Lives Less Ordinary

When 19-year-old Ann from Florida, USA was shot by her boyfriend in 2010, her family were thrust into a nightmare, one that meant taking the agonising decision to withdraw her life support.
In this intensely moving account of violence and loss, Ann’s mother, Kate, tells Namulanta that instead of pursuing the traditional court process, she chose something almost unheard of at the time - restorative justice. Sitting face-to-face with the man who killed her daughter, she entered a process that allowed her to shape his sentence and speak openly about the impact of Ann’s death.
In her highly emotional letter to Ann for Dear Daughter, Kate reveals an extraordinary decision—one that will stay with you long after her story ends.
To find out more about Dear Daughter, to take part, or read our privacy notice, please go to www.bbcworldservice.com/deardaughter. Or you can contact the team via WhatsApp on +44 800 030 4404.

Jackie makes sporting history for Ireland and uncovers the truth about her past.
Taken from her mother as a baby and raised in an Irish institution, Jackie McCarthy O’Brien grew up in silence, facing prejudice because of the colour of her skin, and with no real sense of who she was or where she belonged.
Jackie shares her story over two episodes of Lives Less Ordinary. In this second part of her story, we hear how Jackie begins to build a life on her own terms. Through sport, she discovers a sense of purpose and belonging, pulling on the green jersey of Ireland and going on to make history as the first mixed-race woman to represent her country in both football and rugby.
But even as she achieves this, questions about her past remain. For years, she has believed one version of her story - about her mother, her father, and where she comes from. When she finally learns the truth, it’s not what she expected. Instead of anger, she finds something else: understanding, and a deep sense of love. And alongside that, she finds the confidence to live more openly, embracing who she is, and who she loves.
This programme contains a reference to suicide. If you've been affected by some of the issues that have come up in Jackie's story, and are suffering distress or despair, you could speak to a health professional, or an organisation that offers support. There are details of help available in many countries at befrienders.org
Presenter: Jo Fidgen
Producer: Edgar Maddicott
Lives Less Ordinary is a podcast from the BBC World Service that brings you the most incredible true stories from around the world. Each episode a guest shares their most dramatic, moving, personal story. Listen for unbelievable twists, mysteries uncovered, and inspiring journeys - spanning the entire human experience. Step into someone else’s life and expect the unexpected.
 
Got a story to tell? Send an email to [email protected] or message us via WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784
 
You can read our privacy notice here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5YD3hBqmw26B8WMHt6GkQxG/lives-less-ordinary-privacy-notice

A black girl in a white town, Jackie’s made to grow up silenced and alone. This episode contains outdated racial language that some might find offensive.
Jackie McCarthy O’Brien was just a baby when police officers flanked by a nun and a priest came to her unmarried mother’s door in Limerick, Ireland and took her. She would grow up in an industrial school where silence is expected, questions are discouraged, and even the simplest routines come with cruelty. As a mixed-race child, she is singled out, made to feel different, less than, and alone. Every Saturday, a woman with ‘sad eyes’ comes to visit her, but Jackie doesn’t know who she is. She has no real understanding of what a mother is, or what family means.
Jackie shares her story over two episodes. In this first episode she recounts the early years of her life, but when she is eventually taken out of the institution aged five, instead of freedom, she finds herself in a home that feels just as unfamiliar, surrounded by people she doesn’t know and can’t yet trust.
But slowly, beyond this childhood, a different sense of identity begins to form. It will take her onto the pitch, into the green jersey of Ireland and the record books, and towards a version of herself that can hold on to love.
Presenter: Jo Fidgen
Producer: Edgar Maddicott
Lives Less Ordinary is a podcast from the BBC World Service that brings you the most incredible true stories from around the world. Each episode a guest shares their most dramatic, moving, personal story. Listen for unbelievable twists, mysteries uncovered, and inspiring journeys - spanning the entire human experience. Step into someone else’s life and expect the unexpected.
 
Got a story to tell? Send an email to [email protected] or message us via WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784
 
You can read our privacy notice here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5YD3hBqmw26B8WMHt6GkQxG/lives-less-ordinary-privacy-notice

Ify Adenuga grew up with strict parents. As a mum, she rewrote the rulebook and encouraged creativity in her children, with her son Skepta becoming an award-winning music artist.
Ify Adenuga is parent to a musical powerhouse. Her son Skepta is a seminal figure in British culture, helping to propel grime into the mainstream. Ify has always been supportive of her son’s music career, nurturing a creative environment for all her children to thrive – a direct contrast to her own challenging childhood in Nigeria. Ify was a young girl when the Biafran War began in 1967, as government forces fought attempts by the Igbo people in the southeast of Nigeria to claim an independent Biafran state. As the conflict spread, Ify’s Igbo family had to flee their home in Lagos with nothing. They arrived in a remote village with no electricity or food. Ify remembers foraging for lizards, crickets and snakes to survive. Over a million people would die in the war, mostly from famine, including several of Ify’s own relatives. After the war, Ify managed to escape to the traditional life her strict parents had mapped out for her and moved to London. In the UK, she met the love of her life, Joe, and had four children. Living on a housing estate, Ify and Joe rejected the harsh parenting style they had each endured for a more a supportive approach and encouraged their children to be inventive. When their son Joe Jr began making music and experimenting with grime, a genre of music that was emerging from the electronic dance scene, their home became a makeshift studio with Joe Sr even providing technical computer support. Meanwhile Ify started driving Joe Jr to warehouses and venues across north London to collaborate with other young grime artists. Now, Joe Jr is known to the world as Skepta, an award-winning grime MC, rapper, and producer who collaborates with huge international names. Ify has a memoir out now called Endless Fortune.
Presenter: Mobeen Azhar
Producers: Rachel Oakes, Zoe Gelber, Saskia Collette
Lives Less Ordinary is a podcast from the BBC World Service that brings you the most incredible true stories from around the world. Each episode a guest shares their most dramatic, moving, personal story. Listen for unbelievable twists, mysteries uncovered, and inspiring journeys - spanning the entire human experience. Step into someone else’s life and expect the unexpected.
 
Got a story to tell? Send an email to [email protected] or message us via WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784
 
You can read our privacy notice here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5YD3hBqmw26B8WMHt6GkQxG/lives-less-ordinary-privacy-notice
(Photo: A collage of two photos of Ify Adenuga with her son Skepta. On the left, a close up of Ify smiling at the camera with Skepta as a toddler. On the right, a more recent picture of Ify sitting with Skepta. Credit: Ify Adenuga)

Filmmaker Lloyd Kaufman railed against Hollywood his whole career as the founder of cult B-movie production house, Troma, while his daughter Lily-Hayes dreamt only of fitting in.
Lloyd Kaufman has been the father of anti-establishment filmmaking for over 50 years. His production company Troma Entertainment is known for its gory, controversial and politically-charged movies. His daughter Lily-Hayes grew up on the sets of these bizarre and often quite gruesome Troma films, such as Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead. She had her first on-screen role at the age of 4 in one of Troma’s biggest hits – the 1984 horror-comedy The Toxic Avenger – a film about a nerd who turns into a mutant superhero after falling into a vat of nuclear waste. But the chaos of the films was not mirrored at home in New York; Lily-Hayes and her sisters went to an Upper East Side all-girls private school, sweets were strictly rationed, and life was kept in order.
When it came time for Lily-Hayes to pick her own career path, she wanted to push back against her father's anti-establishment line of work. But how could she rebel against the ultimate rebel? Well, she went into investment banking and forged a ‘normal’ life on the trading floor. One day she witnessed a colleague take part in a chicken nugget eating contest. It was a sight that would rival even the grossest scenes she’d witnessed on a Troma set and it pushed her back towards the call of the Tromaverse.
Presenter: Asya Fouks
Producer: Andrea Rangecroft
Lives Less Ordinary is a podcast from the BBC World Service that brings you the most incredible true stories from around the world. Each episode a guest shares their most dramatic, moving, personal story. Listen for unbelievable twists, mysteries uncovered, and inspiring journeys - spanning the entire human experience. Step into someone else’s life and expect the unexpected.
 
Got a story to tell? Send an email to [email protected] or message us via WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784
 
You can read our privacy notice here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5YD3hBqmw26B8WMHt6GkQxG/lives-less-ordinary-privacy-notice