and it's notjust the physical pain — her mum also worries about her daughter's mental health. she used to do things like cheerleading and horse riding and enjoy those things, but she wouldn't be able to do it now, and obviously while she's not been at school even with the lockdowns and then not going back last year because of the pain, she's become quite isolated and then that's obviously affected her as well. well, the world's first study into children with long covid suggests that one in seven still suffer symptoms 15 weeks after contracting coronavirus. and so, now, 16 hubs are opening across the country, looking at long covid in children, and one of the pilot's is here in bristol. long covid is essentially a new condition, and there are symptom clusters or groups of symptoms that we don't understand completely and we need to develop treatments for. the outcome for children in general is much, much better than the outcome for adults.

so, what the hub is going to do is to bring the top specialists at bristol children's hospital together and discuss cases. i feel really strongly that what we need to do is to offer treatment quickly, because the kids are sick and they're missing school right now. how does it feel to know you're going to have access to a specialist team of doctors that are hopefully going to get you better? i feel better because, like, they can properly help and not... well, other doctors can help, but these ones are made for long covid. taylor's being seen on monday. after months of pain, she and herfamily hope she can get the help she finally needs to get better. fiona lamdin, bbc news. the weather is a tale of two halves. after that morning fog, the sunshine prevailing across southern and eastern areas. quite active to start with. the rain is petering out easing south across

northern england and wales. clearing to late brightness in the north and west but wherever, it is still mild, 17—19, above where they should be temperatures for this time of year. actually, the weather front although weakening as it slips south will act like a blanket, not as cool in southern parts over night, not as much fog, but still a risk in southern and eastern areas. further north and west, clear skies. clear skies and cool to come. more sunshine in the north, should be mainly dry across the uk but across southern and eastern areas, quite a great start, fog first thing, it will gradually clear away but it drags its heels, in southern and eastern areas. it will be fresher though few showers away from the north, where there is a brisk wind. dry for many. hello, this is bbc news. the headlines...

pressure grows on the government to help businesses facing soaring soaring energy bills, as some of its own mps join industry bosses in asking for support. the united states and the taliban are holding face—to—face talks in their first meeting since the group seized control of afghanistan in august. women travelling home alone could soon be offered protection from a free mobile phone app. environmentalist chris packham joins activists at buckingham palace urging the royal family to return their land to its natural state. more now on the growing concern over energy prices. suppliers have said the energy price cap protecting households from sharp rises in gas prices is not "fit for purpose". natural gas prices are at a record high and some domestic energy firms have failed because they are paying more for gas than they

are able to charge. i asked stephen murray, of price comparison site moneysupermarket.com, what advice he would give residential customers. i think the watchword in residential energy for many years has been "choice." have a look around, shop around, make the choices and save some money. it is unprecedented times at the moment, the previous item sort of mentioned. at the moment, for residential households, the message is, "stay put." if you've been switching in the market and are on a fixed deal, the chances are that fixed deal from last year will be considerably cheaper than prices are at the moment, so stay on that. for those on a standard variable tariffs, the price cap, for first time since it came in, is actually providing a price protection for consumers, so people should sit on those tariffs, so the message at the moment is very much to stay put. would it be fair to say

that our choice is becoming more and more restricted? we have seen so many of those smaller suppliers going bust, and perhaps the options of finding better deals just aren't out there anymore. at the moment, no, you're right, the choice is limited. you go there six months or a year ago you have a choice of 30, 40, 50, with tarrifs and energy deals which were 200, 300, below the price cap. the rise on wholesale prices literally over the last two or three months has taken so much of that at the market. we have seen nine suppliers fail in the last months, notjust the smaller brands, but the traditional legacy big six have removed tariffs out of the market, because theyjust cannot price energy tariffs in the market where they can make any level of profit. they are making huge losses on all of these because they are having to offer tariffs at the price cap. so the market really is in crisis

at the moment, with the price cap providing some level of protection for consumers, but that comes at a cost and we have seen that through failed suppliers and we are seeing the news reporter talking about the price cap, when it's reviewed again at the beginning of february, it is likely to go up by another three, four, even £500 for consumers so it is going to be a tough winter on energy costs. so, when we talk about consumers that are so many, aren't they? we have mentioned there residential consumers. what about small businesses? what sort of situation and options do they have? the small business market, there is a market there traditionally, as well, for being able to shop around and being able to switch and fix your deals. traditionally, over the last year or so, businesses have moved to tariffs that were fixed for one, two or three years so some small businesses could be in a very, lucky is probably the wrong word because they made a conscious choice, but if they switched last year to a three—year deal, they could be sitting here being able to weather that

storm but for those who aren't engaging in that market and are having to buy energy from suppliers, they are not protected by a price cap and these small businesses are going to be ending up paying significant uplifts, across three, four times what we were seeing this time last year. as world economies wake up and the gas supply is a struggle, we are seeing prices just at levels that you wouldn't be able to believe two or three months ago, so it is really tough, but hopefully we will get the point where when we get gas supply improved over the winter months and if we don't have too cold a start, we might see some light at the end of the tunnel just after christmas and get the point where the supplies of 0k, to see the prices begin to fall on those deals will be out there in the market for both residential customers and small businesses to be able to lock in at prices that are hopefully not as frightening as they are at the moment. what you're saying, stephen,

is that things are going to improve? because a 250% increase since january in the wholesale prices for natural gas, but what you are saying is that potentially in the new year, things will change, things will get better? yes. we have had a position at the moment with, two things have been the main factors as to why the prices have spiked quite so much at the moment. world economies have woken up after the pandemic and lockdown, and we are seeing particularly gas, the gas shortage, gas supply and storage that we have in the uk is very low. we have also got some geopolitical issues with russia from the new pipeline across to europe, which is slowing the supply of gas down below what we want. going into the winter, that makes the markets very nervous about that. but when this gets resolved, and it will get resolved, and we start to move out of the winter and hopefully have a level of, it's not too cold winter, then yes, we will get the point where markets do have a little bit more confidence, see gas usage start to fall and we will be in a position where prices will fall.

the problem for residential consumers is that the price cap works on the legacy of six months, so there is very little that is going to be able to stop the price cap going up again in february, but at that point, as i say, hopefully there will be some deals and that is where we would urge consumers to absolutely start shopping around. keep an eye on the markets at the moment, stay put where you are, but keep an eye, because markets can be very fickle and we don't know how quickly those wholesale prices will start to fall, and if they do start to fall, then we should be back in the time when people can look around and provide that peace of mind of deals that are both fixed and below the price cap. sound advice there. just very quickly, turning to the call for a price cap, but also this a meeting that was held with the government and industry leaders, some people are saying that this is all coming a little bit too late. it is too little, too late. what other government interventions should they be looking at? are there other solutions? it is a difficult one. the issue affecting

us is not a uk issue. it is a worldwide issue on gas supply and demand just far outstripping supply at the moment, so you have got to look at it and say who is going to bear the cost of this? clearly, it is very unpopular and not the right thing to do for consumers to bear that cost, and that is what the price cap is supporting. the flipside of that is that suppliers are absolutely bearing the cost with the failures and real challenges and we are expecting to see potentially more failures over the winter. so consumers are not going to pay, we've got to support suppliers. that has to be through government intervention, whether that is loan support, to provide to some of the energy suppliers to get them through this winter and make sure that consumers and small businesses and not hit with too high rises, because none of us need that after the last 18 months or so we had. now on bbc news, as the first ever

audit of people with secondary breast cancer is about to begin, jeremy cooke speaks to patients about the importance of being counted, being heard and getting the best treatment to live as long as possible. i got my diagnosis two years ago. i had a tumour in my breast that was relatively large. are you 0k to step on the scales, please? yeah. alina is a young mum with a devastating diagnosis. i was automatically stage iv, metastases in my liver, spleen, spine, hips and sternum. secondary breast cancer. stage iv is classed as terminal, and to hear that language at the age of 32 with a ten—month—old is quite scary. come on, darling. with her husband on the speakerphone... hi, andy, can you hear me? hi, prof. 0k. ..alina is here to see breast cancer specialist, professor carlo palmieri. how are you feeling? i'm feeling great. i've got an appointment

for some scan results. still got a level of anxiety for the appointment today. they also caught a new bone lesion in part of the pelvis on the left. right, 0k. secondary or metastatic breast cancer, both terms are used, is where the breast cancer has spread outside of the breast or the armpit, to other sites in the body, so common sites involved are bone, liver, lung, and sometimes the brain. while primary breast cancer has good survival rates, for about 30% of patients, it spreads to other parts of the body. it becomes secondary breast cancer. and that is a terminal condition. she has had her chest done. the clatterbridge cancer centre in liverpool is regarded as state—of—the—art. it looks like it's all disease related, doesn't it? - today, carlo and specialist nursejo francis... we need to get her in.

..are worried about ann, a long—term patient. hello? hello, ann, morning, carlo. hi, carlo! how are you? not too good round me stomach area. tenderness, pain and i have also got bruising. i want to get you up into the hospital, and i want to do a magnet scan of the liver. so we will see you up here later on today, 0k? 0k. ann's condition is deteriorating. can you request the mri liver, cos i can't do that? _ she is being called in for urgent treatment. we will catch up with her later. the aim of treatment is to prolong life, control symptoms, ensure quality of life, but unfortunately, in those circumstances, it's not possible to eradicate or cure the disease. you have to have one injection then l another one, two weeks later... l for alina, every checkup is about tracking the progress of her disease. highly specialised treatment can hold cancer in check, potentially for years. you'vejust been in. how is it? it wasn't totally positive, but it wasn't horrendous either.

so it's a bit deflating when you have been getting positive results regularly for the last six months, but i will pull my socks up and give my head wobble and get on with it, really. the treatment here is among the best. but across the country, the breast cancer now charity says in a statement, "until now, patients with secondary breast cancer have felt overlooked and forgotten, at an already frightening time." the minute you say stage iv, everybody gives you a sympathetic look of, "oh, no". and for me, the stage isn't important. it's how i'm being treated and sometimes it does feel like, because it's not curative, people don't want to look at the other options of treatment. i have to be very proactive to feel like i'm getting the best care i possibly can and i'm not just a statistic. professor palmieri and jo francis are amazing, they do the absolute best for me. a big problem here is a startlingly simple. startlingly simple. until now, there has been no national record

ofjust how many patients, mostly women, have secondary breast cancer. now, finally, the nhs will fund a scheme to get those stats in england and wales. we are planning your treatment. and it's important stuff. i think it's a game changer, because by knowing how many women are living with secondary breast cancer, we can design our services better. we know how to plan forward, how many specialist nurses we need, how to plan our chemo units. what doesn't change is that behind the numbers are people. ann needs all the help she can get. can i get you to pop . your fluids up for you? yeah. after her telephone consultation, she has been rushed in. this is effectively a&e for cancer. ann was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008. it spread, became secondary. she's had years of support. today, from phil, a clinical nurse specialist at cns.

nurse specialist, a cns.