Danielle Malgwi

Leslie Sinoway said she feared she would die after a fish bone became lodged in her throat while eating at a gastropub in Totnes. Her friend Lucy Rhoades recognised that she was choking, leaned her forward and used back blows to dislodge the bone. The incident coincides with St John Ambulance’s Save a Life September campaign, which aims to teach 500,000 people first-aid skills. The charity says about 300 people die from choking in England each year, while a survey found that many UK adults do not know how quickly choking can become fatal or how to perform an abdominal thrust.

A £7.3m expansion of Oakwood Park Grammar School in Maidstone has been approved, increasing annual Year 7 admissions from 160 to 190 from September 2027. Funded through Kent County Council’s Basic Need Capital Programme, government grants, council capital funding and developer contributions, the project will add classrooms, extend science facilities, build a three-court sports hall and upgrade existing facilities. The expansion aims to meet rising demand for boys’ grammar school places as Maidstone’s population grows.

Jude Bedingfield, a child from Sittingbourne with partial trisomy 13, Cri du chat syndrome and pontocerebellar hypoplasia, was not expected to survive birth but is approaching his third birthday and continues to make progress. His parents, Heidi Knight and Ryan Bedingfield, are organising a family fun day at the White Horse pub on 29 August to fund physiotherapy, which costs about £100 an hour. The event is supported by Tree of Hope, and previous donations enabled Jude to attend an intensive course that significantly improved his movement.

Researchers at the University of Surrey have begun testing a ground-source heating and cooling system designed to regulate road temperatures and prevent potholes. The project, funded through Benyi Cao’s Royal Academy of Engineering fellowship with support from Surrey County Council, will use underground sensors to monitor the system over several years. If successful, the technology could extend road life, reduce maintenance costs and roadwork disruption, improve safety, and lower the carbon footprint of highway maintenance.

A woman in her 20s died at the scene after a black Smart car collided with a stationary street cleaning vehicle on Christ Church Road in Epsom shortly before 23:40 BST. The male driver, also in his 20s, was arrested on suspicion of multiple offences, including causing death by dangerous driving, driving over the prescribed limit and driving while uninsured. He was taken to hospital, while Surrey Police appealed for witnesses and information about the car’s manner of driving before the crash.

A bee swarm settled on an umbrella at Guilfest in Guildford before off-duty beekeepers and security staff safely collected the bees and moved them to Jubilee Wood. Visitors described seeing up to a thousand bees, and the area was kept clear until the swarm was relocated. Festival founder Tony Scott joked about the incident as the bees followed the beekeepers away from the crowd.