The Star (Jamaica)
Hidden lives of female friends
Women leading double lives are coming clean, exposing passionate relationships and forbidden romances with other females. For Kim*, 36, a devoted wife and high school teacher, the rules of love have never been black and white. Married for more than a...
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Teacher without GCE math shaped generations
When Sandra Rowe first left high school, mathematics was not part of her life plan. In fact, the newly retired teacher never acquired a General Certificate of Education (GCE) Ordinary Level (similar to CSEC) mathematics qualification, and once firmly...
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Plus-size mom stands firm after online attacks on her child
There was a time when Devodean Green barely stepped beyond her front door. Fresh out of high school and acutely aware of her plus size, the St Mary native said the weight of public judgement felt heavier than the extra pounds she carried. As a...
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Asylum seeker on edge
Every day, Jane* wakes up with a knot in her stomach. In just a few weeks, she faces an immigration court hearing that could change her life, for better, for worse. Two years ago, Jane left Jamaica illegally, seeking a new life in the United States....
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Loveinink
The buzz of tattoos machine echoed over the chatter inside Popin Tattoo and Body Piercing Studio in Kingston as customers sat patiently awaiting their turn in the chair. Almost without prompting, a familiar question snuck into the conversation. Would...
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Gangster turns neighbourhood cop
Aself-admitted gang leader says he has imposed an informal curfew across his inner-city community, claiming that the move is meant to protect residents — especially young men — from violence and deadly encounters with the police. Known as Mike*, the...
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Man loses two best friends in car crash
Thirty-two-yearold Omari Samuels after eight days is still struggling to accept the crushing loss of his two closest friends after cancelling plans to go out with them the very night they were killed in a fiery motor vehicle crash in Trelawny. For...
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Fisherman left paralysed in diving mishap
What started as a routine dive for 23-year-old Andre Daley quickly turned into a medical emergency. Struck by ‘the bends’, medically known as decompression sickness, Daley has been left paralysed and facing an uncertain recovery. “That (fishing) is...
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I don’t want to lose my sight
If Alicia Bramwell was given one wish, it would be to have a clean bill of health. The 31-year-old, who has been struggling with various illnesses since her teenage years, is on the verge of completely losing her eyesight if she does not receive...
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Brain cancer fighter seeks life-saving treatment
Less than a year after she was declared to be in remission, a Jamaican mother of two is facing stage four cancer after the disease returned and spread to her brain and lungs. Her family is now seeking public support to help fund treatment abroad....
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Clarendon family witnesses fireworks for first time
As the final hours of 2025 ticked away, streams of people made their way down to the Kingston waterfront, turning the usually breezy stretch into a sea of blankets, folding chairs, laughter and flashing toy lights. Families claimed spots early,...
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St Thomas man gets a leg for new year
St Thomas native Hakim Bond said he has received a huge blessing for the new year in the form of a prosthetic leg. In a recent interview with THE STAR, the diabetic said he is now steadily regaining his independence after losing his left leg to the...
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PUBLICATION PRICE INCREASE: WEEKEND STAR
Dear readers, as of January, 1, 2026 the price of THE STAR will increase from $85 to $95, while THE price will increase from $110 to $120. The Sunday Gleaner will move from $220 to $240, while the Daily Gleaner increases from $130 to $140. The cover...
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Child Resiliency Programme transforms students
Ricardo Motley, a father of two from McIntyre Villa in Kingston, watched from the sidelines as his 10-year-old son performed in the Christmas dance at the close-out ceremony of the Child Resiliency Programme at Holy Family Primary and Infant...
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Back in Jamrock after 30 years
After 30 years living in the US, Aiysha McCarthy decided to move back to Jamaica and nothing has her more excited than experiencing Christmas on the island again. Standing in the yard of her grandmother’s home in Moravia, Clarendon, McCarthy said that...
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Bleak Christmas for father of slain UTech student
As Christmas approaches, a time once filled with family gatherings and celebration in his household, Everton Dilworth is bracing himself for two dates that now carry unbearable weight, Christmas Day and December 27, the birthday his daughter Anisa will...
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COPS OVERCOME LOSS, trials to excel
In the space of a few days, Monique Bartley lost her home and her sister. During the passage of Hurricane Melissa, the roof over Bartley’s head was ripped away, damaging personal belongings. But, before she could fully process that loss, her sister,...
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Goodbye baldness
While beauty trends have long catered to women, men dealing with hair loss from male pattern baldness to thinning hair most times have limited options. That is starting to change in Portmore, St Catherine, where barber Cristoffe Laoe is now offering...
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Top cop has always believed in community policing
When a teenage girl walked into a police guardroom with her bag packed and fear written all over her face, Corporal Shantel Powell did not see a disciplinary issue, she saw a moment that could change the course of a life. “Ms Powell, I’m going to run...
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Street ganja scarce after Melissa
Street-level ganja vendors across Jamaica are struggling to restock after Hurricane Melissa tore through western farms, leaving supply chains in disarray. On the streets of Kingston, small vendors face frustrated customers, while licensed herb houses...
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RJRGLEANER rocked by death of CEO
The RJRGLEANER Communications Group has been rocked by the sudden passing of its chief executive officer, Anthony Smith, who died on Sunday morning after a brief illness. His death has left colleagues and the wider media community reeling. Chairman...
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Bittersweet anniversary
As she looks at her oneyear-old grandson, Zyair ‘Peppa’ Thomas, lovingly, tears well up in Christine Campbell’s eyes. The infant’s birthday was on Wednesday, December 10, but for Campbell, it was a bittersweet moment. It was also one-year anniversary...
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‘She was terrified’
Afew minutes after leaving the cops, Scean Barnswell noticed a young child being pulled along the roadway by a man. Something did not sit right with him. “It was her uniform, and even more the fear on her face,” Barnswell recalled. “The fear drew my...
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No snow, No problem!
Decades after Carlene Davis released her Christmas reggae song, ‘Santa Claus, do you ever come to the ghetto?’ no one would have predicted that Santa would not only visit, but actually call the ghetto home. For many low-income communities, the...
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Charity building 10 houses for hurricane victims
As hundreds of Jamaicans remain homeless in Western Jamaica following the passage of Hurricane Melissa, an international non-profit organisation has pledged to build 10 board dwellings for families. Rob Gaudet, CEO of Ground Force Humanitarian Aid,...
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Christmas project putting money in pockets
Christmas preparations across sections of the Corporate Area are creating much-needed work for several residents, who have jumped at the chance to clean, paint and brighten public spaces ahead of the holiday rush. “We a stop bout the 17th and we...
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Medikk’s mom turns pain into purpose
Two years after losing her first-born child, something inside Millicent McCurdy still feels shattered. Yet the 50-year-old Westmoreland businesswoman believes that the very grief that once threatened to consume her pales in comparison to the force God...
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DANGEROUS
Users of popular weightloss drug Ozempic are being urged to watch their alcohol intake this Christmas as even small amounts of liquor could be detrimental. Originally developed as a diabetes medication, Ozempic curbs appetite, and helps regulate blood...
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Homeless graduate achieves certification
Category 5 Hurricane Melissa may have destroyed her house, but not the dreams of St Elizabeth resident Rasheda Brown. On Sunday, Brown, who hails from Oxford, was among more than 200 students who graduated from Distinction College at a ceremony held...
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‘We want our boys to look like students’
Determined to see positive changes in the attitude of the nation’s youth, a senior cop is urging parents and caregivers to pay keen attention to the image of their boys. Sergeant Kidan McCoy, along with his team, say they have started an initiative to...
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Melissa brings tourist and local together
When Category 5 Hurricane Melissa unleashed chaos across Jamaica, 40-yearold American businesswoman Jetia Miller discovered something entirely unexpected — love. Stranded by the storm, Miller fell for a local stranger who she said took her in and...
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Treacherous walk home
At first glance, one could easily assume that Karen Arnold is splurging in profits from her fully packed shop in Middleton Settlement, East Rural St Andrew. But, according to the owner and operator of Karen’s One Stop, she is making way less than she...
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ANOTHER TOUGH BLOW
Before dawn last Friday, Raymond Brown found transportation heading for Kingston, determined to collect his 10-year-old son for a rare weekend together. With no steady job or secure accommodation, he planned to sleep somewhere on the UWI Mona campus...
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Trelawny mom fears for infant son as supplies run low
Three weeks after Hurricane Melissa tore through Jamaica, Trelawny mother Aeisha Brady is struggling to care for her seven-weekold baby Azarie. She is faced with a rapidly shrinking supply of formula, a damaged home still exposed to the elements, and...
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STAR story sparks rescue
Just one day after this newspaper shone a light on the heartbreaking ordeal of 14-year-old Joel Wynter – the sickle cell warrior trapped in pain inside a storm-battered church – help finally found its way to his family. The National Health Fund (NHF)...
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JAMAICAN MODEL IYAH MAKES HISTORY
Sixth-form student at Jamaica College, Iyah, has made history as the first Jamaican Rasta to be featured in Harper’s Bazaar new men’s edition. Harper’s Bazaar France Harper’s Bazaar introduced its first ever men’s edition – Homme – a bold...
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Biggaton rebuilding homes for Hurricane Melissa victims
In a district still bearing the scars of Hurricane Melissa, one man is quietly rebuilding homes that the storm destroyed. Using his own savings and labour, Kevin ‘Biggaton’ Roye has taken on the task of repairing 10 houses for families in Newton, St...
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Emergency hospital established in Black River
An Emergency Field Hospital has been deployed at the Black River High School in St Elizabeth to provide extensive medical services and support to the local healthcare infrastructure in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa. The hospital was established...
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Former homeless man sheltered families during hurricane
When Hurricane Melissa pounded western Jamaica, Othniel Barrett’s house in Bethel, Westmoreland, shook under the pressure of the 2 wind and rain – windows shattering and the roof leaking. And yet that same battered home became a refuge for 12...
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‘Please for some food and water’
Their eyes told the story long before their lips could — wide, pleading, and desperate. It was the kind of gaze that grips your chest before your mind even catches up. In their tiny hands, pieces of cardboard bore the words of their suffering: “Please...
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Man dies while seeking aid in St Elizabeth
He was almost there. After pedalling six long miles on a rusted bicycle, the man everyone in Pondside, St Elizabeth, called ‘Bubus’ could finally see the line of relief trucks in the distance. Where he was headed, no one knows for sure – but what is...
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92-y-o uses verandah to shelter from Melissa
At 92 years old, Eugenia Nembhard said she has weathered many storms including Hurricanes Charlie in 1951 and Gilbert in 1988, but none were as devastating and furious as Melissa. Sitting on her late mother’s waterlogged bed in her hurricane ravished...
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Melissa leaves death and destruction
Nearly a dozen deaths have been linked to Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica, three of which are said to have occurred before the storm’s passage on Tuesday. Four deaths were confirmed by the Government yesterday, while Member of Parliament (MP) for...
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Left out in the storm
Battling fierce winds from Hurricane Melissa yesterday, a senior citizen, 76-year-old Empress, clutched the trolley tightly while peering inside — where a brown and black terrier, dressed in a purple frock, lay huddled. The woman, visibly upset,...
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Crab hunt in the storm!
Armed with a few cutlasses and crocus bags in hand, a group of young people were busy crab hunting along the Hellshire main road in St Catherine yesterday, even though Hurricane Melissa had already started impacting the island. Among the group was...
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Crash survivor grateful for second chance
Eleven years after a nearfatal crash in St Ann, Don-Juanique Gardener is using his second chance at life to give back to the hospital that helped save his life. The JN Bank merchant relationship officer returned to the St Ann’s Bay Hospital on October...
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Port Royal residents staying put despite storm
With grey skies hanging low over the Kingston coastline and waves licking at the broken lighthouse road, both signs of an impending storm, some Port Royal residents are standing firm. As Tropical Storm Melissa drifts slowly west across the Caribbean,...
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Fishers not taking chances with storm
Before the radios warned of Tropical Storm Melissa, the sea had already sent its message – thin white “scripts” rippled across the water near Rocky Point, St Thomas, and the fishermen knew the weather was turning. “Once you see scripts, you know say...
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Flooding fear haunts single mother
Between Flat Bridge and Bog Walk, the ground of Kent Village squelches underfoot, slick with mud from the Rio Cobre that coils just behind the houses. For 32-year-old Natasha Sinclair, a single mother of four, the first drop of rain feels like a...
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A whisper saved her life
Nichole Smart, a registered midwife, spent her career teaching women the importance of breast self-examinations. “Early detection saves lives,” she would say. Yet, when a lump appeared in her own breast in 2013, she hesitated. “I had just finished a...
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Janitor beats odds to become math teacher
When 34-year-old Mark Bolton steps into his mathematics classroom at Newell High School in St Elizabeth, he does so with the same determination he once used to scrub floors as a janitor at Church Teachers’ College, which he did for eight and a half...
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Cops help mother deliver baby
Sergeant Kidan McCoy is a father of three, but on Tuesday, when he and his team – consisting of Constables Shaniah Salmon, Gavin Hall and Nicole Williams – were tasked with assisting with the delivery of a baby, his nerves were in shambles. However,...
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Former state ward wants to be a social worker
Eighteen-year-old Sayeed Campbell has known rejection and hardship from before he could even walk. Abandoned at just two months old and raised across several children’s homes, Sayeed has seen the rougher side of life in state care. He said in moving...
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Partially deaf guard wants to hear clearly
Whenever 42-year-old security guard Omar Pryce talks with co-workers and customers, he pays particular attention to their lips as that’s how he ‘hears’ them loud and clear. Pryce was born with a deformed right ear and has lived his entire life...
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Sewage nightmare for West Kingston residents
Parents in sections of West Kingston are pleading with the authorities to urgently fix the sewage problem that has been plaguing their community for years, saying their children’s health is endangered. When the news team visited Bond Street, where St...
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ABANDONED BABY WITH FAMILY
More than 40 years after being abandoned as a baby and placed for adoption, Tamara Ebanks finally met the woman who gave birth to her, Angela Housen Mattis. But she still does not know who is her father. Raised in the Cayman Islands by a couple who...
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Sick child sleeping on hospital bench
For several nights, twoyear-old Anna* has been sleeping upright on a wooden bench inside Spanish Town Hospital’s emergency room – her mother’s arms her only pillow, a fever her only constant. Her mother, Mary*, says the ordeal began last week when her...
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Mother shocked that son is a bully
When Melissa’s* phone rang one afternoon, she almost didn’t pick up as she was tired and still folding laundry – but a nervous voice on the other end made her sit down. “The parent said she didn’t want any trouble, but she needed to tell me that my...
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‘Dumpling’ felt cold hours before deadly crash
Seventeen-year-old Ryan ‘Dumpling’ Tulloch was restless on the night he left his home in Tawes Meadows, St Catherine, on Friday. Before stepping out, he battled an unexplained chill that made him uneasy. “Him was in the yard with a few of his friends,...
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EX-MP SAYS HE CHEATED DEATH DURING HOME INVASION
Paul Buchanan says he narrowly escaped death after “men invaded my home to kill me” in the run-up to the September 3 general election. But the defeated People’s National Party (PNP) candidate for St Andrew West Central did not attempt to link the home...
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Survivor sounds breast cancer alarm
When she was diagnosed with stage one breast cancer, Koralee Glen knew there was nothing “small” about it. Five years later, the retired teacher and grandmother is proof that early detection, backed by faith and resilience, saves lives. Her journey...
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‘GOD GOT HER’
John Pollard remembers vividly the moment his university sweetheart, Tamra, told him they were going to be parents. The couple had met at the prestigious Howard University in the USA, where love quickly blossomed. “She was a beautiful baby girl. She...
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Good manners and Tetley tea
For 100-year-old Sylvaney Walker, affectionately called ‘Nana’ by her family, the secret to a long life is simple: peace, discipline, good manners and three cups of Tetley tea every day. “Love, peace, don’t trouble nobody, manners to everybody and mi...
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‘Dingie never work fi heaven’
What was meant to be a solemn farewell for 67-year-old Noel ‘Dingie’ White has exploded into an islandwide drama after a clip from his September 14 funeral went viral online. In the video, his sister, Patsy StewartBarnaby, shocked the congregation...
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Single mother gets back-to-school boost
Just weeks ago, Judith Sewell had no idea how she would handle the back-to-school expenses for two of her three children. Although she worked at a postal agency, a series of unfortunate events left her struggling financially. But her prayers were...
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Scholarship comes at right time for NCU student
During her earlier years as she watched her parents struggle to make ends meet, Jessica Jones hoped to be part of the PATH programme. This, she believed, would lessen the financial burden on her parents, as she would receive lunch at a subsidised rate...
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Viagra has old boys seeking SIDE CHICKS
Some Jamaicans say Viagra may restore stamina, but is also wrecking trust, pushing older men into the arms of younger women. Leroy, 62, admitted that he has turned to Viagra over the past two years and the drug has given him back his swagger. “Mi no...
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Linstead Primary School celebrates 125 years
Staff and students of the Linstead Primary School in St Catherine commemorated the institution’s 125 years of existence with a march on Monday. The march went from the health centre on King Street – the grounds of which were the school’s first home in...
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Sprayground bags branded ‘dangerous’
Just when Jamaica thought it had closed the chapter on the infamous ‘dunce bag’ saga, a new fashion frenzy has stormed through the gates – backpacks plastered with angry bears, bloodthirsty sharks, a raging Tasmanian devil, and even graveyard...
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Diver dies hours after returning from sea
Gripped with grief over the sudden passing of one of their own, fisherfolk along Forum Fishing Village in Portmore, are imploring their colleagues to take care of their wellbeing. “Being a diver or fisherman is very challenging, but people nuh really...
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Tiny heart in big battle
Barely a month old, Amara Williams is fighting for her life. Born with a rare heart defect, she has just two weeks left to undergo a lifesaving surgery that cannot be performed in Jamaica—a procedure her parents cannot afford without urgent help. Baby...
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Suicidal behaviour linked to childhood trauma
Noted psychiatrist Dr Wendel Abel is cautioning that suffering from childhood trauma increases one’s risk of suicidal behaviour and suicidal attempts. September is Suicide Prevention Month, and, according to reports, Jamaica recorded 67 cases of...
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Body of 5-y-o autistic boy found in pit
Little Jahair was nicknamed ‘Happy’ by his father, Oliver Spencer, because of his captivating smile. The five-year-old, non-verbal, autistic boy was playful and full of life. But, on Tuesday evening, sometime after 6 p.m., Spencer said he realised...
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IPhone bet spurs 13-y-o to ace CSEC English language
Kahlaliah Moore made a bold bet with her mother, Kayon HutchinsonMoore – if she got a grade one in CSEC English language, then her mom would have to buy her an iPhone 16 Pro Max. Hutchinson-Moore said she instantly agreed, because even though she knew...
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