Life Changing
- Episódios
- 82
- Publicação
- semanal
- Último episódio
- 10 jun 2026
Sobre o podcast
In this series Dr Sian Williams talks to people who have lived through extraordinary events that have set their lives on an entirely different course.
This podcast is all about the human experience, how people deal with obstacles that turn their lives upside down. The journeys are not always straightforward and there are often some remarkable discoveries along the way.
Would you like to appear on the podcast? Do you have an extraordinary story to tell? We'd love to hear from you: [email protected]
Episódios 82
The courage to ask for help
When Trevor Yellon’s partner Drew was diagnosed with cancer they fought the illness together. After all, Trevor was a doctor. He was uniquely equipped to deal it. But the strain on Trevor grew more and more …
Notas do episódio
When Trevor Yellon’s partner Drew was diagnosed with cancer they fought the illness together. After all, Trevor was a doctor. He was uniquely equipped to deal it. But the strain on Trevor grew more and more intense.
After a series of medical emergencies, Drew collapsed on the stairs and was rushed to hospital. Trevor realised he wasn’t coping. He phoned his stepmother. What he heard from her changed everything.
Trevor tells his powerful story to Life Changing’s Dr Sian Williams.
Producer: Tom Alban
Triumph for a medical guinea pig
Laurie Peake loved the outdoors, provided it involved speed. She had discovered a passion for skiing in Canada, and back home in England she loved water-skiing, dancing and motorbiking. That is, until a serious …
Notas do episódio
Laurie Peake loved the outdoors, provided it involved speed. She had discovered a passion for skiing in Canada, and back home in England she loved water-skiing, dancing and motorbiking. That is, until a serious motorbike crash on a wintry day in the 1980s changed everything.
Rushed to hospital, it looked as if Laurie would lose her lower leg. But a pioneering orthopaedic team thought otherwise, maintaining there was still hope. In a long battle which involved a technique only ever tried behind the iron curtain, they fought against the odds to save her leg.
Laurie tells Dr Sian Williams how, during the process, she discovered a passion for art and art history – and reveals whether the experimental Ilizarov technique really worked.
Producer: Tom Alban
From gym workout to world champion
Anna Bailey had lived a busy life. An IT professional, cat breeder and national cat show judge, she was also prone to bouts of depression. But approaching her 50th birthday, she ruled out self-pity and decided …
Notas do episódio
Anna Bailey had lived a busy life. An IT professional, cat breeder and national cat show judge, she was also prone to bouts of depression. But approaching her 50th birthday, she ruled out self-pity and decided that it was time to get back into shape.
A trip to a local gym seemed unremarkable enough, until she tried out the rowing machine. She was quite good at it - so good in fact, that within a year she would be travelling overseas representing her country in competitive indoor rowing competitions. Within two years she was age-group World Champion. In a story which proves it is never too late to try something new, Anna talks to Dr Sian Williams about the profound moment she realised that she could be a world-beater.
Producer: Tom Alban
I fell 900ft to the ground - and survived
Growing up in a military family, it was no surprise when Rob Bugden decided to join the RAF. Despite professing that he had no head for heights, he trained to become a parachute instructor – eager to face his …
Notas do episódio
Growing up in a military family, it was no surprise when Rob Bugden decided to join the RAF. Despite professing that he had no head for heights, he trained to become a parachute instructor – eager to face his fears head-on.
Setting off for a routine training jump one fateful day, he had no idea that a terrifying mid-air collision would send him hurtling 900ft to the ground. Miraculously, Rob survived – but with life-changing injuries.
Armed with a fantastic family and RAF colleagues, a stubborn streak a mile wide, and an infectious sense of humour, he is facing that challenge inch by inch.
Rob talks to Dr Sian Williams about adapting to a new normal and still holding firm to the values and character that make him special.
Producer: Tom Alban
40 years to find my birth father
Growing up, Karine Burns always knew she was adopted, and that her mother had been sent over to the UK from Ireland. Karine had a joyous childhood, loved dearly by her Scottish parents. But after the arrival of …
Notas do episódio
Growing up, Karine Burns always knew she was adopted, and that her mother had been sent over to the UK from Ireland.
Karine had a joyous childhood, loved dearly by her Scottish parents. But after the arrival of her first child, she started to think seriously about her birth mother - about how hard it must have been to give a baby up for adoption, so far from home.
Her mammoth 20-year search for her birth parents involved passionate appeals, detective work and rejection - until a breakthrough changed everything, just in the nick of time…
Karine tells her incredible story to Life Changing’s Dr Sian Williams.
Producer: Tom Alban.
I fled for my life at 16 to escape the Iranian regime
In an interview recorded before the recent conflict between Israel, the USA and Iran, but after the reprisals following the public protests against the Islamic Republic of Iran, Dr Sian Williams talks to 19 …
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In an interview recorded before the recent conflict between Israel, the USA and Iran, but after the reprisals following the public protests against the Islamic Republic of Iran, Dr Sian Williams talks to 19 year-old Rozhan about her flight from Tehran and subsequent journey to the UK.
At just 16, Rozhan's life changed forever when the Iranian authorities discovered that her mother was attending an underground Christian church – and her immediate family felt they had no choice but to flee for their lives.
Rozhan tells Dr Sian Williams about the heartbreak of abandoning her old life, and her terrifying journey across Europe - which almost ended in disaster aboard a terrifying small boat.
Rozhan, her sister and mother have now been granted leave to remain in the UK, and like any teenager, she is trying to pass her exams and build a new life in a land that has given her life and freedom. But the agony of watching those she has left behind, both family and friends, remains.
Producer: Tom Alban
The agony of losing my son in Nottingham attack
In the first programme of a new series of Life Changing, Emma Webber, whose son Barnaby was killed in the 2023 Nottingham attack, talks with openness and candour about the very personal anguish at the heart of …
Notas do episódio
In the first programme of a new series of Life Changing, Emma Webber, whose son Barnaby was killed in the 2023 Nottingham attack, talks with openness and candour about the very personal anguish at the heart of this very public story.
Barnaby, fellow student Grace O'Malley Kumar and school caretaker Ian Coates were all victims of killer Valdo Calocane, a man who was known to be violent and who had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
In a break from campaigning for an inquiry into Barnaby’s death, Emma takes Dr Sian Williams inside the whirlwind that engulfed her and her family, the little gestures by members of the public in Nottingham that meant so much, and the gradual realisation that she did have the strength to challenge the system that had failed to keep her son safe.
Producer: Tom Alban
Turning trauma into award-winning art
As a young man, engineer Michael Ashcroft was plagued by excruciating headaches, along with neck pain and a rushing sound in his ear. Eventually scans were made revealing a tumour the size of a tangerine behind …
Notas do episódio
As a young man, engineer Michael Ashcroft was plagued by excruciating headaches, along with neck pain and a rushing sound in his ear. Eventually scans were made revealing a tumour the size of a tangerine behind his left ear. It required twelve hours of complex surgery and left Michael with temporary deafness in one ear, a lopsided face, limited swallowing and barely any capacity for speech. Seeing his face reflected in a hospital window he was appalled and at the same time profoundly moved. Half his face was in daylight, the handsome young man who had entered the hospital a few days before. The other half, in shade, looked to him like a monster. In an instant he had an overwhelming desire to capture that image, and to do that he would become a painter – drawing comparisons to the industrial artistic genius of L.S. Lowry.
Michael talks to Dr Sian Williams about the challenges of recovery, and describes his determination to teach himself to paint.
Producer: Tom Alban
A long wait for justice
When Jess Martinez was just thirteen, she was sexually abused by her sister's much older boyfriend. No charges were brought at the time, but the impact it had on Jess's life was dramatic, causing lasting …
Notas do episódio
When Jess Martinez was just thirteen, she was sexually abused by her sister's much older boyfriend. No charges were brought at the time, but the impact it had on Jess's life was dramatic, causing lasting damage. Many years later, when Jess discovered her abuser had been jailed for another case of child abuse, she took the courageous decision to tell her own story, waiving her right to lifelong anonymity. Speaking to Dr Sian Williams, Jess describes the challenges of bringing an old case to court and praises the police and lawyers whose efforts provided her longed-for Life Changing moment.
Producer; Tom Alban
Two Days Underground
When highly experienced caver George Linanne fell during an expedition in the massive Ogof Ffynnon Ddu cave system in Wales , he wondered whether he would ever reach the surface. With a leg broken in two …
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When highly experienced caver George Linanne fell during an expedition in the massive Ogof Ffynnon Ddu cave system in Wales , he wondered whether he would ever reach the surface. With a leg broken in two places, and multiple injuries to his jaw, collar-bone, chest and internal organs, he was in excruciating pain. Some 300 cavers from across the UK took part in what became one of the longest cave rescues in UK history. George tells Dr Sian Williams about his accident, his incredible escape and why he is back caving - the sport he loves - as well as becoming a cave rescuer himself.
Producer: Tom Alban
Camel Tours and Sliding Doors
Jacqui Furneaux had enjoyed a happy marriage, bringing up two daughters and working as a nurse. Sadly, the marriage broke down, and feeling guilty, Jacqui decided to get out of people’s way and go travelling …
Notas do episódio
Jacqui Furneaux had enjoyed a happy marriage, bringing up two daughters and working as a nurse. Sadly, the marriage broke down, and feeling guilty, Jacqui decided to get out of people’s way and go travelling. As a woman in her late 40s , the back-packing life was a novelty. But while visiting the golden city of Jaisalmer in north-western India - and preparing to take a camel tour into the nearby desert - she met a Dutch biker. It was a chance encounter, sparked by their mutual interest in motorbikes . It led to Jacqui abandoning the camel plans and joining her new companion on a short tour of the frontier desert of northern India.
With stops and starts and a few glitches on the way, Jacqui tells Dr Sian Williams how that sliding door moment turned out to be life-changing, leading to seven years on the open road and a journey of rediscovery and adventure.
Producer: Tom Alban
I shook hands with the man who nearly killed me
It was a summer evening in 2014, when four men barged into Paul Kohler’s family home and began a savage assault on him. They believed erroneously that he had a large amount of money hidden there. The speed of …
Notas do episódio
It was a summer evening in 2014, when four men barged into Paul Kohler’s family home and began a savage assault on him. They believed erroneously that he had a large amount of money hidden there. The speed of the police response meant that Paul was saved from almost certain death, and the four men were later arrested, charged and imprisoned. Although he felt vindicated by the sentencing, Paul’s worldview was changed forever when he and his family were invited to visit one of the attackers in prison, as part of a Restorative Justice scheme. In an episode recorded in front of a live audience at the Hay Literary Festival, Paul tells Dr Sian Williams about that Life Changing confrontation, and how frustration with the way his ordeal was reported led to him into politics. Producer: Tom Alban
Lost at sea
In 1975, Richard Dailey was the victim of a freak wave that swept him overboard from the vessel he was working on in the North Sea. His daughter Angie was just five years old - and the news of his death was one …
Notas do episódio
In 1975, Richard Dailey was the victim of a freak wave that swept him overboard from the vessel he was working on in the North Sea. His daughter Angie was just five years old - and the news of his death was one of her first memories. Although they were compensated financially, the impact of that loss was difficult to understand and over the years it caused tension between Angie and her mother. Angie inherited a treasured box of old letters and photographs from her father, but felt unable to open it.
Angie wrote in to Life Changing to tell Dr Sian Williams how a decision to mark his life, on the 50th anniversary of his death, helped her finally know her father and understand her part in his life.
Producer: Tom Alban
A traumatised veteran’s unlikely saviour
Like so many who serve, Falklands veteran Geoff Stear took trauma away with him - in his case a very particular reaction to the smell of meat. It was so powerful and debilitating that it made his life almost …
Notas do episódio
Like so many who serve, Falklands veteran Geoff Stear took trauma away with him - in his case a very particular reaction to the smell of meat. It was so powerful and debilitating that it made his life almost impossible, leading him to injure himself and endanger others as he tried to get away from the perceived danger. On several occasions it left him hospitalised – once with a broken neck - with no recollection of how he had got there. His life hit rock-bottom, until a chance meeting with a stranger changed everything. In this heartwarming episode, Geoff introduces Dr Sian Williams to his unlikely saviour Charlie, whose capacity to intervene when danger threatens has given Geoff back his freedom and sense of worth.
Producer: Tom Alban
The Vicar of Bray's Daughter
In her early twenties Carol Cairns, the daughter of a priest in Ireland, had a passionate affair with a young bohemian poet called Benedict Ryan. In the Dublin of the 1960s, their improbable partnership burned …
Notas do episódio
In her early twenties Carol Cairns, the daughter of a priest in Ireland, had a passionate affair with a young bohemian poet called Benedict Ryan. In the Dublin of the 1960s, their improbable partnership burned bright but briefly. Somehow the gap in their backgrounds was too great. Not long after, life took her in a completely different direction. Shortly after her 70th birthday, while thinking of names for a grandson to be, she remembered Benedict. Where was he now? After a failed marriage, she used Skype to see if the flame still burned.
Carol tells Dr Sian Williams about the emotional moment they reunited, after almost half a century.
Producer; Tom Alban
The Singing Bus Driver
Phillip Browne was born into a large and loving Windrush generation family in Birmingham. Church and singing were an important part of his upbringing, and when he struggled at school it was singing that gave …
Notas do episódio
Phillip Browne was born into a large and loving Windrush generation family in Birmingham. Church and singing were an important part of his upbringing, and when he struggled at school it was singing that gave him an escape and a status. But just as he was beginning to show signs of real potential, a devastating ear infection robbed him of his hearing completely in one ear - and Phillip was told by a doctor that a singing career was out of the question. Phillip's struggle in the aftermath of his illness and his need to find a job resulted in him becoming a London bus driver. He knew the security of employment was a relief to his father who had spent a lifetime working on the railways, but it seemed to be leading him further and further away from his dream. Until a chance meeting with an old college friend turned his life in an extraordinary new direction.
Phillip tells Dr Sian Williams about that Life Changing moment - and his incredible journey to the bright lights of the West End stage.
Producer: Tom Alban
The Yachtsman Survivor
Robin Elsey Webb is a young and already very successful yachtsman with a dream of tackling the famous Vendee Globe, the single-handed round the world yacht race. But his plans were shattered during a trip to …
Notas do episódio
Robin Elsey Webb is a young and already very successful yachtsman with a dream of tackling the famous Vendee Globe, the single-handed round the world yacht race. But his plans were shattered during a trip to Antigua, when he was violently attacked and suffered severe head injuries. With his life hanging in the balance, it fell to his partner Liz to make swift and bold decisions about his treatment. Robin's job was to try and stay alive.
Robin and Liz join Dr Sian Williams to piece together their own very different experiences of that terrifying ordeal, which changed so many things for both of them.
Producer: Tom Alban
The Great Escape
As a bright adventurous 16 year-old, Angela Tilley was thrilled to get a job in a busy London office. But after a year's unwanted attention from one of her co-workers, attention that today we would call …
Notas do episódio
As a bright adventurous 16 year-old, Angela Tilley was thrilled to get a job in a busy London office. But after a year's unwanted attention from one of her co-workers, attention that today we would call stalking, she started having panic attacks on the way to work. The attacks became a debilitating daily occurrence, leaving her mentally and physically exhausted. Her courage in pushing back against her fears, forging a career and having a family came at a huge personal cost. But one seemingly innocuous purchase was about to change her life forever.
Angela tells Dr Sian Williams about how she overcame her challenges and how she managed to stop her phobia defining her life. Producer: Tom Alban
The Reluctant Hero
Husband and father, Larry O’Brien, loved the freedom his job as a long-distance lorry driver gave him. But on March 6th 1987, that freedom was almost lost in the horror of the Zeebrugge ferry disaster, in which …
Notas do episódio
Husband and father, Larry O’Brien, loved the freedom his job as a long-distance lorry driver gave him. But on March 6th 1987, that freedom was almost lost in the horror of the Zeebrugge ferry disaster, in which almost 200 people lost their lives. Larry – who could not swim – risked his own life to pull 30 people to safety. Almost 40 years later, Larry tells Dr Sian Williams why he never felt like a hero, how he came to terms with what happened, and why – after a career change into local politics – he decided to return to the road. Producer: Tom Alban
The Girl Gambler
When 18-year-old Stacey Goodwin got a job at a bookies, she put a pound coin into a slot machine and won enough money for a night out with her pals. It was the trigger for a destructive gambling addiction that …
Notas do episódio
When 18-year-old Stacey Goodwin got a job at a bookies, she put a pound coin into a slot machine and won enough money for a night out with her pals. It was the trigger for a destructive gambling addiction that led to a life of shame, brutal isolation and deceit. The money she lost over an eight-year period was eye-watering – on one occasion, frittering away a £50,000 online win in a matter of days. Sometimes suicidal, and always lonely, it was the damage she did to those closest to her which hurt the most.
When her addiction saw her undermine the financial security of someone she loved, she reached a crossroads. Stacey tells Dr Sian Williams how she found the strength to ask for help - and turned her life around.
Producer: Tom Alban
Warning: This episode contains discussions around suicide. Details of help and support are available through the BBC Action Line at bbc.co.uk/actionline.
The Piano Tuner's Tale
In 1977, Ed Stewart was a happy-go-lucky teenager with his whole life ahead of him. With a new engineering job, a girlfriend and a motorbike, life was good. But when he dropped in on a friend’s party, a violent …
Notas do episódio
In 1977, Ed Stewart was a happy-go-lucky teenager with his whole life ahead of him. With a new engineering job, a girlfriend and a motorbike, life was good. But when he dropped in on a friend’s party, a violent row with another teenager - who was carrying a shotgun - turned Ed’s whole life on its head.
Ed had to learn to navigate the world in an entirely different way, but he made a success of it - becoming a piano tuner to the stars and counting Jools Holland and Brian Ferry as his customers. Despite a life of adversity, he tells Dr Sian Williams how not just one, but two Life Changing moments led him to be what he refers to as a “glass-three-quarters-full” kind of bloke.
Producer: Tom Alban
A White Christmas for Annabelle
For Lisa Hover and her husband Andy, life on the Hampshire Dorset border with their family of four children seemed idyllic. Even when a routine sight test on their young daughter Annabelle picked up an …
Notas do episódio
For Lisa Hover and her husband Andy, life on the Hampshire Dorset border with their family of four children seemed idyllic. Even when a routine sight test on their young daughter Annabelle picked up an abnormality, it all seemed manageable. But the abnormality turned out to be early sight loss, which itself masked a more severe and life shortening genetic condition. With no cure available, Annabelle was determined the most from her limited life span.
Lisa talks to Dr Sian Williams about the challenges, joys and sadness she experienced - and Annabelle's dream to have a white Christmas with all the family.
Producer: Tom Alban
Volunteering for Freedom
As a young man, Mohammed, AKA MFA Zaman, arrived in Britain from Bangladesh with a working visa, a patron and a job lined up as a chef. On arrival though, the promises of a bright future turned to ashes when he …
Notas do episódio
As a young man, Mohammed, AKA MFA Zaman, arrived in Britain from Bangladesh with a working visa, a patron and a job lined up as a chef. On arrival though, the promises of a bright future turned to ashes when he became a victim of modern slavery. But at this lowest of low ebbs in his life, Mohammed decided that he needed to do something - and that something was to volunteer at an old people's community club in Lewisham, near where he was living.
Mohammed tells Dr Sian Williams how this life-changing decision helped him to find freedom.
Producer: Tom Alban
Everything and Nothing
After a whirlwind romance, Paul Mason and his wife Isabel were in no doubt that they wanted to start a family. It was not easy, but eventually that ordinary miracle happened. And yet it was a little more than …
Notas do episódio
After a whirlwind romance, Paul Mason and his wife Isabel were in no doubt that they wanted to start a family. It was not easy, but eventually that ordinary miracle happened. And yet it was a little more than ordinary - because they discovered they were to be parents to triplets.
Paul tells Dr Sian Williams about the joyful and harrowing life-changing events of his children’s birth, and explains how the family have since discovered the extraordinary generosity of strangers.
Producer: Tom Alban
Finding a New Voice
Mother-of-two young children, Tanja Bage, had always been a keen singer and performer, so she was increasingly aware of her shortness of breath. The diagnosis was cancer, which required almost immediate surgery …
Notas do episódio
Mother-of-two young children, Tanja Bage, had always been a keen singer and performer, so she was increasingly aware of her shortness of breath. The diagnosis was cancer, which required almost immediate surgery to remove the tumour, and with it her vocal chords. She would be losing her voice, and she had just a week to prepare herself and her family.
Tanja tells Dr Sian Williams about navigating the challenges of motherhood whilst having to re-learn how to speak – and reveals an exciting new artistic venture which has changed her life.
Producer: Tom Alban
From Skid Row to Stardom
After moving to Los Angeles, 12-year-old Dan Edozie and his mother were left homeless and begging for food. Life was not easy: they slept where they could, sometimes on public transport, sometimes in the …
Notas do episódio
After moving to Los Angeles, 12-year-old Dan Edozie and his mother were left homeless and begging for food. Life was not easy: they slept where they could, sometimes on public transport, sometimes in the refuges of the city’s infamous Skid Row. But a chance separation from his mother was about to change his fortunes forever.
Dan tells Dr Sian Williams how this life-changing moment allowed him to take control of his own destiny and set his sights on sporting greatness.
Producer: Elaina Boeteng
A Wild Child’s Buried Trauma
Sarah Fairbairns spent much of her life feeling she was a bit different. Growing up in the 1960s and 70s, she gained the reputation of a wild child – from travelling to India, to dancing on stage with the cast …
Notas do episódio
Sarah Fairbairns spent much of her life feeling she was a bit different. Growing up in the 1960s and 70s, she gained the reputation of a wild child – from travelling to India, to dancing on stage with the cast of iconic counter-culture musical Hair. And yet all the while, she faced bouts of sadness and depression, and a confusion as to why that should be. Later in life, Sarah made a discovery about a medical childhood trauma that changed the way she viewed the world – and wrote in to Life Changing to share her experience.
Now in her seventies, Sarah speaks to Dr Sian Williams about how confronting her past has provided belated but extraordinary relief.
Producer: Tom Alban
Hostage Survival
Strapped to explosives, threatened with execution and packed into a vehicle with a suicide bomber, civil engineer Nick feared for his life. It was 2013, and he had found himself at the heart of a violent attack …
Notas do episódio
Strapped to explosives, threatened with execution and packed into a vehicle with a suicide bomber, civil engineer Nick feared for his life. It was 2013, and he had found himself at the heart of a violent attack on the Algerian gas facility he was working at, carried out by a group later revealed to be affiliated to Al-Qaeda. It was a deadly hostage situation, in which 39 workers lost their lives – several of them Nick’s close colleagues.
Talking to Dr Sian Williams, he describes how the attack unfolded and why he has sought to use his horrific experience to support others facing similar trauma.
Producer: Tom Alban
Warning: This episode contains descriptions of violence and death. Details of help and support are available through the BBC Action Line at bbc.co.uk/actionline.
Introducing the new series of Life Changing
Dr Sian Williams looks forward to another series of extraordinary stories.
The crocodile, the twins and the bond that saved them
When twins Georgia and Melissa Laurie set off a once-in-lifetime adventure to Mexico in 2021, they thought it would be an opportunity for some sisterly bonding. Whilst on their travels, they went for an …
Notas do episódio
When twins Georgia and Melissa Laurie set off a once-in-lifetime adventure to Mexico in 2021, they thought it would be an opportunity for some sisterly bonding. Whilst on their travels, they went for an ill-fated swim in a lagoon – and found themselves in a terrifying fight for survival.
They tell their incredible story to Dr Sian Williams, and explain how in that moment, and over the years that followed, their love for each other kept them alive.
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