Irish-born Kiwi author Nic Russell has dealt with an unrelenting amount of hardship and grief - and she's turned her experiences into a book.

She's survived breast cancer, she’s lost a child, had a heart transplant and been diagnosed with Parkinson's - all before the age of 50 - and that inspired Kenzie’s Gift, a charity that supports young people through times of grief.

She's shared her stories in a new book - Bollix.

"I'm changed, the events of my life have changed me - hopefully for the better. Hopefully I have more understanding and empathy and know what's important in life. I think that's really what life has taught me."

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Hundreds of family videos and years of research have gone into an intimate new documentary about rugby legend Jonah Lomu.

The film draws on archive footage to tell the story of the All Black, who died 11 years ago aged 40.

It follows Lomu from his time at Wesley College through his rise to the All Blacks, and the pressures that came with being in the limelight.

Co-director Vea Mafile'o says the film captures the quiet moments the public never got to see.

"He went through a lot...and he did get a hard time from multiple different places, and so it felt really important to just put a little more context so people could have a better understanding of his life and upbringing."

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The Body and the Blood by Molly Crighton. This is a crime thriller set in and around St Paul’s Cathedral in Dunedin’s Octagon. A woman is found on the floor beneath the organ loft - initially the police assume she’d fallen, but a young police administrator senses that something more sinister was afoot and recruits a notorious journalist to help get to the bottom of it. For people who know Dunedin well, it’s a great location.

Big Little Truths by Liane Moriarty. Many readers will remember her excellent Big Little Lies some years ago which was subsequently made into a terrific TV series. This is a sequel, ten years later when the kids from the original book are now at college and their parents are navigating complex lives. There’s outrage in the community when the principal of the college receives a shocking delivery and a strange man starts hanging round the school, and eventually there has to be a reckoning. These are terrific characters, and anyone who loved the original book will also love this (though it can equally be read on its own).

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About 8.7 million passengers were affected by a cyber attack on a group of airports in the UK last week.

Data relating to car park, lounge and fast-track security bookings at three major airports was accessed in the hack, including passengers’ email addresses, phone numbers, vehicle registrations and postcodes.

BloggerAtLarge.com writer Megan Singleton says this is a cautionary tale about the dangers of free wi-fi - and outlined how travellers can protect themselves while using the internet overseas.

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Cook time: 2-3 minutes

Prep time: 15 minutes

Serves: 6

1 batch fresh pasta

3 lemons

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 cup parsley, chopped

2 tbsp grapeseed oil

Sea salt

Cracked pepper

Good parmesan

Zest the lemons and then juice into a bowl, add the oil, then add the crushed garlic and chopped parsley. Season well and set aside.

To make the pappardelle -

Cut the dough into 1/4 and then press down with your fingers to begin with.

Lightly dust a bench surface and using a rolling pin roll out each 1/4 of pasta. Continue to roll until you reach a thickness of a about 2-3 mm.

Dust with a touch more flour and cut into 1cm strips, toss over a touch more flour before continuing with the remaining pasta.

Once all the pasta has been rolled and cut, bring a large pot of salted water to the boil.

Drop in the pasta and allow it to come to the surface, Once the pasta is floating, continue to cook for a further 2 minutes before removing.

In a large bowl, toss through the gremolata and finely grate over a pile of parmesan cheese.

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This week on the Sunday Panel, Newstalk ZB Wellington Mornings host Nick Mills and host of The Prosperity Project, Nadine Higgins, joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the week - and more!

There's calls to make changes to the health system, with General Practice New Zealand outlining a 10-year plan and calling for a bipartisan approach to make changes. Do we think these changes are long overdue?

The Government has outlined their new social media bill, where teenagers under 16 would be banned from social media. But they're also indicated Kiwis of all ages could be banned from certain platforms if the major outlets don't comply. Do we think this is a step too far?

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On the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin Full Show Podcast for Sunday 30 August, Jonah Lomu was a giant of the rugby world and a global superstar. A new documentary coming to cinemas this week sheds light on the life of Jonah behind the scenes. Director Vea Mafile'o joins Francesca in studio to share what she learned about Jonah Lomu from her time working on the film.

A quote from her website best sums up the life of Irish born Kiwi, Nic Russell; “life didn’t just throw the book at Nic Russell – it dropped the whole library”. Nic joins Francesca to talk about her life and how she's kept going through the hard times.

Francesca calls on politicians to have an honest conversation about tax, while General Practioners New Zealand has released a 100 year blue print to fix the health system. Interim Chair Justin Butcher talks to Francesca about the need for cross party support for a united health service.

And a warning this week around using the airport Wi-Fi, Megan Singleton has all the details.

Get the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin Full Show Podcast every Sunday on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Having one sugary drink a day probably doesn't feel like a particularly dangerous habit, but a large new study published in the journal Gastro Hep Advances suggests regularly drinking sugar-sweetened beverages could be associated with a large increase in the risk of stomach cancer.

The researchers found that people consuming more than one sugary drink a day had around 2.5 times the risk of developing gastric cancer compared with people drinking them less than once a month. Among women, the association was even stronger, at around three times the risk.

The study analysed two enormous long-running studies of 112,284 people where the participants regularly provided information about their health and lifestyle, while detailed food questionnaires collected every four years recorded what they ate and drank.

Sugary drinks included regular fizzy drinks, fruit punch, lemonade and sports drinks. One serving was defined as 8 fluid ounces, about 237 mL. Participants were divided into five groups, from fewer than one serving a month to more than one every day.

Across more than 3.2 million person-years of observation, 278 people developed gastric cancer.

After adjusting for factors including body weight, smoking, alcohol consumption, diabetes, physical activity, calorie intake and overall diet quality, people drinking more than one sugary beverage a day had 2.45 times the risk of gastric cancer compared with people who essentially never drank them.

One of the strongest known risk factors for stomach cancer is infection with Helicobacter pylori, a bacterium that can live in the stomach lining and cause long-term inflammation.

Researchers had H. pylori antibody measurements for a smaller subset of participants. Interestingly, sugary-drink consumption wasn't associated with H. pylori infection, suggesting the bacteria didn't explain the relationship they observed.

They then looked at fructose, one of the major sugars in sugar-sweetened drinks.

Higher total fructose consumption was also associated with greater gastric cancer incidence overall and particularly among women.

Scientists don't yet know how sugary drinks might influence cancer development. Possible mechanisms include weight gain, insulin resistance, inflammation, DNA damage and changes to the microbes living in our digestive system, but the biological mechanism remains unknown.

Interestingly, the same pattern wasn't seen with artificially sweetened beverages.

This was an observational study, so it can identify an association but can't prove cause and effect. Researchers couldn't randomly assign people to drink soft drinks every day for decades, so other differences between frequent and infrequent sugary-drink consumers could still contribute to the results.

Researchers now need to reproduce the results in other populations and work out whether fructose or another aspect of sugary drinks could actually be contributing to cancer development.

For now, it's another reminder that when it comes to our health, the small things we consume every day may matter more than the occasional treat.

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