Horticultural expert and plantswoman extraordinaire Carol Klein will officially open the Blenheim Palace Flower Show on Friday, June 22nd.

The hugely popular BBC Gardener's World presenter will be on hand to launch the 5th annual show, which runs from June 22nd-24th at the Oxfordshire UNESCO World Heritage Site.

A multi award-winning gardener, Carol is a much-loved television personality whose own Glebe Cottage gardens were made famous in a six-part TV series and accompanying book.

As well as opening the show on the Friday, she will also be giving two talks over the weekend on her favourite plant-based subjects.

The Grand Floral Pavilion forms the centrepiece of the Show and features the UK's finest nurseries and growers giving expert advice and gardening ideas. It is guaranteed to be a riot of colour, fragrance and weird and wonderful plants.

A highlight for 2018 will be the brand new 'Orchid Tunnel' which leads into the Pavilion. Visitors will be able to walk through the tunnel and see over 1,000 orchids from all over the world.

With workshops, talks and demonstrations taking place throughout the event, you'll be guaranteed to learn something new and take inspiration for your own gardening project.

Visitors can also enjoy fabulous food and drink as well as an outdoor Plant Village and live entertainment throughout the weekend.

Visit the shopping village featuring over 250 stands selling everything from unique garden gazebos, greenhouses and arbours to beautiful flowers, gardening sundries and hundreds of other products.

The Home and Country Living Pavilion showcases a selection of original, handmade giftware, jewellery and luxury goods.

Enjoy fabulous samples and tastings at the Food and Drink Pavilion with a wonderful range of artisans and purveyors from Masons Gin, Truckle Cheese Sausages to Dips and Marinades – there will be something to tickle all taste buds!

Admission to the show includes entry to the Park and Gardens so visitors can also make a day of it exploring Blenheim Palace's Formal Gardens and 2,000 acres of 'Capability' Brown Parkland.

Until September 3, 2018, the Canadian Museum of History will present the travelling exhibition, Picturing Arctic Modernity - North Baffin Drawings from 1964. Through 50 original drawings - created in 1964 by Inuit men,women and youth of North Baffin Island - this exhibition explores a transformative era for the people of Canada's eastern Arctic. The drawings offer rare first person perspectives on daily life and memory during a time when Inuit communities were transitioning from traditional nomadic hunting camps to permanent settlements.

"These drawings reveal a tremendous amount about Inuit culture and the impact  social change had on North Baffin Island Communities in the mid 1960's. Those who participated understood that their way of life was changing dramatically," said Jean Marc Blais, Director General of the Canadian Museum of History. "As a museum committed to preserving and presenting the history of Canada and its people, we are proud to safeguard and share this collection for the benefit of all".

The 50 drawings are parts of the Terrence Peter Ryan Baffin Island Drawing collection, which the museum acquired in 2014. Terry Ryan was resident art advisor at the Cape Dorset  Print  studio for almost 40 years. In 1964, fearing the loss of traditional Inuit culture in the face of social change, he travelled by plane and dogsled to the North Baffin Island communities of Clyde River, Pond Inlet and Arctic Bay. There, he distributed paper and pencils and invited Inuit men, women and youth to draw. More than 150 people completed 1842 drawings. Ryan acquired the completed drawings on his return trip.

Diverse in theme, style and subject, the drawings depict scenes of hunting practices, traditional knowledge, interactions with outsiders, landscapes and daily life. The Baffin Island Drawing Collection has been designated as one of outstanding significance and national importance by the Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board.

The entire exhibition (text, videos , website and in gallery booklet) is presented in Inuktitut, French and English. The exhibition also features 42 video clips of the artists, their families and community members who provided their interpretations of the drawings.

Located on the shores of the Ottawa River, in Gatineau, Quebec, The Canadian Museum of History attracts over 1.2 million visitors each year . Work of the Museum of History is made possible in part through financial support of the Government of Canada. For more information visit. www.historymuseum.ca

A unique proof of age card scheme has launched for students in Sandwell aged 16+.

The card – developed by Sandwell Council in partnership with Citizencard UK – will be recognised nationally as official photo identification.

What’s different about Sandwell’s card is that it also has the applicant’s National Insurance number on the back. This helps students keep the number handy for applying for jobs and bank accounts and to register to vote.

The launch was part of the national #Vote100 campaign run by the Electoral Commission to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the first women getting the right to vote.

Students should ask their head of Year 11 or 12 to check if their school/college has joined the scheme. If so, they can apply for a card free of charge through their school/college.

Councillor Steve Trow, cabinet member for core council services, said: "This a wonderful example of innovation and teamwork between our electoral services, trading standards and the officers who work to tackle under-age drinking and smoking.

"Our unique card offers a single solution to help young people stay safe, apply for jobs and bank accounts and make sure they'll get their right to vote as soon as they reach 18."

Students from Oldbury and George Salter academies attended the launch to help celebrate the benefits of their new proof of age Citizencard.

Anne Bill, 62, from Dorridge lived with an undiagnosed, rare and dangerous heart condition for over 30 years, during which time she had two children and pursued a career as a primary school teacher.

Anne received a diagnosis of dilated cardiomyopathy, a condition where the left chamber of the heart becomes stretched and muscles weaken reducing the heart’s ability to pump blood efficiently, when she was in her thirties, however, Anne didn’t fall ill until almost thirty years after.

“I had been feeling short of breath for a while, but while we were away I started to get chest pains so we drove back across France to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham’s Accident and Emergency Department where I was admitted straight away.”

Unfortunately Anne’s heart was so damaged by the condition that the only option for her was to have a heart transplant, and so, after four weeks in hospital a heart was found. However, when a heart is removed from a deceased patient there is a very short window where the heart remains in a good enough condition to be transplanted, and even then, each heart is rigorously tested to ensure its suitability for transplantation. In Anne’s case, two hearts were found to be unsafe for transplantation and she was not able to have her transplant until a third heart was found.

Dilated cardiomyopathy is strongly linked to genetics and there is a 50% chance that if you have the condition your children will also have it. For Anne, both of her children, Paul and Nick, who were teenagers at the time, were found to have the condition.

Paul Bill, Anne’s eldest son also needed a heart transplant, and at age 19, Paul became ill whilst studying Computer Science at Oxford Brookes University and after being admitted to his local hospital, he was brought to QEHB’s specialist cardiac centre to await the transplant. Paul, like his mother was lucky to have a suitable heart found in a matter of days.

Paul said: “Not everybody is able to receive a heart as quickly as I did, my mum and I are so grateful to the families whose loved ones were able to help us continue to live life to the full. Just four days after my operation I was back on my bicycle, and I was able to play tennis again, something that is really important to me.”

Paul’s younger brother Nick was also struggling with his heart condition, however due to the damage to his heart being less severe than his brother’s and mother’s doctors fit him with an LVAD machine, a device which acts as an artificial heart pump to increase blood flow around the body.

Anne explained: “The LVAD machine did limit Nick’s life in many ways, he couldn’t go swimming, and he would worry about it running out of battery on long journeys, but on the whole he was just a normal 21 year old. In those days, an LVAD machine wasn’t believed to be a safe long-term solution, and doctors believed that Nick’s heart had been recovered, so after nine months the hospital removed it.  Sadly, Nick’s body couldn’t cope with the shock of the operation and he developed septicaemia and eventually passed away from a brain haemorrhage. It all happened so quickly.”

Now, the family are passionately fundraising to bring Heart in a Box to QEHB, this revolutionary technology will allow twice as many people to receive safe and timely heart transplants, supporting families such as the Bills to live long and fulfilling lives.

In 2016, Paul’s wife, Kim, who he met at University, underwent Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis with a specialist teams at Birmingham Women’s Hospital, this meant they able to isolate the gene that causes dilated cardiomyopathy and only use healthy embryos and freeze the other healthy ones for future use.

Paul explained: “Kim and I didn’t want our children to go through what my family have gone through, and whilst we are extremely grateful that my mum and I are still here, but for others, like my brother, cardiomyopathy can be deadly. In October 2016 our son, Joshua was born; he brings us so much joy.”

In March Birmingham will once again prove that it loves sport when the city hosts three major sports events in three Commonwealth sports, all in one venue - Arena Birmingham.

The city centre venue has a rich sporting heritage and has been hosting sports events for over 26 years and next month will play host to the IAAF World Indoor Championships from the 1 to 4, the All England Badminton Open Championships from 14 to 18 and the Gymnastics World Cup on the 21 and 22 March.

The IAAF World Indoor Championships is returning to Arena Birmingham following a triumphant staging of the event 15 years ago, when praise was heaped on the venue and the city. With around 600 athletes from 150 countries taking part, the event will be the largest indoor sports event that has been staged in Birmingham for many years and it is the biggest global athletics event to be held in 2018.

The opening session on March 1st will see the men’s and women’s high jump being held simultaneously for the first time ever and with the world’s best expected to compete it will provide a spectacular opening to the Championships.

British number one, Robbie Grabarz, was at Arena Birmingham today, to celebrate the city’s love of sport and said: “I love competing at Arena Birmingham. The atmosphere is always fantastic as the spectators are so close to the action. I know the high jumpers will do their very best to put on a great show to kick start the Championships and with some fantastic performances already this season it’s definitely going to be an exciting competition.”

Claudia Fragapane, recently announced as one of the British gymnasts who will compete in the Gymnastics World Cup on the 21 and 22 March was also at Arena Birmingham this morning and is excited about coming back to the venue in just over a month: “The Gymnastics World Cup will bring the best gymnastics nations and gymnasts to Birmingham. I’m really excited to be part of a strong British team and I can’t wait to perform in front of local crowd. This is an amazing time to be a sports fan in Birmingham with so many great events coming up and the Commonwealth Games happening here in four years’ time.”

The hat-trick of sporting events in March will be completed by the Yonex All England Open Badminton Championships which returns to the city for the 108^th edition of the Championships. With 155 matches and over 50 hours of live badminton to enjoy, the 2018 event will serve up five days of world class action.

Birmingham has long been known as a city of sport, a label which it has truly earned after staging a multitude of international sporting events, as well as major participation events, in and around the city and with the Commonwealth Games having been awarded to Birmingham for 2022, this reputation is set to be further enhanced in the coming years.

Councillor Ian Ward, Leader of Birmingham City Council said: “Birmingham loves sport and it’s something which this city is extremely passionate about. Hosting major sports events puts Birmingham in the spotlight, brings thousands of visitors to the city and helps to inspire young people from across the city and beyond.

“March is going to be a special month for Birmingham with three major events in three Commonwealth sports and it will give local people a taste of what’s to come in four years’ time.”

Phil Mead, Managing Director for Arena Birmingham added: “These prestigious events will not only bring the world’s best athletes, but will also attract audiences from across the globe.  All of them provide a fantastic opportunity for us to showcase what the Arena and Birmingham has to offer to sport and the live events industry.”

The sporting action will actually get underway this weekend when Arena Birmingham will host the Spar British Athletics Indoor Championships, when Robbie Grabarz will be joined by hundreds of other British athletes attempting to gain selection for the Great Britain and Northern Ireland team for the IAAF World Indoor Championships.