THE best stories are often those that evoke emotions of shock, sadness, and sympathy all at once. And I challenge anyone to read the tale of Theresa Winters and not fell a mixture of the three. Ms Winters, dubbed a brazen baby machine by one less than s

THE best stories are often those that evoke emotions of shock, sadness, and sympathy all at once.

And I challenge anyone to read the tale of Theresa Winters and not fell a mixture of the three.

Ms Winters, dubbed a "brazen baby machine" by one less than subtle tabloid last week, is pregnant with her 14th child, despite the fact that the previous 13 were all taken into care on grounds of neglect. She has vowed to keep having children until social services let her keep one.

This lady is certainly in a terrible situation, but I find the reactions of the press and public at large to this have been extremely distasteful.

Rather than complaining about what a drain she and her family are on tax payers cash, or calling for her to be sterilised, perhaps we should be looking at what is driving this woman, and others like her, to keep having children.

She obviously has deep emotional problems that need to be addressed; is anyone actually looking to give her help and/or treatment? And who of us is so perfect that we feel we're in a good position to judge a woman most of us will have never met? I know I'm not.

It's a sad indictment of our society that we prefer to pour scorn on people like Ms Winters rather than looking at the underlying reasons causing her to act in this way.

I was saddened to read about the death of Sir Bobby Robson.

The former England, Ipswich, and Newcastle football manager died of cancer last week following a long illness.

I'm a bit too young to remember Sir Bobby's exploits with the Tractor Boys, or even the run to the semi-finals of Italia '90 with the national team. However, I do recall his successful career in Europe with the likes of Barcelona and PSV Eindhoven, together with his final success in taking his boyhood club, Newcastle United, into the Champions League.

What always struck me most about Sir Bobby was that, even when things were going against him, he remained dignified in public even if he was raging in private. There was none of the slagging off of rival bosses or other teams which most managers indulge in these days.

The likes of Alex Ferguson, Rafa Benitez, and Arsene Wenger could learn a lot from the way he conducted himself throughout his career.