Accessible Salon Opened in UK by Balcony Fall Survivor

Maddi Neale-Shankster made the decision to open the salon after struggling to access beauty treatments
Maddi Neale-Shankster made the decision to open the salon after struggling to access beauty treatments
TT
20

Accessible Salon Opened in UK by Balcony Fall Survivor

Maddi Neale-Shankster made the decision to open the salon after struggling to access beauty treatments
Maddi Neale-Shankster made the decision to open the salon after struggling to access beauty treatments

A beautician left paralyzed after a balcony fall has opened an accessible salon in the UK where people should "not feel like a burden for needing extra support,” BBC reported.

Maddi Neale-Shankster, from Coventry, made the decision after struggling to access beauty treatments, BBC said on Thursday.

Neale-Shankster hoped the salon would be a sanctuary for wheelchair users and the able-bodied alike. A place where people did not feel judged, she said.

Neale-Shankster was injured last year after falling 18.2m while holidaying with friends on the island of Ko Pha Ngan in Thailand.

Recalling an attempt to use a sunbed in the city with a friend's help, the 22-year-old said it could only be allowed if a door was left open.

The experience drove the beautician to open her own salon that she hopes will be a sanctuary for wheelchair users and able-bodied people alike, "where you don't feel judged, out of place, a burden for needing extra support."

"There's absolutely nothing that's ever gonna stop me from getting my lashes done and having a sunbed."

She had often been left with no option but to carry out catheter care at the back door of a former business premises, she said.

"I didn't fit in the toilet, I didn't fit down the corridor, I didn't fit in the nail desk," she told BBC CWR.

Now, her purpose-built salon features wider nail desks, rooms, doorways, and access via a slow inclining ramp.



10 Endangered Black Rhinos Sent from S.Africa to Mozambique

Kenya Wildlife Services veterinarians and rangers rush to aid a sedated female black Rhinoceros that has been selected for translocation to the Segera Rhino Sanctuary from the Lake Nakuru National Park on June 07, 2025. (Photo by Tony KARUMBA / AFP)
Kenya Wildlife Services veterinarians and rangers rush to aid a sedated female black Rhinoceros that has been selected for translocation to the Segera Rhino Sanctuary from the Lake Nakuru National Park on June 07, 2025. (Photo by Tony KARUMBA / AFP)
TT
20

10 Endangered Black Rhinos Sent from S.Africa to Mozambique

Kenya Wildlife Services veterinarians and rangers rush to aid a sedated female black Rhinoceros that has been selected for translocation to the Segera Rhino Sanctuary from the Lake Nakuru National Park on June 07, 2025. (Photo by Tony KARUMBA / AFP)
Kenya Wildlife Services veterinarians and rangers rush to aid a sedated female black Rhinoceros that has been selected for translocation to the Segera Rhino Sanctuary from the Lake Nakuru National Park on June 07, 2025. (Photo by Tony KARUMBA / AFP)

Ten black rhinos have been moved from South Africa to Mozambique to secure breeding of the critically endangered animals that became locally extinct 50 years ago, conservationists said Thursday.

The five male and five female rhinos were transferred to Mozambique's Zinave National Park in a 48-hour road trip last week, said the Peace Parks Foundation, which took part in the translocation.

"It was necessary to introduce these 10 to make the population viable," communication coordinator Lesa van Rooyen told AFP.

The new arrivals will "secure the first founder population of black rhinos since becoming locally extinct five decades ago,” South Africa's environment ministry, which was also involved, said in a statement.

Twelve black rhinos had previously been sent from South Africa to Zinave in central Mozambique but the population was still not viable for breeding, Van Rooyen said.

Twenty-five white rhinos, which are classified as less threatened, were also translocated in various operations.

The global black rhino population dropped by 96 percent between 1970 and 1993, reaching a low of only 2,300 surviving in the wild, according to the International Rhino Foundation.

Decades of conservation efforts allowed the species to slowly recover and the population is estimated at 6,421 today.

Once abundant across sub-Saharan Africa, rhino numbers fell dramatically due to hunting by European colonizers and large-scale poaching, with their horns highly sought after on black markets particularly in Asia.

Mozambique's population of the large animals was depleted during the 15-year civil war, which ended in 1992 and pushed many people to desperate measures to "survive in very difficult circumstances", van Rooyen said.

Years of rewilding efforts have established Zinave as Mozambique’s only national park home to the "Big Five" game animals -- elephant, rhino, lion, leopard and buffalo.