Good morning! 🌞 

Some beans fuel your day. These ones fuel your sugar rush, childhood memories, and questionable decisions. Today is Jelly Bean Day!

Innovation

A ‘Miracle’ Birth

Grace Davidson has become the first woman in the UK to give birth using a transplanted womb—an extraordinary medical milestone made possible by a 17-hour surgery and a deeply personal gift. The womb was donated by her sister, Amy, and implanted by a team of 30 doctors as part of a clinical trial led by Womb Transplant UK. Grace, who was born with MRKH syndrome—a condition where the uterus is missing or underdeveloped—was still able to produce eggs, making pregnancy possible through IVF. It worked on the first attempt.

In February, Grace gave birth to her daughter, Amy Isabel—named after both her sister and lead surgeon Isabel Quiroga, who oversaw the transplant at Churchill Hospital in Oxford. The organ retrieval was carried out by gynecological surgeon Richard Smith of Imperial College Healthcare. This breakthrough, funded entirely by the charity, marks a major step forward for reproductive medicine in the UK. Though womb transplants remain rare, the procedure has gained traction globally since the first successful birth in Sweden in 2014. To date, around 65 babies have been born through this method.

Grace and her husband Angus had explored womb transplant options since 2018 but faced delays due to donor availability and the COVID-19 pandemic. When her sister was approved as a living donor, the dream finally moved forward. Womb Transplant UK’s current trial plans 15 total transplants—five from living donors and ten from deceased—with funding remaining for two more. “This is the result of years of research and surgical planning,” said Smith. “Seeing it succeed is both emotional and medically significant.”

Health Science

Optimizing Supplements

A new double-blind, placebo-controlled study—the gold standard in clinical research—has found that fish oil supplements may be more effective than eating fish when it comes to raising omega-3 levels and reducing markers linked to disease. The study followed 42 participants over 12 weeks, dividing them into three groups: one took fish oil with white fish, another ate oily fish with a placebo, and a third had white fish with a placebo. The fish oil group showed the most significant drop in extracellular vesicles (EVs), tiny cell-derived particles associated with increased risk for cancer, heart disease, and neurodegenerative conditions.

EVs are microscopic messengers that can influence how cells behave, for better or worse. While their exact roles are still being studied, high levels of EVs in the bloodstream are generally seen as warning signs. Among all the groups, only those taking fish oil supplements experienced a meaningful reduction in circulating EVs—suggesting that concentrated EPA and DHA, the key omega-3 fatty acids in fish oil, are more bioavailable and potent in supplement form than from food alone.

This challenges long-standing nutritional advice to "get your nutrients from whole foods, not pills." While fatty fish like salmon are still excellent sources of omega-3s, most people don’t consume them daily. Research even suggests that having low omega-3 levels poses a similar mortality risk to smoking. The takeaway? If you’re serious about supporting long-term health and preventing chronic disease, a high-quality fish oil supplement—ideally providing 1,750 to 2,500 mg of combined EPA and DHA per day—may be the smarter move. Keep the salmon on your plate, but don’t overlook what’s in the bottle.

Environment

A Stranger’s Gift

In Pittsburgh, 81-year-old Betty was powering through another shift at Eat’n Park, the local diner where she worked despite chronic back pain. She wasn’t there out of choice—her $910 monthly Social Security check simply wasn’t enough to cover basic expenses. Like many seniors, she kept working because she had no other option.

That changed when Tamie Konzier, a local esthetician and TikTok user, overheard Betty talking about her situation. Touched by her story, Konzier filmed a short video and pledged to donate any earnings from TikTok’s Creator Fund directly to Betty. She handed over a $40 tip—the only cash in her wallet—and posted the clip online. It quickly went viral. By the next day, people from all over were asking how to help. Konzier launched a GoFundMe, and donations started pouring in.

The response was overwhelming. When the campaign reached $140,000, Konzier returned to the diner to tell Betty the news. “I think I better get a financial adviser!” Betty joked. That number eventually climbed to $300,000. To protect Betty’s newfound support, Konzier and her legal team are now working with an elder law attorney to establish a trust that won’t interfere with Betty’s benefits or healthcare. “She is beyond grateful,” Konzier said in a final update, noting the fundraiser would close at the end of April. What began with a $40 act of kindness turned into something much bigger—a chance for Betty to finally rest.

@tamie.lynn

Hoping we can help this sweet lady retire! I think Jen Hamilton could help me do it but I can’t tag her! #viralvideo #fyp #jenhamilton

Mind Stretchers

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Why did the bicycle fall over?

Yesterday’s Mind Stretchers:

Why did the tomato turn red? — it saw the salad dressing 😆 Debbie Ettinger got this correct first! 🌞 

Be the first to send us the correct answer for today’s mind stretcher for a shout-out with the answer tomorrow. Just send us the answer and your name to [email protected]

If you have any uplifting stories and experience you might want to share, send those over to [email protected] for the chance to be featured.