Chapter 1: What is the Orange Day Café and how does it support people with dementia?
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A scam exploiting vulnerable families with sick children. I would have done anything to get the medicine for Khalil. The child is directed on camera to plead for help. I want to be a normal kid. I want to go to school. They were going to upload it to social media.
Chapter 2: How did a golden retriever save a man's life during a cardiac arrest?
Millions of dollars pour in, but the families never receive the money. He told us it wasn't successful. As I understood it, the video just didn't make any money.
They used to raise funds for their own benefit.
World of Secrets, the child cancer scam from the BBC World Service. Listen now wherever you get your BBC podcasts. This is The Happy Pod from the BBC World Service. I'm Joanna Keen, and in this edition... Everybody needs a place to be needed. I think they need identity. They need a place. They need a place to be himself or herself.
The cafe in Tokyo that allows people with dementia to volunteer as servers. It's not a day that goes by where I don't think about that fact and I'm forever indebted to the both of them. And thankfully I get to tell them and thank them every day, give Polly a big hug. We meet the man whose life was saved by his dog.
Chapter 3: What groundbreaking gene therapy has been developed for blood cancer?
Plus... I can't compare that level of happiness to anything that I have ever felt. Like the amount of emotion and just going from a place where you thought that you were never going to grow up
the groundbreaking gene therapy which has helped people with previously incurable blood cancers. The school in Kenya set up for dyslexic children and a camp for women in India who are going through divorce. Trekking up the mountains or sitting by the beach, listening to each other and playing games together, dancing together and also listening to music together.
We start in Tokyo, where one small cafe has become famous for far more than its cakes and coffee. At Orange Day Cafe, muddled orders, long pauses and gentle confusion aren't mistakes, they're the point.
The monthly pop-up was created to give people living with dementia a place to volunteer, and one of its best-known helpers is Toshio Morita, an octogenarian living with dementia who's become something of a local celebrity. Our correspondent Shaima Khalil went to meet him and to see how a simple cup of coffee can turn into an act of community.
Once a month, this small cafe in Sengawa, western Tokyo, turns into something different. There's still delicious cakes, coffee and tea, of course, but the mood and the purpose of this place change.
My name is Morita Toshio. Nice to meet you.
87-year-old Morita-san has been living with dementia for years. He's one of the volunteers at the Orange Day Cafe, or the Cafe of Mistaken Orders, as it's now famously known.
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Chapter 4: How is the Rare Gem Talent School helping dyslexic children in Kenya?
Morita-san welcomes customers wearing an orange apron, a black and white headband, and a charming smile. This monthly pop-up gives people with dementia a chance to volunteer and connect with the community for a few hours. You can see just how much Morita-san enjoys it.
It's fun and lively here when there are many customers. I'm excited when I see people enjoying their drinks and when they start chatting to me.
Mix-ups can happen, of course, but it's all part of the experience and all taken in good humor. Morita-san is supported by another younger volunteer. The menus and tables have been color-coded to make it easier for the elderly waiters to take the orders. We have six tables here, so we put the six colors of the flowers on each table. Aki Kokanna is the founder of the pop-up cafe.
Starting with my father got dementia, I think it was five years ago, and he couldn't renew his driving license. He was so shocked about that, but he was trying to get something to work. He tried to get work. One of Akiko's friends mentioned the cafe idea, but the initiative was delayed because of the COVID pandemic.
By the time it took off, her father's dementia got worse and he couldn't take part.
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Chapter 5: What unique support is offered to women going through divorce in India?
Still, Akiko tells me, this has been a gratifying experience for her and the elderly volunteers. People want to draw a line, a person who is not disabled, enabled. I don't like that. And everybody needs a place to be needed. I think they need identity. They need a place. They need a place to be himself or herself. I didn't want my dad to work here. And I didn't want him to feel needed here.
Johanna Rivera is an exchange student from the Philippines. She studies nutrition and mental health and has heard about the cafe through social media.
I freed up my schedule to visit today since they only open once a month.
And I wanted to see how they operate and I was really curious about the process of ordering with the staff. What was it like interacting with Morita-san? We encountered a little bit of difficulty because I'm not fluent in Japanese.
Chapter 6: How did a homeless man find hope through music in London?
So it was more of an issue with me.
He was very patient. It's been just over a year since Morita-san started working here. His wife Masako comes with him every time. She does everything she can to keep him active, even if he sometimes complains about his exercise classes. But the cafe, she tells me, is different. When I say that your orange day shift is approaching, he replies, when? What time? He's looking forward to it.
I wonder, though, if he can still do this, especially with his dementia symptoms progressing. With an aging and shrinking population, Japan faces a major dementia challenge. The Ministry of Health estimates that more than 5 million people will be affected by dementia by 2030. By 2060, one in three elderly Japanese people is expected to struggle with cognitive decline.
And in a country where many of the elderly live alone, isolation only makes things worse.
Chapter 7: What inspiring stories can we learn from these uplifting news segments?
Japan has increasingly turned to technology, especially robots, to help tackle its dementia crisis. But in this tiny cafe, it's the human connection that makes the real difference. Memories may slip here, but hope, humour and dignity are still very much on the menu.
Anyone who has a pet dog will say they're a huge part of the family, but for one man in Northern Ireland, his golden retriever saved his life. Hannah and Adam Cook were asleep upstairs when Hannah was woken by their dog Polly barking. She found her 37-year-old husband Adam was breathing strangely next to her, and then he stopped breathing completely.
Adam had suffered a cardiac arrest but survived thanks to Hannah's CPR and the help of an ambulance. Now Polly has been honoured as a CPR Hero by the charity, the British Heart Foundation. Hannah and Adam spoke to The Happy Pod's Vanessa Heaney and started by explaining what happened that night.
In March 2024, we went to bed as normal on a Monday night and I woke up at about 1am to Polly barking below me. So I just jumped up and sort of tried to work out what was going on and he was completely unresponsive. So I rang an ambulance and the ambulance man then talked me through what I needed to do in terms of getting him out of the bed and getting him onto the floor and starting CPR.
And then the ambulance came about seven or eight minutes later. Really amazing, Hannah. How did Polly know that something was wrong?
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Chapter 8: How can community initiatives change lives and foster connection?
I understand she wasn't even in the same room as you guys when you were sleeping. No, she doesn't sleep with us, but she sleeps below us, which is the utility room where we live in Northern Ireland. It's extremely quiet. And Hannah, you kept Adam alive till the ambulance came. If it wasn't for Polly and you, Adam, you wouldn't be here now. That's correct. That is completely correct.
And there's not a day that goes by where I don't think about that fact. And I'm forever indebted to the both of them. And thankfully, I get to tell them and thank them every day. Give Polly a big hug. Give Hannah a big hug. And yeah, it's just very grateful for everything they've done for me.
Your story is really extraordinary and most of our listeners would never have experienced anything like this. But many of us listening to this interview and I know myself, I have a dog, I have a black lab and I feel really surgically attached to her. How does it feel to know that you have that special connection and that you were here because she saved your life? Well, it's an amazing feeling.
And I don't know. I just think dogs are equal to humans. I don't know why people would keep a dog outside in the cold. I think they should be in the house and a part of the family. Like, you know, the dogs are domesticated because we need them and humans need dogs. And, you know, they're part of the family.
And I think that Polly should always be allowed on the sofa, even though Hannah doesn't like it. And does that mean that she gets the treats whenever she wants them? Yeah, we were just chatting about this last night because we were looking at her and we were thinking, she's putting a bit of weight here. We have to stop the treats.
This is because recently, because of the British Heart Foundation Awards last week and stuff, she was getting a lot of treats. And so she probably needs to cut back a bit on the treats. And Hannah, how would you say things have changed between all of you as a family since this happened? Yeah.
We're very much the same, that we're a close family and we're very connected, but we're different in the way that we just try to make every day count if we can. Life is stressful and life's hard, but we have a gift that other people don't have that we're able to reflect on. that Adam was able to be saved.
So we got a second chance and we have to realise that when we're stressed or we're angry or, you know, we're upset, we have something else that makes us put it all back into perspective. How proud were you when Polly got her CPR Heart Award? We were so proud. She couldn't come over to London. We would have loved her to, but it was too much for her.
She's a country dog and she wouldn't have managed it very well for us. So proud of her and she had her own wayward ceremony at home the Friday beforehand and that was lovely and that was in her favourite place. We went for a walk.
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