It forms part of a national awareness campaign which includes a two-part BBC1 documentary, The Big C, screened on 26 and 27 March.The Cancer Guide is available from Macmillan Cancer Relief on 0171 887 8271.. Depression among musicians is running at “unbelievably high levels” according to a new survey. And overbearing conductors are cited as one of the causes of musical angst. A survey by the British Performing Arts Medical Trust, detailed at an international conference in York yesterday, also said that problems for musicians can be caused by who they sit next to on the concert platform. The research, conducted among 56 world-class symphony orchestras, reveals that 70 per cent of orchestral musicians suffer performance anxiety which affects their playing.

This occurs more than once a week in one out of every five players.
The research said that RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury) suffered by musicians is linked far more to mental stress provoked by incompetent and overbearing conductors, inadequate or disorganised rehearsals and incompatible desk partners than any of the physical demands of playing.. Home care for vulnerable elderly and disabled people has become a “Cinderella service” because of rationing in community care, says a report from the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux (Nacab). The paper comes less than a week after the Law Lords ruled that local authorities could withdraw services because of lack of resources. But while two hours’ cleaning and shopping costs pounds 24 a week, Nacab argues this can be extremely cost-effective if it prevents the need for residential care costing an estimated pounds 244 a week.

Based on evidence from 260 bureaux, Nacab says there are waits of up to two years for items such as bath rails and stairlifts. Basic services like shopping, bathing and cleaning are being withdrawn.
One 86-year-old woman was unable to have a bath for two years. she had been assessed as needing a walk-in shower but there was no money available and she could not use the bath without adaptations.Rationing Community Care, Social Policy Section, Nacab, 115-123 Pentonville Rd, London N1 9LZ.. Bemused by computer industry buzzwords? Don’t worry – the people who work in the industry do even worse, according to a survey of both computer professionals and non-experts. Only 24 per cent of computer specialists could correctly identify what “data warehousing” meant, compared to 29 per cent of non-experts, in a survey carried out for software companies Cognos and VMark. Four hundred of the Times Top 1,000 companies took part – although 300 declined due to “total lack of knowledge about the subject”.
Greg Bohlen, of Benchmark Research which carried out the survey, said: “The findings are consistent with the experiences of those who do not work in the IT industry.” He added: “information technology specialists are often even more ignorant than those they are supposed to be helping.”. 3

Aardman Animation has received orders worth more than pounds 200,000 since its Wallace and Gromit site on the Internet’s World Wide Web was set up in 1995 – boosting claims by the Electronic Commerce Association (ECA) that the Web will be a major money-spinner.