One family was struck by tragedy this month, but decided to turn their tough times into a chance to do something good for others.

Joshua Zamora, a veteran from the Marines, recently "ended his battle" with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). He had been suffering from the disorder after returning from a tour in Afghanistan, and eventually took his own life. A week later, his brothers Jonathan and Stephen were having a meal with their children at a Chick-fil-A, when Jonathan had an idea of how to honour his memory.

After spotting 11 servicemen in the North Carolina location, Jonathan decided to do a good deed, setting an example for their kids and hopefully raising some awareness about PTSD. They asked the men if they could pay their bill, an offer they initially refused, but they changed their minds when Jonathan explained what they were doing.

"It was a way for me to express my gratitude for what they do and help me grieve for my brother," the 34-year-old Jonathan told Yahoo Lifestyle. "And give back to them for what burdens they will now carry for life to help us."

Jonathan's brother Stephen later took to Facebook to share the moment, which took place in a Chick-fil-A, took to Facebook Saturday to share the "proud big brother moment," which unfolded in a Durham location.

"He didn’t even bat an eye and asked everyone in line to allow the 9 to come to the front of the line," Stephen wrote in the now-viral post. He continued:

“As he paid for their meals, in remembrance of our late brother Joshua who suffered mentally from severe PTSD, he asked them to reach out to anyone they knew with PTSD and try their best to get them the help they needed. We thanked them for their service and left.”

Both brothers have asked others to come forward and show their support for men in the military, Stephen later asked others to follow in their footsteps.

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"Do you know what a small gesture like paying for their meal and thanking a serviceman or woman does to their head and heart?" Stephen asked. "You never know what is going on inside. PTSD is not always visible."

Speaking to Fox News, Stephen explained how they are hoping to raise awareness for the condition, improving the level of support and discussion around the topic. "We wanted to use it as a teaching moment for our boys, to show respect and honor for the men and women that fight for this country every day," Stephen said. "Take care of the people that take care of us."

Hopefully, many others follow in their footsteps and help to spread awareness of the serious effects post-traumatic stress disorder can have on people. The family confirmed that they will be celebrating Joshua's life at a memorial service on Tuesday.

Meghan Trainor has revealed she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after the "traumatic" birth of her son.

As reported by People, the 'Made You Look' singer, 29, sought help from mental health specialists after experiencing persistent flashbacks of her in the hospital as her then newborn son Riley - who struggled with his breathing - was rushed to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

She shared the diagnosis in her upcoming book; titled Dear Future Mama: A TMI Guide to Pregnancy, Birth, and Motherhood from Your Bestie. The book, which is slated for release on April 25, sees Trainor go into detail about her experience having her first child.

Riley, who Trainor shares with her husband Daryl Sabara, was born via cesarean section in 2021.

She had to undergo a scheduled C-section to deliver Riley as he was in the breech position, which means he was lying feet or buttocks first in the womb.

"After a few minutes I realized that I hadn't heard [Riley] cry," Trainor wrote in her book. "I saw Daryl's face change as he looked over to where our baby was being worked on by the doctors."

"Daryl's face was panicked, but as freaked out as I felt inside, the drugs I'd been given for the surgery wouldn't let me panic," she wrote, adding that the doctor advised Sabara to go with Riley to the NICU while Trainor remained on the surgical table. "Good thing I was drugged, or I'd have jumped up with a gaping hole in my belly and run right after them."

"I was alone, without Daryl or Riley, and I wasn't sure if my baby could even breathe," she wrote. "Would he be okay? Would Daryl be okay, up there on his own with this crisis? The drugs and the stress made it seem like everything was happening in slow motion."

Trainor recalled how the doctor tried his best to inject some levity into the harrowing ordeal by making some jokes - however, she said she "couldn't laugh."

"I tried to get myself to take a nap to make the time pass faster," she said, "but I knew where I was and the reality I was facing, and it was too scary to fall asleep."

Luckily, Trainor was able to FaceTime Sabara and Riley in the NICU when she was taken to the recovery room. She added: "I cried when I saw all the tubes and cords connected to him. He felt so far away. But I was also distracted by his beauty and by the fact that he was a real person out in the world. I couldn't wait to hold him, rock him, nurse him, kiss him."

Featured image credit: Hyperstar / Alamy

A transgender man has spoken out about the "trauma" he suffered at the hands of medical professionals during his pregnancy.

Kayden Coleman, whose baby girl is now 10-months-old, opened up about the experience in an interview with TODAY.

The 34-year-old, who also has a seven-year-old daughter, said of his pregnancies: "There was a lot of trauma. Most of that came from inside the birthing world, with medical professionals. There was a lot of questioning about my identity, a lot of misgendering.

He added: "Being told I shouldn't be in spaces I was seeking care from because they were considered women's spaces. I was offered an abortion a ridiculous amount of times."

Coleman went on to tell the outlet that healthcare workers consistently undermined him during his second pregnancy, despite him not being a first-time parent.

He said: "In the medical world, it was assumed that I wasn't capable. Even with my second child, I would tell them over and over that this wasn't my first. And they still talked to me as though I had no idea what I was doing."

The doting dad believes he was not afforded "the perks" of pregnancy as most were unaware that he was expecting.

However, in many ways, he feels grateful that few people knew that he, as a man, was with child. Especially considering violence against trans people is still ongoing in many parts of the world, including the States.

"I didn't have to walk around in fear, worrying that people wanted to inflict violence on me," Coleman added. "They thought I had a beer belly."

The father-of-two strongly believes that personal beliefs should not impact in any way on the medical care that trans people receive.

He said: "It’s not about whether or not you quote-unquote agree with us. We don’t care about your acceptance or agreement. We just want equity and safe, inclusive care."

Since his difficult experience with pregnancy and childbirth, Coleman has been teaching birth workers in trans fertility and birth workshops.

Ultimately, Coleman, along with many other trans people, feels that the medical system does not accommodate trans people in the way that it should. He hopes to educate those working in healthcare in order to improve the system.

Featured image credit: Michael Burrell / Alamy

"After suffering a stroke not only did I have to deal with paralysis but I had to deal with losing my partner of 14 years. After he asked me for a divorce I was left completely alone. After five days in the hospital, I was told it would take me six months to a year to recover.

"At the time I felt like giving up, but I knew I had to be strong for my children and so when I finally took my first steps it felt amazing. I put a post on Facebook last January looking for a personal trainer to help me and some friends suggested that I get in touch with Keith.

"After our sessions Keith and I stayed in contact, he would ask me how I was getting on and our relationship blossomed from there. We have now been together for 11 months, the children really like him and I finally feel like I'm living the life I deserve."

"It was the time I needed my husband the most."

"One day Keith asked me out for coffee and we picked up from where we left off. I just couldn't believe a gorgeous rugby player wanted to date a disabled woman like me. Keith says I inspire him, but he encourages me every day and understands and sees the pain that I am in. He has been amazing with me and the children and I love him more each and every day.

"I now only need my wheelchair to go long distances but my home hasn't been adapted so I try not use it. Looking back, going through what I did was the best thing to ever happen to me. I'm now back in the gym, and with Keith's help I'm getting better and stronger than ever. After my stroke I thought my life was over but it's only just beginning and has opened so many wonderful doors, I've signed up with Models of Diversity and have just landed my first TV commercial."

The parents of a baby girl who survived a stroke in the womb are speaking out about their daughter's "biggest, brightest smile" despite the many challenges she has faced in her short life.

When 27-year-old Amy Cawley was 34-weeks pregnant, she became concerned that she had not felt her baby more in three days. Previous scans showed her unborn daughter was small, but this had not concerned the doctors.

However, after receiving another scan at Poole Hospital, Dorset, England, Amy was told her baby's heart rate was very low and that she required an emergency c-section.

Amy recalled: "They told me afterward if they had waited another 48 hours, Darcie wouldn’t have made it. It was so scary to think how close we’d come to losing her."

On December 9, 2019, Darcie-May Ferris was born weighing 4lb 7oz to proud parents Amy and 26-year-old prison officer Alex Ferris.

Sadly, moments after Darcie arrived, medics noticed that both her arms were discolored and covered in black birthmark-like lesions. Father Alex said: "The atmosphere in the room after she was delivered was very strange. They told us her arms didn’t look normal."

They transferred Darcie to neo-natal intensive care and then transferred to Southampton General Hospital, in Hampshire, where specialist staff were more equipped to deal with burns and skin grafts.

Amy and Alex - still unable to hold their newborn daughter - were later told that Darcie had suffered a stroke in the womb, which was caused by a blood clot traveling from her shoulder.

Amy said: "We don’t know why it happened or whether it could happen again if Darcie has a baby sister or brother.

"I had my placenta tested to see if it could be a genetic problem, but the tests did not come back with anything.

"Darcie was very heavily sedated for the first 10 days of her life, so she was not in pain, but she was in an incubator which made it really difficult because we couldn’t hold her.

"We couldn’t cuddle her until she was eight days old which was so hard. We wanted desperately to bond with her, but not being able to touch her made it more difficult."

As a result of the clots, Darcie was placed on medication in an attempt to thin her blood and break up the clots. At first, it seemed like the treatment was working, as Darcie's left arm started to go back to its normal color a couple of weeks after she was born. However, it was too late for the fingers on her left hand.

Alex explained: "Her thumb and index finger on her left hand were okay, but she had three black fingers, and it became clear they were not going to last."

One of the parent's most difficult moments came when some of Darcie's fingers fell off as they were giving her a bath. Alex recalled:

"We had to let them fall off. In fact, we were bathing her one day and a couple of her fingers just fell off. We had been expecting it to happen, but it was horrible, and we didn’t really know how to deal with it.

"Her fingers looked like little sultanas.

“Her first operation was to have those tidied up when she was six weeks old. The skin had come away and left the bone, so the surgeon had to trim the bone back to allow the skin to heal over it."

The focus then turned to Darcie’s right arm, which didn't appear to be healing as well as the left.

"It wasn’t clear what the best option would be – either to amputate or to play the waiting game and see if it healed itself, because a baby’s skin has a better ability to heal than an adult’s," Alex said, adding: "The surgeons decided to leave it a bit longer, but it was awful because her skin was a greeny-grey color. The skin had gone necrotic, which is where the tissue and cells start to die, and smelled really bad."

Then came some good news. After spending Christmas and New Year's in hospital, Alex and Amy were finally allowed to bring baby Darcie home in January.

However, the family was not out of the woods. Back home, they continued to change their daughter's dressings every day, and would have still have to go into hospital for weekly appointments, where doctors monitored Darcie’s progress and carried out gradual amputations on her right arm.

Alex said surgeons chose not to remove Darcie's whole arm in one go because they were hopeful that the skin would heal itself, and they wanted to give her as much length as possible.

Amy said: "The worst thing was if she was going to have an amputation, she would have to fast from 2am the day before and she didn’t understand that, obviously. She just knew she was hungry and not getting fed.

"We did that for four weeks, and they were gradually making her right arm shorter. The fingers on her right hand had been dead for so long that they fused into her palm, so it was like one big block of dead skin."

After six operations, baby Darcie now has just her thumb and index finger on her left hand, and her right arm has been amputated from the forearm. Sadly, she will still need to undergo further operations on her right arm until the deteriorated skin is completely removed and replaced with healthy skin grafts.

Now, Darcie-May's parents are looking to the future and are focusing on physiotherapy. To help with the costs of her ongoing care, they have set up a GoFundMe, which has raised currently raised more than £6,200 from friends, family, and well-wishers of their £10,000 target.

Alex said: "There are a lot of unknowns at the moment. We don’t know how much movement she will have in her arms, or whether it will affect her ability to crawl.

"We also don’t know what the impact the stroke will have had until she starts to develop and to learn, so now we’re trying to fundraise via GoFundMe to help her lead as normal a life as possible."

You can donate to help the family by visiting their GoFundMe HERE.

Speaking about his daughter's future using prosthetic limbs, Alex added: "We want to give her the option to have prosthetic limbs when she’s a bit older. The NHS prosthetics are very basic, but there are some amazing prosthetics out there which have grip and movement."

But despite all she has faced, Darcie is still a bright and bubbly baby who is adored by her parents and siblings.

"Darcie is the most amazing little girl with a beautiful smile. She’s developing a little personality now. She knows what she wants and behaves like a little diva," Alex said, adding:

"Her big sisters adore her, and are not fazed by her hands and arms at all. It’s nice that she has them to look out for her, but I think with what she’s gone through, she’s going to have a really thick skin and be able to hold her own."

We wish the family all the best for their future!