Life Changing
Episodes
I fled for my life at 16 to escape the Iranian regime
06 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In an interview recorded before the recent conflict between Israel, the USA and Iran, but after the reprisals following the public protests against th...
The agony of losing my son in Nottingham attack
29 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Turning agony into award-winning art
31 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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...
A long wait for justice
24 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 impac...
Two Days Underground
17 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When highly experienced caver George Linanne fell during an expedition in the massive Ogof Ffynnon Ddu cave system in Wales , he wondered whether he ...
Camel Tours and Sliding Doors
10 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Jacqui Furneaux had enjoyed a happy marriage, bringing up two daughters and working as a nurse. Sadly, the marriage broke down, and feeling guilty, J...
I shook hands with the man who nearly killed me
03 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 th...
Lost at sea
26 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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...
A traumatised veteran’s unlikely saviour
19 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
The Vicar of Bray's Daughter
25 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 t...
The Singing Bus Driver
18 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Phillip Browne was born into a large and loving Windrush generation family in Birmingham. Church and singing were an important part of his upbringing,...
The Yachtsman Survivor
11 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
The Great Escape
04 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 o...
The Reluctant Hero
28 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 almos...
The Girl Gambler
21 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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. I...
The Piano Tuner's Tale
07 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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...
A White Christmas for Annabelle
15 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Volunteering for Freedom
08 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 tho...
Everything and Nothing
01 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 or...
Finding a New Voice
25 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 d...
From Skid Row to Stardom
18 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 c...
A Wild Child’s Buried Trauma
11 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 –...
Hostage Survival
04 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Strapped to explosives, threatened with execution and packed into a vehicle with a suicide bomber, civil engineer Nick feared for his life. It was 201...
Introducing the new series of Life Changing
07 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Dr Sian Williams looks forward to another series of extraordinary stories.
The crocodile, the twins and the bond that saved them
14 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 sisterl...
'I will make amends'
08 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Tony Redmond was an experienced medical doctor from Manchester, used to dealing with challenging situations. In December 1988, he attended two major g...
Excluded
30 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Tier Blundell was never a bad kid. He was bright and curious, but also disruptive. Growing up sandwiched between two cultures, he felt excluded from s...
Finally Meeting Mum
24 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Su Chantry was adopted as a baby and grew up fantasising that she was the daughter of a French princess who would one day return for her. As an adult ...
Trading places
17 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Aged 19, Dan Simmonds turned down a university place and instead became an oil trader in the City of London. It was an exciting and ruthless environme...
Delivering Change
10 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When nurse and midwife Agnes Nisbett’s third baby was delivered, she was confronted by a profound need for systemic change. Agnes came to the UK as ...
Witness
03 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Georgia Gabriel-Hooper is now 20, she works for a tractor dealership and enjoys bumbling around the countryside. But as a child, she was witness to a ...
Harriet: What Happened Next
26 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this special edition of Life Changing, recorded in front of a live audience at the Hay Festival, we are catching up with Harriet Ware-Austin, who w...
Hurting the One You Love
22 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Growing up in Newport with his mum and younger brother, Connor Allen struggled with his identity as a mixed race kid. He bottled up his feelings and a...
Bluebells on Bunny Hill
15 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When Alan and Irene met in 1959, their connection was instant. The two isolated children aged just seven and nine found warmth and kindness in each ot...
'I knew I could never make it right'
08 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In August of 2006, Teresa Clark was driving five of her friends back home after a day at a music festival. Several hours into the journey she fell asl...
Blink Once
01 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Ambitious police officer Clodagh Dunlop, 35, was used to dealing with emergency situations - until it was her own. Whilst training to run a 6-minute m...
The Baroness
25 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Rachel Watkyn’s upbringing was a contradiction: aristocratic but impoverished. She was forced to memorise her father’s extensive family tree and w...
Dead Calm
18 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When Will Darby left school in 2007, his peers all headed to university. But Will wanted something different – an adventure. In search of unridden w...
'It started as a perfect wedding day'
11 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It is the summer of 2008, and a bride and groom have just stepped out of a carriage drawn by two white horses. The sun is out, the bridesmaids are wea...
'If I panic I die'
17 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
One Monday morning, Stephen is meeting with his boss in a crowded coffee shop. Minutes later he is at the centre of a horrific and brutal crime scene ...
Speechless
10 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Being a TV news anchor was everything to Polly Evans until she was forced to re-evaulate her identity. Her turning point happened in the spotlight –...
Overheard
03 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Hazel Ellis-Saxon was brought up in a busy household with four siblings in the village of Tiptree in Essex in the 1960s. She struggled with her school...
From the rubble
26 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It had been a beautiful day, Jessica Williams and her two young sons had been out in the local park enjoying the Welsh sunshine. By the time they got ...
The box under the bed
19 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Growing up Joe Jaquest Oteng knew very little about his Dad; they struggled to find much common ground. Joe’s Dad, Peter, was guarded about his earl...
Taken: Lisa’s story
12 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It was September 2000 when Lisa and her 10-year-old brother Gary were taken to the airport. Their Dad said they were going on holiday and that mum Tra...
Taken: Tracey’s story
05 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Tracey knew something was wrong the moment she got to the house. The place was empty, the children were gone and so was her husband Taz. Their marriag...
Baby steps
23 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Jason and Liz met by chance whilst travelling, they fell in love and within a year were engaged and expecting a child. 365 days after that first meeti...
Love and the law
16 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What do you do, if falling in love with someone becomes a matter of life or death? In 2013 Aderonke Apata found herself on a coach in the UK, heading ...
Ripple effect
09 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Electra Rhodes is walking down a busy London street when she sees a man collapse. She’s recently completed a first aid course and in the absence of ...
Meal deal
02 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It’s 2011 and Nicola Shaughnessy is on her way to an academic conference when she stops to buy herself some lunch. As she reaches for a sandwich she...
Apocalypse... now?
26 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Steven Brosnan found himself in a bit of a rut, living at home and moving from job to job. Then, in 2012, on his 22nd birthday catastrophic events tak...
No-one must ever know this
19 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the late 1950s a newspaper ran this small ad: 'Can Catholic people in London or the Home Counties offer a permanent home for an attractive baby gir...
The comeback
12 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Kieran Quinlan is 17, living in Birmingham and an aspiring boxer when he is confronted by a man with a knife who tells him to empty his pockets. Kiera...
Meet our new presenter, Dr Sian Williams
05 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Life Changing returns with more extraordinary real-life stories.
Undercover
18 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It’s 1976, the UK is in the grip of a gruelling heatwave and fresh-faced detective, Steve Bentley is about to go undercover in a rural village in mi...
A letter from Mum
11 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It’s 1988 and Steve Ellis is working on the launch of a new magazine in London, when a letter lands on his desk. It’s from his mum and the content...
The castle
04 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Mikey Allen is on a tour of duty to Afghanistan when he is caught up in a landmine blast. He is physically unharmed but witnessing the event leaves hi...
Face value
27 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It’s 1996 and Jill Clark has been living in Guernsey for less than a year. It’s been a glorious summer and she is looking forward to her 25th birt...
A free lunch
20 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
From the age of two up to 16, Sinéad Browne is in and out of children’s homes and foster care. Her one constant is school. She’s regularly told s...
Moving mountains
13 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It’s 2013 when Gilbert and Jane both have to face a major transformative moment. Jane has been studying for a much longed-for PhD and a new exciting...
Mayday
06 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Moss Hills and his wife Tracey have made a successful living as entertainers on cruises. They play guitar and sing – usually covering 60s and 70s hi...
A nun, a priest and their vows
24 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Catherine Butler-Burns decided to become a nun aged 17. It was a shock to her parents, they weren’t especially religious by Irish standards of the t...
A fear of dogs put my freedom at risk
17 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When Jaina Mistry was young she had a very scary encounter with a dog that she thought had given her a lifelong phobia. Her family felt much the same....
The metal detectorist, the tip-off and the 30-year quest
10 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
One Sunday, over drinks, Reg Mead was told a story: that back in the fifties a farmer had unearthed a pot full of old coins. He’d scooped up what he...
We said we’d never talk about it again
03 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On the evening of Friday 29 November 2013, Michael Byrne was having a drink with a friend in a bar in Glasgow. They'd gone to see a band and had only ...
I’m held together by 17 titanium plates
27 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Pip Peacock lives in Bakewell in the Peak District, a perfect spot for walking the family dog, Buster. He’d been with them for 11 years. He was orig...
The phone call that changed everything
20 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Jemma Bere had an unusual childhood. Her mum was a primary school teacher who chose to homeschool her so they could move around a lot. They lived on a...
We were paraded through the streets and spat at
13 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In his twenties Jon Godsall was working in the family air-conditioning business but he also wanted to see the world, so he took his skills abroad. He ...
Life Changing returns on October 13th
06 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Jane Garvey introduces series 2 with more incredible stories of transformative moments.
The near-death experience that made me a musician
18 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Tony Kofi is the fifth of seven brothers and was raised by his Ghanaian parents in Nottingham in the late 1960s.At secondary school Tony was turned do...
Vitiligo turned all of my brown skin white
12 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Sheetal Surti was born in to a British South Asian family in a small town in the East Midlands. Aged seven Sheetal noticed a white patch behind her ea...
The coalman who could have been a prince
05 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Keith Williams aka Keith ‘y Glo’ or ‘Keith the coal’ was born in 1952 and brought up as the son of a coal merchant in South Wales. At the age ...
The day I lost a lifetime of memories
28 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Charlie Wilson is a married father of two from Aberdeen, not that he had any recollection of that when he woke up in a hospital bed in June 2008.Befor...
I witnessed the plane crash that killed my sisters
21 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Harriet Ware-Austin grew up between the UK and Ethiopia where her father worked. It was a unique and wonderful upbringing but that all changed suddenl...
I stole €1.75 million from work to feed my gambling habit.
14 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Jane Garvey talks to Tony O’Reilly about the time he was forced to confront his spiralling addiction.Tony O’Reilly is from County Carlow in the Re...
A falling man left me paralysed
07 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Jane Garvey talks to Grace Spence Green, a 25-year-old trainee doctor, about an extraordinary turning point in her life. Grace was walking through the...
Discover extraordinary real-life stories
01 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Jane Garvey meets incredible people who have lived through unimaginable events. Discover these inspiring stories of hope, resilience, bravery and oppo...