Father's plea to students

A Bournemouth father is urging young people to join a bone marrow register at a recruitment event in the town this Thursday.
Saroosh Farid, who lives in Springbourne, has spent nearly eight years watching his 17-year-old son, Adib, battle a rare form of leukaemia and says more people are desperately needed to help save lives.
Adib was 10 when he was diagnosed and had his first lifesaving operation at the age of 11. Now, just weeks away from his 18th birthday, Adib is facing the prospect of a second bone marrow transplant.
The Anthony Nolan Trust, which organises the bone marrow register, is coming to Bournemouth University on Thursday and is encouraging students to sign up by giving a teaspoon of blood.
Saroosh said: "By giving that kind of help to others we can save lives and change lives. I wish that could have been the case much earlier for some of Adib's friends because maybe they would be sitting with us now."
Karen Archer, who is organising the event, said: "When students come along on the day they will be given an application form and will be asked for a teaspoon of blood and that might be the only thing they need to do unless they become a match for somebody."
Mrs Archer said the newest methods of extracting bone marrow are not dissimilar to giving blood. She said: "It's very similar but a lot longer and you have two needles instead of one. You're wide awake and you have someone with you that you know.
"You can have your iPod on or the TV on and the time goes very quickly and the most important thing is that it's a life-saving procedure."
There are currently 16,000 people around the world who are desperately trying to find a bone marrow donor.
The trust is urging anyone, not just students, aged between 18 and 40 to come to Poole House at Bournemouth University on Thursday, February 19, between 11am and 2pm.


Saroosh Farid talks about the bone marrow register.

Price tags distract gallery goers

Some people might consider a £1,200 price tag for an original piece of art a bargain. That would certainly be the case at a trendy gallery in, say, Dorchester or Poole, but try telling that to visitors and students at Bournemouth University.

Habitus, the latest exhibition in the university's Atrium Gallery, comprises of twelve works by Michael Griffiths, a fine art tutor at the neighbouring Arts Institute.
The narrow room displays eleven framed works and one larger unframed piece, primarily in charcoal, so the overall impression of the whitewashed space is drab and colourless.
Passing along the display of framed works, one could be forgiven for thinking the drawings were the scribblings of a disturbed, hyperactive child. The marks on the paper are frantic and pronounced as if made during a fit of rage, yet they have been worked and reworked until, out of The mayhem appears the promise of an image - albeit depressing and grey.
The drawings are based on what French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu described as Habitus, a system of dispositions, actions and preferences which define individuals.
Mr Griffiths says of his work: "I use drawings to pose questions, to explore possibilities and to make thinking visible."
The works on display are a selection from the last six months and offer an insight into the development of the artist's rather more appealing printmaking work.The unfortunate habit of putting price tags on works of art must surely be a ploy. It is difficult to imagine at a university exhibition who would buy these pieces, yet beside each frame is a small white ticket bearing the optimistic tag of £580.
The largest piece, on an unfurled sheet of A1 paper attached to the end wall with drawing pins, is clearly worth more - it's at least twice as big - but it's difficult to envisage where it would live, especially at this price.
The monetary value placed on art may well be a red herring, gleefully snapped up by those of us who just don't get it, but if curators don't want visitors to be distracted by over-inflated price tags, why not use a bar code instead?
Habitus is at the Atrium Gallery until Saturday, February 21, 2009.

Murder suspects appear before magistrates

The men accused of murdering Bournemouth University student Luke Campbell in Boscombe last weekend appeared at Bournemouth Magistrates this morning.
Larbi Mohamed, 20, and Saeed Alkadir, 21, of London, have been remanded in custody and will next appear at Winchester Crown Court on Monday, November 24.

Murdered student: two arrests

Two men have been arrested over the murder of Bournemouth University student Luke Campbell, according to the BBC.
Police revealed that the men, aged 20 and 21, were arrested in London earlier today.
Earlier this week police said they had found a BMX bike which they believed belonged to the 20-year-old victim.

Murdered man named

The man found murdered in a back garden in Boscombe was a Bournemouth University student from Burton, according to Derbyshire's Evening Telegraph.
Luke Campbell, 20, was in his first year at the university where he was studying IT and Business Studies.