Gabby Logan halted Great North Run coverage to deliver tragic BBC announcement

Gabby Logan interrupted the Great North Run broadcast to announce the tragic death of a past participant. Off the back of hosing the Olympic...

Gabby Logan interrupted the Great North Run broadcast to announce the tragic death of a past participant.

Off the back of hosing the Olympics, the TV presenter, 51, was at Tyneside for the live coverage of the run on Sunday (8 September).

To start the show off, the BBC displayed a montage of highlights over the past 43 years, from Mo Farah's final Great North Run, along with Claire Lomas who died aged 44 out in the Middle East last month.
Claire Lomas was paralysed in a horse riding accident (Steve Bardens/Getty Images for Claire Lomas)

17 years ago, Claire was paralysed from the chest down after a horse riding accident.

Despite her life-changing injuries, she still managed to complete the Great North Run in a bionic suit in 2016.

The campaigner who raised nearly £1m for charity reportedly died on 22 August following an accident in Jordan in the Middle East, her family said.

"We are absolutely devastated to lose Claire. We would ask people to respect our privacy in the coming days to allow us to grieve in peace," a statement read.

During her broadcast, Logan delivered the news and said: "You may have recognised Claire Lomas in her bionic suit, which she wore to complete the Great North Run, having been paralysed in her sport, eventing."
Presenter Gabby Logan issued a tribute to Claire live on air (BBC)

"Well, it is very sad news I bring you that Claire died in an accident in Jordan a few days ago," calling Claire an 'incredible inspiration'.

The former chiropractor, from Eye Kettleby near Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire, was told she would never walk again following the horse riding accident all those years ago.

But she still managed to complete the London Marathon in 2012 using a bionic suit. It took her 17 days and she raised £220,000 in the process.

Taking to X, the Great Run said: "We are deeply saddened to hear of the passing of the inspirational fundraiser, Claire Lomas MBE.

"Claire made history as the first person in the UK to walk with a bionic ReWalk suit, inspiring runners across the UK and beyond.
Claire has been called an 'inspiration' (BBC)

"Over the past decade, Claire completed many Great Run Series events alongside her dedicated support team, as part of an incredible fundraising drive, raising almost £1 million for charities."

Paul Foster, chief executive of Great Run, added: "Claire was a true inspiration.

"Her achievement in completing the 2016 Great North Run was one of the most powerful moments in the long history of the event.

"Everyone at Great Run was devastated to hear of her passing, and we will pay tribute at next week's Great North Run.

"Our thoughts and love are with her parents Martin & Joyce, husband Dan, and their two young daughters, Maisie and Chloe."Featured Image Credit: BBC


Updated 10:51 3 Sep 2024 GMT+1Published 10:20 17 Jun 2024 GMT+1
Couple's gender reveal goes horrifically wrong on doorbell cam video
The unfortunate gender reveal blunder was caught on camera

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Smart doorbells come with a number of handy uses — from being able to answer the door from any room in your home to dealing with parcel deliveries when you’re not in.

But there's one particular model that's captured unexpected moments time and time again - and it recently captured a rather unexpected family moment.

The doorbell, from Ring, is one of the most popular models on the market and has currently got a whopping £30 off.

Let’s just say, the gender reveal in question didn’t exactly go to plan and it was all recorded on their doorbell for our viewing pleasure.

When Simon and Bronagh Laverty from Craigavon, Northern Ireland were getting ready to host their friends and family at their home to share whether they were expecting a baby girl or a baby boy, they enlisted the help of a balloon packed full of either pink or blue confetti to do so.

But, as the clip captured by their doorbell showcased, their balloon burst suddenly just as the father-to-be was walking out the front door of their home. And the telltale blue confetti that escaped from it spoiled the surprise for them prematurely.
Ring

Not only did Simon now know that he and his wife were expecting a baby boy but Bronagh also found out the gender in real time after receiving a motion detector alert from Ring on her phone.

Simon explained that his wife immediately called out to him, “What just happened?! Have we literally just found out what we’re having?”

He recalled that even though he was going through a number of different emotions after seeing the balloon pop, he was both happy and relieved to find out that his wife had seen the reveal as well.

Simon shared: “We look back at the video all the time, it gives us a laugh about what happened and how we found out. Catching it on camera was even more special than doing it in front of friends and family as we can keep and cherish it.”
Ring

He did, however, rush out to get a new balloon so as not to spoil the surprise for their closest friends and family.

“To be honest we had to play along with the whole thing and make sure no one else knew that we found out before the new balloon had popped, as we didn’t want to ruin the surprise for everyone else,” he affirmed.

The couple’s loved ones also found it incredibly funny after they eventually saw the clip.

As Simon and Bronagh were subscribed to one of Ring’s subscription plans, this meant that they could download, save and rewatch the footage for up to 180 days after the unexpected incident.

And the happy parents can’t wait to show their son Theo – who will be three in November – the video one day.

“It will be good for the wee man when he’s older to show him and say ‘This is how we found out what you were going to be'!” Simon told Ring.


Updated 13:49 30 Jul 2024 GMT+1Published 16:14 26 Jul 2024 GMT+1
BBC explains why it can’t show everything at the Olympics as coverage starts today
You'll have to pay to watch some 2024 Paris Olympics events as the BBC said it had thought 'very seriously' about its coverage

After a big opening ceremony last night (26 July), today’s the day we get to start watching the games on telly.

Yep, with a couple of sports like women’s football having already kicked off earlier this week, the BBC will start its Olympic coverage today.

With the athletes said to be in for the chance of plenty of sex while they’re in the village and drama already having kicked off around controversial participation, not all of their competitions will be shown by the broadcaster.

The Paris 2024 Summer Olympics will see 32 different sports with 329 events to be contested in. And the BBC have had to explain why it can’t show everything to clear up any confusion.

So in the past, the broadcaster was once able to show as much of the Olympics across as many channels as it wanted.
The Olympics have begun. (Michael Reaves/Getty Images)

This article contains affiliate links and LADbible Group might make a commission on anything purchased.

You’ll probably remember back in 2012 when London hosted and the TV would pop up with Red Button, offering 24 channels of live Olympics coverage.

However, when Warner Brothers Discovery (WBD) bought the European TV rights for the Olympic Games for a reported 1,300,000,000 euros (£1,097,947,500) in 2015, that changed.

Now WBD get to show as much of the Paris games as it likes. So yes, if you’re wanting to watch more games than the BBC has, you’re going to need to pay for Discovery+ or Eurosport subscriptions.

While the BBC will have a network TV channel and a second broadcast stream - ‘Olympics Extra’ on BBC iPlayer - throughout this year’s Olympics.

“That means we can show the two most exciting or important events happening at any moment live at the same time,” it explains.
You'll have to pay for certain coverage this year. (Peter Dazeley/Getty Images)

“And because of the way the Olympics schedule works, it means there will almost never be a big medal moment or race or tearful interview we can't bring you.”

The BBC adds that it can’t pay more to show everything because it makes decision over spending ‘very seriously as it is licence fee payers' money’ being used.

Over 250 hours of live coverage will be shown on TV by the broadcaster but the Discovery+ app and Eurosport channels will have more than 3,800 hours of live coverage in total from 7am to 10:30pm every day.

This arrangement is now in place for the next five Olympic Games, taking us up to the 2032 Summer Games in Brisbane, Australia.

To see the full Olympics coverage, you can subscribe to discovery+ from £30.99 a month at get.discoveryplus.com.Featured Image Credit: Michael Reaves/Leon Neal/Getty Images


Updated 14:35 6 Aug 2024 GMT+1Published 14:25 6 Aug 2024 GMT+1
Gabby Logan shares Olympic bell conspiracy theory and promises to 'investigate'
BBC presenter Gabby Logan isn't convinced by this Olympic tradition

BBC presenter Gabby Logan has shared a pretty wild conspiracy theory about the Olympic bell.

In case you've missed it, every athlete who wins gold at the Stade de France during the Olympics has the honour of ringing a giant bell to celebrate their achievement.

Tony Estanguet, head of the Paris 2024 organising committee, said that it also gives athletes a way to engage with the fans in the stadium while celebrating their win, telling NBC: "It's just for the gold medallists, and it's a great way for them to celebrate."

The bell also has links to the Parisian skyline, being a nod to the many churches which dot the landscape of the French capital.
Team GB's Keely Hodgkinson rang the bell after winning the women's 800m race. (Sam Barnes/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

As a nod to French culture and a way for Olympians to connect with fans you'd imagine the bell was surely a home run right?

Well, not with everybody, as former gymnast turned presenter Logan, 51, has a pretty wild conspiracy theory about the item.

Following Swedish pole vaulter Armand Duplantis' record-breaking win yesterday (5 August) Logan witnessed the 24-year-old celebrate his achievement by giving the bell a victorious clang and decided it was time to share her theory with viewers at home.

"Now, I've noticed this, that the bell starts to ring before the timer actually calls the bell," Logan told fellow BBC pundit and ex-Olympian Michael Johnson.
Presenter Gabby Logan was not convinced the bell was actually chiming. (Visionhaus/Getty Images)

"Is this a bit of theatre going on down there," she continued, seemingly suggesting that the bell noise we hear was played through the stadium's speakers and not from the athlete.

"I'm hoping, I'm not seeing... It's like Santa Claus. Is that what I'm seeing?"

However gold medallist Johnson didn't appear to be convinced and instead joked that Logan was just looking for a reason to go down and ring the bell herself.

"We will be investigating that, and maybe send you down, Michael," she replied.

"In the name of good journalism I want to make sure that that bell is real!"

Viewers at home weren't too convinced by her theory, with many instead scolding the presenter for revealing that Santa Claus didn't exist on live TV.

"Hopefully all the kids are in bed before they heard Gabby Logan accidentally reveal Santa Claus isn't real Live on the Telly," one person wrote on X.

Another joked: "To any kids watching the Olympics tonight, you should know that when Gabby Logan said that the sound of the bell was like Santa Claus, she meant it was 100% real! And done by magic! Now don't ask any more questions."

Meanwhile, it has been confirmed that the Olympic bell will become part of the Notre-Dame Cathedral renovations following the devastating fire in 2019.

Explaining the reasoning behind the decision, Pierre-André Lacout, a manager at the Stade de France, said: "In a way, Paris 2024 is helping to rebuild Notre-Dame. A part of the Games and the Olympic spirit will remain in Notre-Dame for life."

LADbible has contacted the Paris 2024 Olympics press office for comment.Featured Image Credit: BBC/Sam Barnes/Sportsfile via Getty Images


Updated 20:31 3 Sep 2024 GMT+1Published 13:59 3 Sep 2024 GMT+1
Chilling theory behind 'silent twins' who spoke to no one but each other before one eventually died
June and Jennifer Gibbons did not communicate with anyone except for each other for almost 30 years

The eerie story of the 'silent twins' who didn't speak to each other throughout their lives before one died has been explained through a chilling theory.

June and Jennifer Gibbons were born on 11 April 1963 to parents from Barbados who had emigrated to Great Britain in the early 1960s as part of the 'Windrush generation'.

Gloria and Aubrey Gibbons, their mum and dad, noticed during their upbringing that they weren't speaking normally, and they even made up their own language to communicate with one another.

This, coupled with the fact that they were the only Black children in a British school of white people, meant that they were constantly bullied - which made them rely even more heavily upon each other.

Psychologists who examined the twins also found that they could communicate without speaking, while they would also copy each other's behaviour for bizarre reasons unknown to the professionals.
Twins June and Jennifer Gibbons didn't communicate with anyone, and were heavily bullied in school (Alamy/PA)

They tried to force the twins to speak to others by sending them to separate schools, though this only made things worse as June and Jennifer became almost catatonic before being brought back together.

Continuing to speak their language, which was essentially a sped-up Bajan Creole - a language spoken in Barbados which combines African and British influences and that is widely spoken on the Caribbean island.

But the twins' version was so sped up that most people couldn't understand.

June later told the BBC in 2023: "We had a speech impediment. Our parents couldn't understand a word that we were saying, nobody understood - so we stopped talking."

The pair started to write fantasy fiction, including stories of violence and crime, with some of these getting published.

But in real-life, the pair started hanging out with some boys they knew from the area, and began experimenting with drugs and alcohol, before carrying out a series of crimes.

After being arrested for arson in 1981, they were sent to the infamous Broadmoor Hospital, a high-security psychiatric hospital, where they were drugged with anti-psychotic medication.

June and Jennifer allegedly met characters such as Ronnie Kray and Jimmy Savile during their 11 years in the hospital.

After being transferred to a lower-security facility in 1993, Jennifer allegedly died from a sudden inflammation at the heart, aged just 29.

June began communicating normally after her sister's sudden death (Alamy/PA)

Following this tragic event, June suddenly began communicating normally with others, claiming that she only did that because her sister was gone.

Though the exact cause of Jennifer's death was never announced, it is believed that she 'sacrificed herself so June would be truly liberated', despite the fact that no drugs or poison was found in her body following an inquest.

June was then released a year after her sister's death, moving to live near her parents in Wales as her community accepted her.

She also began writing again, while the twins' unique story well and truly has a place in popular culture with books, songs, documentaries and TV series coming out about June and Jennifer.

However, June admitted that her time at Broadmoor has left scars, further explaining to the BBC: "Every other day I think of Broadmoor and when I think of Broadmoor, I think of Jennifer,

"She's still with me after 30 years. Every other morning I think I'm in Broadmoor, I wake up in the morning, hear the jangling of the keys, it's still with me even to this day," she admitted.

June concluded: "Every day I wake up and say to myself, one more day for me and one more day for my sister

"I live for her. What I see and do, she does as well."