other.

Half-time: Scarlets 8 Tigers 3

Leicester needed to re-eastablish themselves at the start of the second half but they were faced by a home side lifted by their first-half performance.

As a result Tigers were rarely seen as an attacking force and whenever they did threaten the Scarlets line they turned over possession.

The only score of the half came when Youngs made a break down the right but as he attempted to off-load the ball was intercepted by his Scarlets counterpart, Aled Davies, who sprinted

40 yards to score. Shingler added the two points and Leicester had a mountain to climb.

They never looked like getting to the summit – or anywhere near it. There were a couple of late breaks from Benjamin but the home defence remained solid leaving the Tigers empty-handed.

Dry and bright conditions welcomed thousands of runners for the Leicester Marathon at Victoria Park this morning.

Road closures meant that many motorists faced diversions as race organisers began marking the route with bollards.

Organisers were expecting at least 3,000 runners of all abilities to join in one of the three events being held today.

There is a full marathon, a half marathon and the Cummins Relay Challenge. Road closures were introduced at around 6am and many along the route north of the city will remain in force for several hours.

The races were due to start at 9.15am.

Four figure bonuses have been handed out in performance related payments to two NHS chiefs, it has emerged.

Health campaigners have criticised the payments totalling more than £11,000 made to the managing directors of the Leicester City and the West Leicestershire clinical commissioning groups (CCGs).

Toby Sanders, managing director of the West Leicestershire CCG, has been awarded a five per cent bonus on top of his £125,000 to £130,000 annual salary.

Simon Freeman, who was managing director of the Leicester City CCG until the end of October, received a bonus of four per cent on top of his annual salary of £130,000 to £135,000.

The bonuses come as many NHS workers have been denied a one per cent increase in pay.

The bonus payments have been criticised by Eric Charlesworth, chairman of the Leicester Mercury Patients' Panel.

He said: "At this time of considerable financial restraint it is difficult to comprehend how increases can be justified."

Health campaigner Zuffar Haq added: "It seems unfair they should be getting this level of bonus when the rest of the NHS is getting so little.

"It would have been nice to see the directors hand back the bonus."

However, Professor Mayur Lakhani, chairman of the West Leicestershire CCG said: "The CCG, in making the decision, has been mindful of the need to ensure value for money in the use of public resources at a time of financial austerity.

"I want to reassure the public that these decisions are not taken lightly and there is a searching examination of performance.

"Therefore I am confident that the right decision has been to recognise the outstanding leadership of the accountable officer in all the key areas, not just in the CCG, but also the Better Care Together (BCT) programme across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland."

He added: "This is a very critical time for the local health service and it is vital to nurture strong leadership."

Professor Azhar Farooqi, chairman of the Leicester City CCG said: "Leicester is a complex city with significant health challenges.

"The four per cent bonus was awarded in recognition of the improvements that have been made to health outcomes for our patients, including reducing the number of patients admitted to hospital with suspected strokes, providing health checks for over 20,000 patients and reducing emergency hospital admissions."

Both CCG chairman said the bonus payments were below the bonus payment limit of 10 per cent set nationally.

However Dr Dave Briggs, managing director of the East Leicestershire and Rutland CCG, did not receive any extra on top of his annual salary of £140,000 to £145,000.

A CCG spokesman said: "As 2013/14 was the first year since the authorisation of East Leicestershire and Rutland CCG, we did not consider bonus payments last year.

"However, this will be considered for 2014/15 as part of the CCG's annual performance review process for the accountable officer."

He added: "The award of a bonus is dependent on the achievement of a number of challenging organisational objectives and is assessed as part of a two-part process."

The core sites will be:

Follow us on Twitter @RoadSafeLeics

Firefighters spent more than two hours rescuing a dog who was stuck in Croft Quarry, near Enderby.

Crews were called to the quarry just before midday yesterday, to reports of a trapped dog.

An engine from Hinckley station attended the incident, as well as an engine from Southern station and the technical rescue team.

Upon arrival they found that the dog, which was a springer spaniel called Marley, was stuck on a ledge in the quarry.

One of the firefighters climbed down to the ledge to reach the dog.

The pair were then brought back up to safety.

Marley, who was not injured, was re-united with his owner and crews left the incident at 2.30pm.

Thousands of runners of all abilities filled the streets of  Leicester when the starting pistol for the marathon was fired by Brian Bland from Countesthorpe this morning.

Victoria Park was heaving with people in multi coloured outfits as they set out to cover the route in aid of a number of local and national charities.

Charities being boosted by the marathon include Loros hospice, Vista, Bamboozle Thearte, Spark Arts for Children and the Woodside Animal Centre.

Leicester Tigers director of rugby Richard Cockerill believes his side can afford just one more loss at the most if they are to have any chance of progressing from their European Champions Cup pool.

The Tigers campaign suffered a setback when they were beaten 15-3 by Scarlets in Llanelli, leaving Toulon clear at the top of the group after posting two wins.

There were no excuses from the Tigers camp after their defeat at Parc Y Scarlets.

"We conceded two pretty soft tries," Cockerill said. "Our execution was very poor. We couldn't hold on to the ball and if you do that and give points away you are going to lose.

"Take nothing away from Scarlets, they played well and worked exceptionally hard. But we cannot be that inaccurate and expect to get anything from the game.

"We have to win at least four games to get out of the group. It is all to play for but getting nothing out of this game makes it exceptionally difficult."

Skipper Ben Youngs added: "The group is tough enough. You can probably afford to lose one away game and then you need to get a bonus point.

"Toulon back-to-back is a big challenge which has become somewhat bigger."

The Royal British Legion launched their Poppy Appeal on Saturday and already money has been pouring in.

To help launch this year's appeal, an event took place in Leicester's Highcross shopping centre.

Giles Coleman, Royal British Legion (RBL) community fund-raiser for Leicestershire and Rutland, said: "We had such a fantastic day, I think it's the best one yet."

Following last year's total amount raised in Leicestershire and Rutland of £527,000, Mr Coleman said they are hoping to raise around £567,000 this time round.

And with more than 500 shoppers stopping to help celebrate the launch, Mr Coleman said they have already raised buckets full of cash for the appeal.

He added: "We've raised quite a bit already, the buckets were feeling rather heavy when we left.

"Hopefully we're started as we mean to go on and we will continue to raise a lot of money."

This year celebrates the centenary of the poppy symbol and marks 100 years since the start of First World War.

Money raised from the Poppy Appeal goes to current and ex-servicemen, women and their families who may be in need, financially or otherwise.

"The thing is, the appeal means something to everyone," added Mr Coleman.

"I want people to wear their poppies with pride because - whatever you may believe - these servicemen have, or are protecting our interest and the poppy shows we support them."

Helping launch the appeal on Saturday was The Tamashi School of Taiko Drumming, who performed for passers-by.

Group spokeswoman Liz Walters said: "We were only too pleased to help launch the Poppy Appeal locally by giving a demonstration of our discipline.

"We have a member in Leicester and we are hoping to expand here.

"We hope to have attracted a number of people who felt they wanted to contribute to the appeal and learn more about this form of drumming."

The Tamashi School of Taiko Drumming believes people can learn discipline and fitness by taking part in the activity.

Ms Walters added: "As many of the people who saw the sessions can testify, you have to be fit."

As well as putting on a display, the group also led workshops for members of the public to have a go.

A number of events will be taking place across the country over the next few weeks to raise money for the appeal, including the annual Leicester City Poppy Appeal match on November 1.

The club will wear a special shirt for the game against West Brom and allow a collection outside the King Power Stadium.

For more information about Poppy Appeal events in Leicestershire visit: www.britishlegion.org.uk

Matt Adcock is hoping to have inspired a family running dynasty after being crowned Leicester Marathon champion.

The 38-year-old maths teacher, of Hermitage Harriers, led a field of more than 3,000 runners from Victoria Park, out and around the county, before returning to the park to cross the finish line in a time of 2hrs 35min 18sec.

At the finish, Adcock was greeted by his friends and family, including his two-year-old daughter Elsie, who jumped up into her dad's arms.

While she's not quite old enough to follow in her father's footsteps just yet, Adcock said it won't be long until Elsie is the one to beat. "She runs up and down the lounge saying she wants to race like daddy," he said.

"I'm absolutely delighted. I've got my girlfriend and daughter here, all my nieces and nephews. They have just started running, so I'm hoping that we are starting a bit of a family dynasty.

"I'm not a great runner, but I'm hoping I can inspire some of them to go on and do some great things."

It was by no means an easy victory for the newly-crowned County Champion, who finished second at the Chester Marathon three weeks ago, as he found himself two minutes behind the leader at the halfway point.

After spotting him at the 16-mile mark, he caught up, passed him at Watermead Park, and powered through to secure the victory in his first full outing at Leicester.

"I'm just delighted to win the race at the place I call home," he said.

Preston's Robert Affleck finished second in 2.37.01, taking the first vets prize, while Adam Holland was third in 2.40.25.

Kate Wright, of Stratford-upon-Avon, took the women's crown. The 51-year-old showed that age is no barrier, crossing the line in 3.07.55, more than seven minutes clear of first senior Sarah Fraser in second (3.15.20) and Scunthorpe's Gill Hoole (3.15.51).

"It went really well. I took it steady at the start and it paid off," said Wright.

"I'll definitely be back to defend my title."

The half-marathon was another one-sided affair as Yared Hagos romped to victory more than eight minutes clear of his nearest rival.

In his first appearance at Leicester, the 33-year-old led from start to finish to cross the line in 67.07.35.

Even though that time was nearly five-and-a-half minutes faster than last year's winning time the Wallsend runner, from Loughborough, was not happy with his time.

"It's great but I was alone all the way so that makes it more difficult," said Hagos, who has a personal best of 63.31.

"It was not a good time for me but it was for this course because it's a very tough course."

Anthony Woodward, of Hermitage, finished second in 1.15.43 while George Gurney took third place in 1.18.23.

Meanwhile, Victoria Carter returned to her home city to clinch the women's half-marathon title.

The 43-year-old grew up in Houghton-on-the-Hill but now lives in London and runs for Thames Valley Harriers.

Carter crossed the line in 1.26.03 before going out for another run as part of her full marathon training and help cheer her sister-in-law in her first half-marathon.

"I grew up in Leicester so it's great to come back and win it on home soil."

Fellow Vet runner Stacey Voss, of Fleckney & Kibworth, finished second in 1.26.37 while Joanne Birtwhistle took third, as well as the first-placed senior runner, in 1.29.17.

Leicester Riders head coach Rob Paternostro hailed his team's defensive intensity after the Riders showed too much class for newly-promoted Bristol Flyers in their 83-54 win at Loughborough University.

"The game was all about our defensive performance," said the Riders chief.

"It has been an unusual build-up to the week because we were missing a number of guys in training, making it a little more difficult to prepare.

"So what we wanted to do was make the Flyers battle for every basket and then hope our offence took care of itself.

"And the guys did the job. We were pretty relentless at times, and Bristol knew they weren't going to get anything easy.

"My hat's off particularly to Rashad Hassan, who had an ankle strain all week and couldn't train, yet went out there when we had a couple of other guys out and did a heck of a job.

"But this was not about individual performance – it is about how we defend as a team, and there was a whole bunch of guys who can look back at that game with some pride."

With neither Tyler Bernadini nor Anthony Rowe playing against the Flyers the Riders have a valuable weekend off to allow both those players and Hassan to recover, before the visit of Leeds Force to Loughborough University on Sunday week.

The Riders are second in the BBL Championship after Newcastle Eagles went top with a pair of wins at the weekend.

Charles Smith made it to 6,000 career points in the BBL as he scored 20 in Eagles' 107-78 defeat of Surrey United at Sport Central on Friday.

The legendary forward passed the mark in a dominant home win. Darius Defoe also continued his impressive start to the season as he poured in a team-high 21 points.

The Eagles went on to hand London Lions, the only previously undefeated team left in the BBL Championship, their first loss, as the defending champions beat the London side on the road at the Copper Box Arena. Defoe collected 19 points and 12 boards in a 69-56 win for Eagles.

The Lions had easily beaten Plymouth Raiders 91-63 on Friday as Zaire Taylor made his home debut – but it was a Lions regular who stole the show. Rod Brown was instrumental as the hosts burst out of the blocks and took an early lead before finishing with a game-high 18 points.

The Raiders bounced back and held off a fourth-quarter comeback from Leeds Force, taking the game 73-69 at home on Sunday.

Manchester Giants climbed all the way up to the fourth spot in the table after defeating Durham Wildcats 92-84 to claim their first road win of the season. Darren Best led all scorers with 22 points.

Cheshire Phoenix also finished the weekend on a high note topping Glasgow Rocks 89-86 in Scotland.

Alex Owumi produced the scoring performance of the weekend finishing with 33 points in Worcester Wolves' 98-69 defeat of Leeds Force.

He connected on all six of his three-pointers.

Results: Newcastle 108 Surrey 78; London 91 Plymouth 63; Leeds 69 Worcester 98; London 56 Newcastle 69; Durham 84 Manchester 92; Plymouth 73 Leeds 69; Glasgow 86 Cheshire 89.

Leicester City manager Nigel Pearson insists there is "no reason to be negative" following his side's lacklustre 2-0 defeat at Swansea.

Pearson's men were a shadow of the side that had made such an encouraging start to the campaign as they slumped to their third defeat in four Premier League games.

City were wasteful in possession, making far too many unforced errors in attack and defence, and were punished as Wilfried Bony scored twice for a slick Swansea side at the Liberty Stadium.

The result means City have taken just one point from their last four games, leaving them a point off the relegation places.

But despite what was arguably City's worst performance of the season, Pearson said he would not be getting too downbeat.

"It's very easy to be negative about either indifferent performances or poor results," said Pearson.

"It is very easy to look at what's not very good and what people can't do.

"As always, we'll reflect on our performance and move on, because the next game now becomes the most important.

"When you go four games and only pick up one point, it means that wins become more important.

"There's no reason to be negative or downbeat. It's about getting the preparation right and making sure we're ready for the next game."

City were undone by a flash of brilliance from Bony and Gylfi Sigurdsson for the opener.

A mix-up in the City defence gifted Bony his second just when the visitors were enjoying their best spell of the game.

"The work ethic that we have and the team ethic has always been exceptionally good, but I didn't feel we did as much as we could to stay in the game," said Pearson. "That is probably the biggest disappointment.

"I felt we didn't do enough when we had the ball. And so it becomes a bit of a frustrating day. I know we're much more capable than what we showed."

Pearson confirmed that goalkeeper Ben Hamer will be out for three to four weeks after undergoing surgery on a broken finger which he injured in training on Friday.

Striker Gary Taylor-Fletcher has joined Championship side Sheffield Wednesday on a month-long loan and went on as a substitute in their 0-0 draw with Norwich.

Student Kat Mountain is to leave university debt-free after winning £70,000 on a £2 scratchcard.

The 21-year-old fine art student at De Montfort University is also now able to fund her

Master's degree and put a deposit on a house after the surprise windfall.

Kat, who lives in the Tudor Road area of Leicester, told how she bought the card after having change left when she bought food at her local shop on October 18.

The third-year student, who works as a waitress at Natterjacks bar in Braunstone Gate, said: "I had just finished a day shift and popped in to Tesco to get a few bits and pieces to make dinner for me and my boyfriend.

"I thought I'd get a scratchcard. I liked the bright green colour of the 7x Lucky one so I thought I'd go for that.

"I got into my car and started scratching the card and couldn't believe what I saw. I got a match with my lucky number.

"I had to go back into Tesco to ask the woman if I was right and she got me to sign the back of the scratchcard there and then."

Generous Kat has splashed out more than £2,000 to buy ten sets of equipment for the fencing club at Leicester's De Montfort University.

Kat, who is armourer and competition secretary at the Demon Fencing Society, said: "We were always having to beg and borrow kit to compete but now that will be a thing of the past.

"There will be enough to go around. I have only another year here but this is a gift for the future of the club."

Kat has bought sets of masks, gloves, jackets, breeches and body protectors to be used by club members.

Fencing club captain Holly Pickersgill said it was a touching gesture.

Holly, 21, said: "No-one deserves this win more than Kat.

"She is a lovely person and for her to buy the equipment for the club just shows lovely she is.

"We can't thank her enough - it's brilliant news for the members."

Kat said she feels lucky to be able to leave university debt-free.

She said: "I would not have been able to fund postgraduate studies without working for a couple of years and applying for bursaries.

"It's so unusual to be able to leave university without debt and I'm very happy.

"I can now clear my overdraft, do my Master's degree, help the fencing club and have enough for a deposit on a house - all for £2."

Kat is considering going abroad, possibly to Germany, to study for her Master's and hopes to go into teaching using art techniques to help youngsters with special needs.

Her winning scratchcard was bought from Tesco in Narborough Road West, Leicester.

A 72-year-old disabled man was left stranded at an airport after a car hire company refused to let him drive because he did not have a credit card.

Alan Dearman, of Melton, was travelling to Ontario, Canada, to speak at a charity event and also to meet a cousin he had not seen for 59 years.

He and his wife, Margaret, flew into Toronto airport and went to pick up their hire car for the two-and-a-half-mile drive to the home of a friend, where they would be staying for their two-week trip.

The car, booked through Holiday Autos at a cost of £453, was meant to be provided by a company called Dollar Thrifty but when he handed over the car rental voucher they refused to give him a car.

He said: "We arrived to collect the car at about 8pm on what was a dreadful wet night and had also been a very long day.

"The company refused to provide me with the car as I did not have a credit card.

"This was apparently to cover collision damage.

"The staff at Dollar Thrifty were very aggressive, with a huge attitude problem and still refused to release the vehicle despite explaining I was disabled with polio and a prosthetic limb."

Alan had already spent £50 on an insurance policy from Allianz Global Assistance but the staff said that was not enough - they needed a credit card as well.

He said: "The company showed no compassion or care regarding our situation and were content to leave myself and my wife with three suitcases and a wheelchair totally stranded at the airport with no transport.

"I find it despicable that the public should be treated in this way, especially the disabled and the public should be warned. "

The trip, which began on September 15, had been arranged so Alan could speak at an event for Ontario's Children at Home Day, which is held on September 28 each year to remember the 30,000 British children in care who were sent to Canada to work as servants or on farms between the 1860s and the 1940s.

Alan is an ambassador for Barnardos and was talking about his experience of growing up in Barnardos homes.

After a long wait, Alan and Margaret were picked up by Alan's cousin, who lives about 50 minutes drive from Toronto and took Alan and Margaret on a late-night six-hour round trip to where they were staying.

Alan said: "It wasn't exactly the reunion we were planning and my cousin is 71 years old."

Alan emailed Holiday Autos asking for a full refund and two weeks later he received £387 as a "'gesture of good will"

He successfully got Allianz Global Assistance to refund the full £50 he had paid for his insurance policy.

The Leicester Mercury contacted Holiday Autos but had received no comment from the company at the time of going to press.

Defeat to the Scarlets has left Leicester Tigers in something of a corner as they look to progress in the European Champions Cup.

The 15-3 reverse at Parc Y Scarlets left Toulon sitting pretty at the top of the group having won both their fixtures.

They are next up at Welford Road in December, the first of back-to-back fixtures with the French giants which could make or break Tigers' European campaign.

Flanker Julian Salvi is under no illusions about what Tigers now face in their pool.

"The remaining games are almost must-win games," he said after the Scarlets clash.

"If we do lose another game then we have to pick up bonus points.

"The pool is wide open, that is a big thing. We want to win all our games but, hopefully, all the teams in the pool will be taking points from each other."

Tigers players are painfully aware they missed a chance to pick up a second win due to their own errors in Llanelli.

"It is very frustrating to lose that game," said Salvi.

"It was tough off the back of such a good win (against Ulster) last week.

"It has put us in a tough position."

Yet Leicester had started confidently, taking the game to their hosts but failing to cash in on the chances they had – while handing two tries to the Welsh region.

"We know Scarlets have a history of starting quick so we talked about getting off to a good start, put them under pressure and get them out of the game early," said Salvi.

"Unfortunately we dropped the ball over the line. If we had scored then it would have been a very different game.

"It was a big swing in the game and they took massive momentum from that and they went on from there."

On top of that, Tigers' set-piece functioned well – they were just unable to capitalise when they had Scarlets under pressure.

"That is a key area," added Salvi. "We pride ourselves on a strong set-piece.

"The scrum was fairly solid and so was the line-out in attack and defence. We just couldn't hold on to the ball.

"There was still time with 15 minutes to go to get something from the game and we did push at the line a number of times. But our accuracy was poor when we were attacking in their 22. That let us down and they got out of it with kicks down our throats."

Tigers have to put Europe on the back-burner now as they turn their attention elsewhere.

Saturday sees them travel to the Madejski Stadium to take on London Irish in the LV= Cup before the mouth-watering prospect of the Barbarians' visit to Welford Road on November 4.

One minute three-year-old Oscar Dustan will be running around and the next he can be sitting in tears for no apparent reason.

That is the effect of the medication he needs following a bone marrow transplant to try to combat life-threatening acute myeloid leukaemia – known as AML.

Dad Ryan, from Asfordby, said: "It has turned our world upside down.

"I have a big smile on my face every day but inside I am dying.

"I have to be here and have to be strong for Oscar, my wife, Tania, and daughter, Anna-May, who is two.

"I know there are a lot of people in a worse position but I don't mind admitting there are times when I have a good cry."

Oscar was two-and-a-half when he was diagnosed with AML.

Ryan, 31, said: "It was last July and Oscar became really lethargic.

"He just wasn't himself. He would want to go to bed early and he had a few nose bleeds.

"We went to our GP a few times and they thought it was a chest infection.

"Oscar wasn't getting better and an out-of-hours clinic in Oakham referred us to Leicester Royal Infirmary for a scan and blood tests.

"Later, two nurses came up to us, took us into a room and told us it was leukaemia.

"I felt sick and scared. I just wished I could make it me instead of him. I think I almost broke Tania's hand by squeezing it so hard."

Oscar was transferred to hospital in Nottingham, which specialises in treating AML.

There, he was given courses of chemotherapy over the next few months.

Ryan, a chef, said: "Tania, a hairdresser, and I had to give up our jobs.

"I would stay at the hospital from Monday to Friday and she would be there Friday to Monday.

"Oscar was a shell of himself, it was horrible. He didn't get out of bed for the first six weeks and had to learn to walk again because his legs had wasted away."

The youngster made it home for his third birthday on December 19 and Christmas Day but, at his monthly check-up in February, Ryan and Tania, 28, were devastated to hear the AML had returned.

Doctors said the only option was for Oscar to have a bone marrow transplant and he was transferred to hospital in Sheffield. Ryan said: "We were very lucky to get a 100 per cent match."

The transplant, a nine-hour infusion, was the easy part.

"Oscar has to go back to clinic every week and there is always the worry his body will reject the donor cells," said Ryan.

However, coping with their son's illness is just one aspect to the family's changed world.

Ryan said: "You meet others going through the same journey, there is a little oncology family. Out of the 16 children we knew since Oscar was diagnosed, only Oscar is left now. The oldest was 14 and the youngest, very young.

"In a way, it makes you feel as if you are just waiting but Oscar is doing all right at the moment.

"He is on loads of medication, including steroids, which has the side-effect of big mood swings.

"One minute, he will be hyper and the next crying for no reason and there is no consoling him."

The other difficulties have been financially and emotionally.

Ryan said: "We couldn't have managed without the Clic Sargent charity.

"The support, financially and emotionally, has been phenomenal.

"Tamsin, the Clic Sargent social worker, allocated to us in Nottingham, has helped us through so much.

"She did all the paperwork to help us apply for grants – I wanted to make sure we'd still be able to put a roof over the kids' heads.

"But there is all the emotional support, too – Tamsin is always there to speak to.

"If all's well in two years' time and Oscar has fully recovered, it would be fantastic.

"We could plan more than a few days ahead and not having the worry of having to go for hospital checks the whole time."

Dr Simone Stokley is a consultant paediatric haematologist at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust.

She said: "Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) is quite rare in children. There are only about 70 cases in the country each year.

"It does require intensive treatment and children with AML will require four blocks of chemotherapy over about a six-month period.

"This has to be given in hospital so children will have to spend most of that time as an inpatient.

"Most children do not need to have a bone marrow transplant."

specialist

Because the number of patients is so small, there are about 10 specialist centres in the country treating children. Nottingham is one of those centres.

Dr Stokley, below, said: "We cover the whole of the East Midlands and see about seven patients a year.

"We don't know why one child gets this and not another."

She added: "We are hoping to begin a paediatric clinical trial into treatment, hopefully next year.

"It is likely to include colleagues in France because the numbers are small.

"We will be looking to get information about a new drug, and there are new drugs coming through, and a trial will help in guiding treatments in the future."

Work is continuing on a new residents' parking scheme in Leicester's West End.

Fresh road markings were painted in Beaconsfield Road, Western Park, today, in preparation for the scheme to take effect on November 17.

It will include streets between Fosse Road South and Sykefield Avenue, as well as a section of Wescotes Drive.

The scheme will run as an experimental traffic regulation order for 18 months, before potentially becoming permanent in May 2016.

Residents were asked if they wanted to join a similar scheme covering roads west of Narborough Road.

And, according to the city council, 72 per cent of the 43 per cent of people who responded to a public consultation in April said they did.

Westcotes Drive resident Joraber Sahota said: "Since the scheme was introduced at the other end of Westcotes Drive last year, being able to park on my road, or even neighbouring streets, has been a nightmare.

"My family and the overwhelming majority of residence in the area cannot wait for the scheme to be implemented."

Opponents, however, launched a last ditch petition to try and stop the scheme.

Jan Flaherty, of Barclay Street, said: "We visited 260 properties and, of the 133 residents we spoke to, 114 were against the introduction of residents parking."

The petition was presented to Leicester West MP Liz Kendall on Friday, and a copy is due to be handed in to the city highways department tomorrow.

Ms Flaherty said: "It suggests that support for the scheme is not as widespread as the council suggest."

Joshua Burrell is a blacksmith. So is his dad, Graham. At a cluttered workshop on the outskirts of Loughborough, Joshua, a magnificently-bearded 24-year-old, is making the sound of cold metal striking hot metal into an ancient music and light show.

Lightning-fast wallops of Joshua's hammer against a knee-height anvil squirt luminous sparks left and right, writes Cat Turnell. Graham observes his son with more than just a smidge of paternal pride.

In some cultures, says Graham, his voice rising above the repetitive din, the blacksmith is revered. They're held in high esteem as an almost mythical crafter of metal and fire.

"In England," notes Graham, "they're just weird."

On a Monday morning at Exile Ironworks, a place where wrought iron and metal is forged, hammered, hardened and sharpened, and turned into something useful and creative, Mr and Master Burrell are giving the Mercury an insight into a profession that can trace its lineage back 3,000 years, plus change.

There are perhaps a handful of blacksmiths in the whole county.

"A hundred years ago, every town and village had a blacksmith," says Graham, 59, who started the business back in 1984. "The equivalent today are garages and car repair shops. The blacksmith would be fixing carts, horse shoes, almost anything."

"There aren't many of us, but there's more people smithing now than there has been for 50 years."

Yet, it's still something of an exclusive club.

"Being a blacksmith can be a conversation starter and," pauses Joshua, "it can be a conversation ender. What do you do? I'm a blacksmith. Oh."

Mostly though, he gets asked if he makes horse shoes. He doesn't.

At Loughborough, Master Burrell makes tools, the most beautiful handcrafted tools you have ever seen, and Mr Burrell crafts whatever you'd like him to – the more exciting the project the better.

Those who know the handsome and ornate metal dome in Loughborough's Queen's Park will be aware of the elder craftsman's proficiency. He also made the gates at Lord Byron's family home, Newstead Abbey.

For seven years the business has been based at Dishley Grange Farm.

When Graham first got into welding and sculpture in the 1970s, smithing was a dying art. And then a nationwide appetite for old and traditional crafts was reawakened with a big exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum called Towards a New Iron Age.

Graham, so inspired, moved from Cornwall to study fine art sculpture at Loughborough College of Art, where he learned every metalwork skill.

"I had fantastic facilities and the staff, they were excellent," he says. "When I finished in '77, I did various things. I worked in a foundry – they've all gone now. I worked at John Jones. Then I was a welder at Bradgate Constructions."

The Burrells are what you'd call artist blacksmiths, that's the term these days.

"Do you want to see a magic trick?" says Joshua suddenly, resplendent in his long leather apron and safety glasses.

It's probably best not to argue with a man holding a hammer in one hand and a hot piece of metal in the other.

He smiles and puts a short length of flat wrought iron into the furnace until it turns red.

The propane fuelled furnace, sounding like a mini jet engine, glows a violent orange. Its temperature tops 1300C, just a few centigrade short of melting steel.

Using tongs, Joshua takes the rapidly cooling red metal out and puts it into a very dark part of the workshop, encouraging us to have a closer look.

The shears that only moments ago were changing from red to black, suddenly flare to a vibrant scarlet – marking a sudden rise of 150C.

"It goes past a point and it heats itself up," he explains. "The carbon doesn't want to be there. It wants to vacate the premises: That's the energy in the atom."

"I've got friends with PhDs in the sciences and I do more on a day-to-day standing here."

Once the shears turn black in the shadow, they're quenched quickly in a trough of water and then hardened in a tub of old cooking oil. A donation from a local pub.

Joshua goes on all sorts of courses to learn more of the more traditional crafts. Otherwise the arts die out.

Joshua has been at one with smithing since he was a small boy. You could say it's in the blood. His mother, Helen, is a goldsmith and jewellery designer.

"He's been doing this ever since he was a tiddler," smiles his dad.

Did you encourage it?

"Absolutely," he says, "I gave him a key."

The first thing Joshua made was a poker when he was seven and about eye level with the anvil. Before then, Joshua can remember being at school and proudly telling everyone "my dad made that" about the artwork in Queen's Park.

The most recent item Graham has been working on is a 1/4 spiral staircase, which only moves through 90 degrees, in Burton on the Wolds.

Among Graham's more interesting projects was at a house in Kegworth about five years ago. It was for a couple of art school lecturers who kept house rabbits.

"That was a nice job," says Graham. His job was to build a giant indoor cage to stop the rabbits from escaping.

And then there was the atmospheric fireplace he'd created.

"That was literally taken from a sketch on the back of a cigarette packet."

A couple had been inspired by the trees and woods at Bradgate Park and wanted their sketch turning into a fireplace. And he did it. It looks cracking.

"I did a bed for somebody. A little while after I'd done it, big king size, he rang back up. I thought he was going to say it's broken. He didn't. "My wife's left me and taken the bed.'' He wanted a new one making."

"I've gone into tool making," explains Joshua, "specifically because tools can go into the post and I've been very lucky to find an audience for what I do.

"I export quite a lot to the US. I make a lot of wood carving axes. Sprung shears. Hook knives. Wooden spoon and bowl making tools."

He sends them all over Britain and all over the world, to the States, the Czech Republic and a number of other places.

Joshua is a modern kind of blacksmith. He can often be found on the internet at 3am, typing away in blacksmith forums talking to other metal workers from around the world.

He also has a blog – the newhearth.blogspot.co.uk – and he finds a good number of the people looking at his site, thousands of them, actually, are from Japan.

"There's also still a very strong heritage for it in Europe, in Germany. There is still so much iron work ongoing in Germany.

"In Britain, fancy iron work used to be very popular because it was the way the architect showed trust in their creation."

Joshua has worked on restoration projects at Hampton Court and he's collaborating with Grace Horne, a pretty famous knife maker from Sheffield. Along with making cutthroat razors, he's currently working on a pair of left handed tailors' shears for a pattern cutter in Kensington.

"I've made two pairs of scissors already and just preparing to make the next set."

He's got a stamp "Made by hand in England J L Burrell''. He doesn't use an arty drawing, as a number of blacksmiths do.

"I wanted something that was written in English. The symbols or drawings won't be remembered.

"And these things," he says, nodding to the tools, "will outlive the person who buys it, or they should do."

Another issue with the job today is trying to get the metal. Sourcing it used to be a doddle.

On cue, Joshua presents a giant rusty sausage of wrought iron. It's part of an anchor, he says, it belonged to an old Swedish fishing boat sunk in Scapa Flow. The really expensive stuff, the metal which belonged to German Second World War boats, which is also in Scapa Flow, gets sold at a premium – to NASA.

Joshua applied his logistical brain to the metal problem and then twigged that bell clappers would be a great alternative source of the metal. He's found himself a few exceedingly weighty clappers from Taylor's Bell Foundry... in Loughborough.

But blacksmithing is a job you can't hurry. To forge a small axe can take a day.

"The forging is the least of it. You've got to grind, heat treat it, sharpening, polishing, stick the heft on. A small axe from start to finish will take three days."

As for the wage, it's best not to ask. "I keep my Lamborghini parked outside," laughs Graham.

"It is a struggle," he says. "You never know one week to the next what work you're going to get. There's no certainty."

But then the jobs come along, and if Graham can do some forge work, he's a happy man.

Working in a workshop that has any number of lethal pieces of equipment, and when the stock in trade is red hot metal, injuries do occur. Both father and son could fill a feature cataloguing their burns and cuts alone.

"I know lots of blacksmiths on the forums and the younger smiths want to know when the pains of the job subside."

Joshua laughs a little to himself. "Hot stuff still hurts. You're still a human being. It's a learned response to low-level pain. You've just got to carry on. Otherwise you've injured yourself and ruined what you've been working on. You can't pause. You get on with it.''

Walking into the anvil is the biggest cause of injury to Joshua.

He also complains of "dragon texture" skin on his palms. A sure sign of handling metal without gloves. Gloves, incidentally, reduce the accuracy of a blacksmith.

Joshua's dad, a man who's been collecting burns and nicks for the past 30 years has his own opinion.

"It's all about common sense," he reasons. "Besides," he adds, "hot metal soon goes cold."

A mum was "mortified" when she discovered a maggot in a tin of Heinz soup, seconds before she fed it to her toddler.

Clare Bradshaw, of New Parks, Leicester, was about to feed some of the beef broth to her 14-month-old daughter when she spotted the creepy crawly floating in the bowl of the spoon.

"I was mortified," said the mother-of-four.

"It makes me feel sick, it's disgusting."

Clare, 33, had bought the 400g tin of beef broth from a shop in New Parks last week.

On Saturday, she emptied the contents into a saucepan and heated it up.

Clare then divided the broth into two portions, one for her toddler, Emily-Mai, and one for her four-year-old son, Archie.

"Beef broth is one of their favourites," she said.

"Archie had already dipped his bread into his portion and I was feeding Emily-Mai."

Clare said she went to give a spoonful of broth to her daughter when she spotted something unusual, which was "white with a black head on it", floating in the liquid.

"When I realised it was a maggot, I immediately pulled the spoon away and snatched Archie's bowl from him," she said.

"I didn't know what to do when I found it.

"What if my son had eaten it? What if he'd already eaten one?

"And if I'd had one eye on the TV and wasn't 100 per cent concentrating, I could've easily not seen the maggot.

"That would have been horrible.

"It's not even worth thinking about what would've happened if she'd actually eaten it."

Clare said she was speechless and shocked when she discovered the creature, which was dead.

"I was shaking," she said. "You just don't expect it, especially when it comes to tinned food.

"Not that it should make a difference, but the expiry date wasn't until 2017.

"It's made me paranoid about buying food now."

Clare spoke to a member of the customer care team at Heinz yesterday morning. (MON)

"They said they would send me packaging for me to put the broth in and send it back, so they could investigate," she said.

A spokesman from Heinz said: "The quality of our varieties is always our first priority.

"We were sorry to hear about Clare Bradshaw's experience and are keen to carry out a thorough investigation in collaboration with her local authority to determine the nature of this isolated complaint."

Former Leicester City defender Gary Rowett has been confirmed as the new Birmingham manager.

The 40-year-old leaves his position in charge of League Two side Burton Albion to take the reigns at St Andrew's, following the departure of Lee Clark.

Blues sit second from bottom in the Championship following their 8-0 defeat at home to Bournemouth on Saturday.

Former City goalkeeper Kevin Poole joins Rowett at Birmingham as goalkeeping coach.

Burton's head of academy Mike Whitlow, another former City defender, will oversee the club's first-team affairs on a caretaker basis.