WSSN Stories

A devoted brother climbed a mountain blindfolded during a three-day challenge to find out what his incredible blind sister faces every day.

Brave Ed Smith, 21, said it was “pretty special” to walk in the footsteps of his blind-from-birth sibling, Harriet Smith, 31, while admitting the hair-raising feat was terrifying at times.

The student set out on the 72-hour adventure with his girlfriend Eimear Pickstone, 21, who helped him traverse rain-drenched hillsides and bustling cities in Thailand last month.

And during their epic voyage, his eyes were covered even when Pickstone accidentally spun their pick-up truck off the road, leaving him scared for his life.

Ed Smith said he had chosen to do the charity stunt in South East Asia – which has so far raised over $4,125 – to challenge himself in a non-English speaking country.

And when he finally took his blindfold off three days later, he said it first felt like he was “on drugs” before he was left with a massive sense of relief.

He said: “It was very weird when I finally took the blindfold off, almost like a hallucination experience. It was like I was on drugs, but after that, I was over the moon.”

“When Eimear ended up crashing the car on the road, it was probably the most terrifying thing that’s happened to me.

“But my sister gave me a lot of strength, knowing what I was doing was just a drop in the ocean of the life she has forged for herself in a world that’s not amenable to people without sight.”

“She was in the forefront of everything I was doing. It was pretty special finding my feet in her world.”

Smith, from the rural village of Moreton Pinkney, Northamptonshire, in the South Midlands of England, in the United Kingdom, started his Challenge on July 11, near the town of Kanchanaburi, on the west of Thailand.

He then went onto the capital Bangkok before taking a sleeper train to the northern city of Chang Mai and climbing the mountain of Doi Suthep on his final day, July 14.

But the Cambridge University philosophy student explained that he had in fact wanted to spend a whole week blindfolded before his girlfriend talked him out of it.

Smith said: “The main reason for doing it abroad is it’s more of a challenge.

“I wanted to push myself as hard as I could, and I was thinking about doing it for a week. But Eimear talked me out of that.”

Pickstone, who had planned the three-month summer holiday with Smith – through Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam – said when he revealed his plan, she thought it was crazy.

She added: “I definitely did not help come up with the idea. I thought he was crazy, so I said, ‘No, three days is enough!’”

The couple spent every day he was blindfolded together, with Smith fully dependant on Pickstone for food, shelter and navigation around the country.

Smith said: “I’m a very independent person, so having to ask Pickstone to help me with every single aspect of my life was pretty tricky a times – from brushing my teeth to shaving.

“It was really, really tough, and I learned how trusting blind people are with those around them.

“Everyone focuses on the climb, but the psychological experience of the three days was really the toughest part of the challenge.”

While driving through a rural area of the country, near Bangkok, Pickstone lost control of a car she’d borrowed from a local friend, and the pair skidded into a ditch.

Pickstone explained: “We were driving along this mountain road, and it just started to rain a lot. The windscreen wipers didn’t’ work and the windscreen was getting very muddy.

“To me, it felt like we were driving along a cliffside. Then we just lost traction and spun 180 degrees.

“In my head, we were falling off the side of a mountain. I did think that was the end for me. But we were just lodged in a ditch.

He added: “That was the single most scary thing that has happened to me in my life.”

Pickstone was rescued by 15 local Thai men, who then helped pull his truck out of the levee, but this was one of several occasions when he believes he was hallucinating.

He said: “My world morphed into a very strange sensory state.

“At first, I was learning the ropes, learning to navigate this usual world. Then the things I was visualizing were pretty vivid.

“I created this visual picture in my head the whole time. I was really living in this strange vivid world to the extent I was almost hallucinating.”

Smith and Pickstone arrived in Chang Mai on their final day, before making the 5,499-foot journey to the top of Doi Suthep in treacherous conditions.

Smith said: “During our ascent of the mountain, it was pretty treacherous. But the sounds of the jungle with the rain was the most sensory stimulating period of the three days.”

And when Smith finally removed his eye mask 72 hours later, he was dazzled by the brightness of his surroundings but thankful he could take everything in once again.

He said: “I was struggling to cope with it for about 20 minutes, but everything was so beautiful eventually.”

Pickstone added: “I was so happy to see his face. It was almost like I’d forgotten it.

“He couldn’t see anything when he first took it off for a while. But it felt really quite emotional. I felt a bit teary.”

Produced in association with SWNS.

A disabled university graduate was able to collect the keys to his first home – after generous donors raised more than $61,000 so he could move out of his parents’ house.

Calum Grevers, 29, got his keys on August 4 but hopes to move into his new apartment in September.

He started thinking about moving out in January 2020 but was faced with a 1,000-day waiting list for subsidized public housing.

Calum, who has muscular dystrophy and needs a wheelchair and a team of caregivers, said he never dreamed he would be in his own home.

He studied computer science at Edinburgh Napier University, but has never had a job before and hopes that he will be able to find a role in policymaking, which allows him to work from home.

Calum believes many people could relate to his predicament of being desperate to move out from his parents’.

The fundraiser generated 52,000 British pounds, the equivalent of $63,000, which Calum says is around 1,000 British pounds ($1,200) per week.

He launched it in December 2020 and raised two-thirds in just one year.

Calum said: “I think a lot of people can really relate to not wanting to live with their parents.

“It has also really managed to raise awareness of a lack of accessible housing.

“There’s an assumption that housing is more accessible than it is.”

Work still needs to be done to the apartment in Edinburgh, which has a bedroom for Calum and one for his personal assistant.

It also will have an ensuite bathroom with a wet room and ceiling track hoist when it is completed.

Carpets will be torn up and replaced with laminate to make it more wheelchair accessible.

Another 3,000 British pounds — $3,600 — has yet to be raised to meet his target.

He said: “Living with parents at my age creates too much tension, you need your own personal space.

“My parents’ house is accessible, but it is better for everybody when you are living independently.

“It makes you feel you can make decisions about your own life.

“Ten years ago, I would never have thought I would have any of these things.”

Calum believes that more accessible housing would allow elderly people to stay in their homes for longer, rather than going into care homes.

He said aging should be perceived as an inevitable disability, and it would make more sense to plan around that.

He is now working with the Scottish government to improve understanding of what can be done to make access better.

Calum said: “I don’t feel it’s actually happened yet.

“I’m sure it will feel more real when I’ve got more of my stuff in the flat.”

Produced in association with SWNS.

A 25-year-old man who disappeared at a traditional German oompah band festival has been found dead in a lake.

Police identified the young man as Tobias Dreiseitel, who vanished at the Brass Wiesn festival in Eching, a city in Bavaria, in south-eastern Germany on August 5.

His body was discovered by a swimmer in nearby Echinger See lake on August 9, according to the police. Police had been looking for him for days and even deployed a helicopter.

Tobias went missing after that night’s festival performances were called off because of poor weather.

At the time of his disappearance, Tobias had been wearing a red Hawaiian shirt and lederhosen – traditional long leather shorts.

Police from the neighboring municipality of Neufahrn bei Freising had said in an earlier statement that Tobias Dreiseitel had “been missing since the evening of August 5, 2022. The 25-year-old attended the Brass Wiesn Festival at Echinger See in the Freising district with two of his friends.”

They added: “On August 5, 2022, at around 9:00 p.m., the friends lost sight of each other. A little later, the phone contact broke off. Since then there has been no trace of Mr. Dreiseitel.”

They also said: “When the two friends could not find him during the course of August 6, 2022, they reported him missing to the police.

“Extensive search measures with the support of a helicopter, the water rescue service, the fire brigade and the rescue dog squadron went into the early hours of the morning without any results.

“At the time of his disappearance, Mr. Dreiseitel was wearing a wine-red Hawaiian shirt and brown leather trousers (traditional costume). Mr. Dreiseitel is about 175 centimeters tall [68 inches], weighs about 80 kilograms [174 pounds], has a slim build, has brown/green eyes, short, dark brown hair with a side parting, and most recently wore an S-Oliver necklace.”

His girlfriend – named only as Anna in local media – reportedly said that he bought beer at the festival.

During the evacuation due to the rain storm, he was reportedly seen heavily intoxicated at the festival entrance.

Anna put out a call for help to find him online on Friday, August 5, saying: “He was hurt. Had abrasions on his arms – it is unclear how serious the injuries were.”

The police are investigating the circumstances of his death, and so far treating it as an accident, according to German media.

The festival is a celebration of southern German traditions like Alpine horns, oompah brass bands and thigh-slapping dancing.

The Brass Wiesn festival organizers have put up a message on the festival website homepage saying: “We mourn Tobias. We are stunned and incredibly sad. Our thoughts are with Tobias’ family and friends.”

A young entrepreneur who started a vegan sweets business in her spare bedroom has turned it into a $1 million global confectionery firm.

Laura Scott, 25, of England started selling vegan pick ’n’ mix-style sweets in 2018 after spotting a gap in the market.

She would bulk buy the sweets, then make selections bags of them to sell online while working during her lunch break at her graphic design job.

In April 2019, she officially launched as a business and sold out of her products on the first day and decided she wanted to make the business her full-time job.

During lockdown The Conscious Candy Company soared – reaching $1.2 million turnover at the end of 2020 – supplying her sweet treats as far away as the United States and Japan.

But Scott says it’s more important to be able to work in line with her morals and ethics than to profit.

Scott, of Plymouth, Devon, in England’s west, said: “When I first started it was just one product and now it’s over one hundred products – we do chocolate, baked goods, we deliver waffles, just anything sweet and anything that contains sugar.

“It’s an amazing thing to sit there and think about, for me it’s about how I’ve gained my freedom even though I work more than I ever did when I was employed – I do 4 a.m. starts, midnight finishes and a seven-day week.

“I get to hire people with the same beliefs and values and we work with animal charities, to do that stuff means more than the one million mark.”

Scott started out by selling bags of imported vegan sweets like cola bottles and fizzy strawberries in November 2018.

The business continued to diversify its offerings and has developed vegan pick ‘n’ mix sweets that were not previously available, including plant-based foam bananas and fried eggs.

They also offer a waffle delivery service in the Plymouth area through UberEats, allowing those with a sweet tooth to order treats including ‘strawberry shortcake’ and ‘banoffee delight’ waffles.

Now, the business has moved from Scott’s bedroom to a 5,000-square-foot unit and employs two full-time staffers, including Scott’s partner.

“I’ve been vegan for quite a while and was veggie for a long time too – my favorite thing is pick ‘n’ mix as it brings back childhood memories and when I launched there were only a few options on the market,” said Laura.

“I really wanted a traditional Woolworth’s style pick ‘n’ mix with bubble-gum bottles and I started thinking that there must be other people who feel the same.

“I asked on a vegan forum if it was something people would be interested in and the feedback was overwhelming – I began to research vegan options from around the world and find options I could make for a vegan pick ‘n’ mix.

“I thought it was going to be side-lined but as soon as it launched, I sold out that day.

“I was a full-time graphic designer at the time and launched the business on my lunch break at work – I had 1000 pounds [$1,200] come in and at that time it felt like a lot, I thought ‘this is pretty much the same as my full-time wage and I’ve done this in an afternoon’.

“There was a week of deliberating and I decided I wouldn’t know if I didn’t do it so I just stood up in a meeting and declared I was going and left – I had no plan, I just thought ‘what’s the worst that can happen’ and knew I could always get another job.

“I remember walking home from work in the rain and I didn’t even care, it was one of those things I normally wouldn’t like but I felt so free.

“In April 2019 we became a business – it was in my spare room when I started and now we’re in a five-thousand square foot unit and trading globally.

“We have customers from all over the world and we wholesale to independent stores – we’ve worked with some bigger companies but it’s not where I want to go with it.

“We’ve never had any big investment, I always said it will grow organically and now it’s my full-time job with my partner who joined the business two years ago.

“It’s a strange feeling as I never set out intending to do this.”

Produced in association with SWNS.

Graphic video shows the terrifying moment when firefighters tackle the burning wreckage of an aircraft after it clipped a truck as it crash-landed on a freeway.

Minutes earlier, the plane had collided with a pickup truck as it approached the roadway for its forced landing.

Miraculously, the truck driver escaped unscathed.

The Piper PA-32-300 made a forced landing on State Route 91 in Corona on August 9, said the Federal Aviation Administration and the California Highway Patrol.

Officials say the pilot of the single-engine plane bound for Corona Municipal Airport from Catalina Island had reported a mechanical fault.

The impact sparked a fire, which ripped through the six-seater aircraft, but its two occupants – a pilot and a passenger – managed to escape unhurt.

The 50-year-old plane had collided with a Toyota Tundra pickup truck as it approached the freeway.

Amazingly, officials said the truck suffered only minor damage and its driver was unharmed.

Firefighters from the Corona Fire Department arrived at the crash site within five minutes and extinguished the flames shortly before 1 p.m.

The plane’s occupants had already managed to free themselves from the wreckage by the time the firemen arrived.

Pilot-owner and IT exec Andrew Cho told local media: “I’m ecstatic to be alive.”

Neither he nor his passenger needed medical assistance.

Reportedly, Cho and his passenger were returning from Catalina Island, which lies just 22 miles off the California coast, where they had enjoyed lunch.

Two eastbound lanes of the freeway were closed to traffic following the accident, bringing cars nearly to a standstill.

The plane was a total loss, and its wreckage was cleared by Tuesday night, August 9.

Zenger News obtained the footage from the Corona Fire Department, which said: “On-scene footage from Corona Engine 3 as they arrived on scene to the plane crash on the 91 Eastbound in Corona.”

The video was recorded through the windshield of a fire truck. It showed the burning airplane and thick smoke rising into the bright California sky. The video then shifts to a firefighter dousing the flames with water.

A photo posted by the fire department showed the aftermath of the incident: the airplane was burned and nearly consumed by the fire, leaving behind the engine compartment and tail.

Facebook user Sheena Steiner Escalante commented on the Facebook page for the Corona Fire Department: “We are lucky to have the best fire department. Thank you guys for all of your hard work!”

The 300-horsepower, fixed landing gear “Cherokee Six” Piper 32-300 was first certified for flight by the Federal Aviation Administration in 1967. It continued in production in several variants until 2007.

The versatile aircraft has been used for decades around the world for private transportation, air taxi services, bush support, and medevacs.

Facebook user Karen Eisenacher Earp commented: “Praise God for the safe escape of the passengers!”

A wedding expert has shared things couples shouldn’t do on their big day – including not having too many bridesmaids to avoid drama and not tying the knot too late in the day.

Kat Williams, 38, founder and editor of Rock N Roll Bride magazine, divided opinions after posting a video with her personal ‘dont’s’ for people planning a wedding.

She warned couples not to have family or friends take their wedding photos, not to let guests use their phones during the ceremony and not to get married after 2 p.m.

She told brides to refrain from buying a dress in a smaller size that they plan to ‘slim into’ and instructed couples not to order too much food – insisting guests don’t need canapes, ice creams, a sweet table and buffet.

Williams went on to say that she would never have too many bridesmaids as “more bridesmaids means more drama.”

Williams- who has been happily married since 2008 to her husband, Gareth, 43 – from Reading, Berkshire, in southern England, in the United Kingdom, said: “It is much more accepted these days to do non-traditional things for your wedding.

“Before 2010, the only inspiration you could get is from traditional wedding magazines.

“I want to give people the confidence to do what’s best for them and not stick to the norm – just because others do.”

Williams started her website in 2007 to document her own wedding journey – where she “learned the hard way” what to do and what to avoid.

She said: “Looking back I am like: ‘why didn’t I think of that?’ or ‘why weren’t more wedding dresses available?’.”

One of Williams’ biggest pieces of advice is not to have friends or family take your wedding pictures.

She said: “I have heard so many horror stories in the 14 years I have been doing this of people who want to save money or have an uncle who has a great camera.

“It very rarely ever works out. I have heard so many stories of people hating their photos and then there is nothing they can do about it.”

Williams said she would always try and have the ceremony between 12:30 p.m. and 2 p.m. – especially if it is a winter wedding.

She said: “If you are having a wedding late, it’ll probably going to be getting dark and by the time you have finished and if you don’t do the photos beforehand your photos are going to be dark and crap.”

Williams went on to say that she would never have too many bridesmaids as “more bridesmaids means more drama.”

She said: “You have more people to keep happy with their dresses and involve them with the hen parties.

“The more bridesmaids you have the more expensive it gets – less is more.”

One person commented on Williams’ video and said: “As a guest, I hate it when people have their ceremonies too early. I’m usually hungry and haven’t had enough time to get ready. We’re doing ours at 3 p.m.”

A third viewer agreed with Williams’ point and said: “The only time it’s OK for a friend to take photos is when you’re a wedding photographer and so are they.”

Williams’ top wedding tips:

– Never have a friend or family take photos
– Never let people get their phones out during the ceremony
– Don’t have the ceremony too late in the day
– Never wear a wedding dress which doesn’t fit
– Don’t order too much food
– Never not involve my partner in the planning
– Stress too much about what other people think
– Don’t be too safe with my outfit choice
– Don’t have too many bridesmaids
– Don’t not have a videographer

Produced in association with SWNS.

A teen TikToker has been mocked on social media after she microwaved her iPhone to watch a sandwich cook.

Susan Kisena – 18, from the city of Euless in the U.S. state of Texas – describes herself as a goofy and kind person who loves singing and playing the guitar.

The teenager said she was experimenting to see how the microwaves would affect her food but the stunt left many watchers wondering if she was simply one sandwich short of a picnic.

In the footage, she is seen placing the smartphone at the back of the oven and then pressing the start button.

But within three seconds the phone’s screen fills with static and by five seconds it has gone dark.

The teenager admitted in an interview with Zenger News that she’d faced ridicule over the stunt.

She said: “There’s a lot of hate on this but I don’t even blame the people, it was a very dumb decision.”

Kisena explained that the footage was shot in 2016 and revived for TikTok.

She said: “This video was really only saved for myself and I found it recently in my Snapchat memories and decided to repost it on TikTok.

“Didn’t know it would blow up, but it did.”

Amazingly the video has received more than 381 000 likes and 3,178 comments on the social media platform so far.

One user responded, “I question our generation, I really do…”

While another replied, “But the window is already on the microwave so that you can watch it…”

Kisena shrugged off the mockery and claims her phone was still working afterward.

She told Zenger News: “It had only had some temperature warning.

“I just needed it to cool down a few minutes.”

Kisena forms part of Generation Z, which is made up of people born between 1997 and 2012.

Gen-Zers have their own particular brand of absurd humor, partly due to the rise of social media, which makes use of shock value tactics based around on themes like destruction.

Mika Lassander, a researcher at the Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective (YARG) project has questioned if Gen-Zers are the most scared generation as of yet, explaining that the sense of threat that most people in that age group feel on a continuous basis could leave psychological scars.

He added: “Generation Z has grown up with an intangible sense of global anxiety, distributed in fast-paced communications. This cannot help but affect young people’s subconscious minds.”