Global News Podcast - The Happy Pod: Art student's lost work recovered thousands of kilometres away

Episode Date: January 6, 2024

Grace Hart's artwork was accidentally thrown away, only to end up in the Pakistani city of Lahore. Also: the jewellery store owners in Hawaii helping to restore precious items damaged in wildfires. And, the teenage darts player, 'Luke the Nuke', taking the sport to new audiences.

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Search for the documentary, Lives Less Ordinary and Amazing Sports Stories, wherever you get your BBC Podcast podcasts. Are you ready for some magic? This is The Happy Pod from the BBC World Service. I'm Jackie Leonard and in this edition, our first one of 2024, uploaded on Saturday January the 6th, the Pakistani photographer who reunited a British artist with the portfolio she thought she'd lost forever. I know how much an artist loves their work.

She cannot throw them away after doing so much hard work. I just had to find her. And I was just like, oh my God, this can't be real. Because I thought at first, I thought it was like a scam. From Australia. It calculated the percentage of the battery that we would use. It would probably give us three days with the machine. We tried it and it worked.

The parents who used their electric car to power their son's dialysis machine. The Hawaiian jewellers using their skills to restore precious belongings damaged in the Maui wildfires. You see that transformation of attitude and you see their happiness just right in front of you. Also in this podcast... It's been crazy. I slept for two hours. But last night it was just, it was good to be involved in a good final. Me and Luke played really well.

Luke the Nuke, the teenager who got into the World Dance Championship and became a star. And let's start with a story of art, of loss, of generosity and tremendous good luck, all over thousands of kilometres. It begins with a student's worst nightmare, the vital portfolio that Grace Hart hoped would get her into a UK fashion school was somehow accidentally thrown away. Gone, banished, never to be seen again. But that was to reckon without Pakistani fashion photographer Tajwa Munir. Harry Bly takes up the story. Grace Hart was in the process of applying to university to study fashion and as part of her application she was going to send a portfolio of her artwork. However her mother Sonia thought she'd accidentally

thrown it away. We were all in a bit of a frenzy in the house because we were trying to find these art books. We then realised that they must have been taken out as rubbish because at the time we're having a big clean out as well. But then, a year later, Grace unexpectedly received a message on Instagram from a man in the Pakistani city of Lahore. He sent me photos of all my work that I'd lost and I was just like, oh my God, this can't be real. Because at first I thought it was like a scam

and he'd just screenshotted things off my Instagram. But no, he'd found them in a thrift bookstore. Tajwa Munir, a well-known photographer in Pakistan, had found her artwork and bought it. There was a box which had three of these sketchbooks and which had amazing, amazing artwork. You won't believe it. They costed me for less than $1, three of them. I was like, oh my God, I'm so lucky I just got a treasure. And my initial plan was to get those artworks and get them framed for my house. Though delighted with his find, Tashwar was suspicious about the price. He could see that a great deal of skill,

time and effort had gone into these paintings and sketches and began to think that perhaps they hadn't just been donated, but instead were lost. I know how much an artist loved their work. She had done pencil sketches, watercolours and like every form of art and I was like, must need them like she cannot throw them away after doing so much hard work I just had to find her. And he did. The name was written on the top the name was Grace Hart and luckily I found her on Instagram and I dropped her message with the pictures of the sketchbooks I had and I was like did you throw these intentionally or like have you lost them or something? And the rest is history, yeah. The artwork arrived at Grace's home in the English

town of Rugby, 6,400 kilometres from Lahore. I didn't get them for a little while and obviously quite expensive coming from all the way over there but obviously it's worth it. Both Grace and Tajwa say they have no idea how it ended up in Pakistan. I think she accepted that she has lost them and she had no hope that she would find it again. But she was obviously really surprised. And she was just asking questions that how did it get there? And to be honest, I also didn't have the right answer that how it ended up here. Grace was grateful to receive her missing art in the post all the way from Pakistan. She had this advice for others who've lost something

precious in their house. Probably just take better care of it than I did. And my mum said as well to maybe check check bin bags before you throw them out that was grace hart ending that report by harry bligh and he will be back a little later in the podcast now when christy and jared holmes from the gold coast in queensland australia bought their electric car they were delighted that they were able to charge it mainly during the day by solar power. But little did they realise just how useful it would prove to be when terrible storms hit the region and jeopardised their son's vital medical treatment. Christy told us what happened. They've actually classed it as a category two tornado.

There are spots in neighbouring communities where you can see where the tornado is actually like touched down on the ground shredded trees like in a blender and then sort of picked up and gone again because either side the trees are like still in perfect condition our neighbors had trees through their roofs and fences down trees hit cars and smashed them up and things like that and a lot of people lost power didn't they well some of the people only got power back like today or still have no power i just see from like our community facebook group people are saying oh he's such and such power back on yet so yeah which is incredibly difficult for anybody in any situation. But you had another worry, didn't you? The health of your son, Levi. Yes, we did. So Levi, since birth, he's 11. And since birth, he's had renal failure. Until he gets a transplant, he will be on the dialysis machine

every night. It takes about six to seven hours every night and he got a night off on Christmas night just for a bit of a treat and also because his body can handle having a night off every now and then, which is good for an 11-year-old because, you know, that way he gets to still have a sleepover with mates or feel a bit normal. So he does get the occasional night off, but it's only the occasional night off and you need power for dialysis. So what did you do? Yes. So his machine, some people have a backup battery for different machines. We don't have one of those machines. Ours needs to be plugged into power at all times. So on Christmas night, it was okay because we just thought, oh, we know it might

be out for a couple of hours the next day when our fridges were off and everything like that we actually used the car to plug in the fridges at first and freezers and that of our neighbors as well so we had about eight fridges including camping fridges just to preserve people's food and coming probably into the afternoon and we're thinking oh Levi needs to have his dialysis tonight and what are we going to do? And rather than drive to Brisbane, which was an hour away, and we were also having warnings not to drive, so we weren't to be on the roads or in the cars or anything

while it was like severe weather. So my husband, Jared, he said, oh, let's see if we can set his machine up. You know, we've plugged the fridges in and it wasn't using so much power. And yeah, we just plugged the machine in and he set all the machine up and it was fine. And then he calculated the percentage of the battery that we would use. It would probably give us three days with the machine. So we just did it. We tried it and it worked.

And just a key question. How is Levi at the moment what did he make of the fact that his his treatment was being powered by the family car he was Levi's Levi's like he's not really phased by too much he's a gamer so it's I know it's a reality but with kids these days reality isn't really shocking is it yeah so he's like that's cool he's not phased but does he realize how resourceful his parents are is he grateful for how resourceful his parents are i'm pretty sure he is like he he kind of knows that the mom and dad would like basically just about do anything to to get what we need for him and And yeah, I'm pretty sure he knows that.

He knows he's lucky to have us resourceful parents. That was Christy Holmes in Australia. To Hong Kong now and a project to promote biodiversity, reduce pollution in the city's bays and restore damaged ecosystems, all with old oyster shells collected from restaurants and hotels. Baden Russell, Associate Director of the University of Hong Kong's Swire Institute of Marine Science, told us more about the importance of oysters. We've almost forgotten historically why oysters matter because they used to make these massive ecosystems.

And when we let them grow in a natural setting, oysters form reefs. and so everyone knows about coral reefs well oysters form reefs as well but they tend to do it in the the muddy sort of waters but that's actually you know one of the big things about them is that they increase biodiversity they clean up the water and they also protect coastlines. So we're all worried about increasing storms with climate change. If you've got oyster reefs on your coastline, they'll protect us from those waves as well. And so this new program, they're literally partnering with restaurants. And so when people are eating oysters, rather than those shells going

into landfill, we can use them for restoration we can build the ecosystems back how do you actually deploy them in the water i mean you don't just you know pitch up in a big old ship and tip them over the side how how would you create or recreate reef with these shells how do you do it it? Well, so ironically, you were right. You pitch up in a big old ship and you throw them in, but kind of in an ordered way. So we know what sort of environments these reefs used to be in. And so we design sort of spatially the arrangement of what we need so that we can maximise survival and growth. And then you put them in, in that design.

And as you've indicated, none of this is a particularly rapid process. So when might we see some benefits? How long does it take? What sort of benefits do we see first? So you get biodiversity of other organisms increasing very rapidly. Within the first two to three years, you can have 10 times more species living there. You very rapidly start to filter the water. You very rapidly increase the numbers of oysters that are there. You can go from no oysters per square metre in year one to 500 or 600 per square metre within a couple of years.

So all of that happens very quickly. But what we're discovering is that if you want the peak ecosystem services and functions, you're talking 10 years or more before you really start to see that. So the supply of fish and crustaceans like crabs into fisheries, that really peaks after about 10 to 15 years. So you've talked about needing patience for projects like this. You've talked about overfishing and pollution and all of those things. You are working, though, in the sphere of solutions. are you by nature an optimist? I actually think that I've

evolved into an optimist you know I spent the first 15 years of my career doing research which showed all of the different ways in which human activities break the oceans and ecosystems but I kind of got sick of pointing out where we were doing things wrong without actually posing solutions. And so I started working with the oyster restoration work, and I've seen that we can make a difference. And it's how people engage and how fast things can happen once everyone comes together. That was Baden Russell from the Swire Institute of Marine Science at the University of Hong Kong. Now you'll remember the deadly wildfires on the Hawaiian island of Maui

in August that ripped through homes and destroyed people's belongings. Now a jewellery shop on the island is fixing damaged and burnt precious items free of charge. Harry Bly spoke to the owners of No Ka Oye Jewellery, Omi and Ayelet Chandy. It was a strange evening when the fires were going on. We really had no clue that such a fire was raging on the other side of the island. We drove home and on the way home we saw different locations of fire along the way to our place in Pula. But luckily the winds took the fire in a different direction and we were not harmed. You know, the first week we were just all in kind of shock and people that we knew have lost everything. We've noticed the island, everybody was really stepping up to do what they could to help out.

You guys gave back to the community by offering to fix and restore damaged jewellery. So tell me, first of all, how did that come about? But secondly, what can be done to restore burnt metal and minerals? To me, it was just, this is a perfect way for us to give back and to help. As far as the process, it could be a fairly simple process depending on the damage of the piece to a very intricate and very complicated process that can take quite some time and quite some efforts. So most items that are of precious materials actually come back almost brand new looking. And how many items have you managed to save so far? Oh, yeah, we're very happy to say we've saved quite a bit. And it's in the hundreds. It's in the hundreds.

We've probably returned about 150 to 200 pieces. There's still a few hundred pieces in the works. Now, each one is really its own case. We see people bringing their items in a Ziploc bag, completely loss of hope, didn't really know that these items can be restored. And within a few weeks, they come back brand new and to see that transformation of attitude and transformation of you see there, you know, hope and happiness just right in front of you. It's quite touching. It's really a beautiful, beautiful story.

And can you tell me about some of the people that you've helped? Yesterday we had a story. She was 85. Yes, with her son. And she found the ring that her husband gave her 61 years ago. Yes. And she was so happy yesterday when we brought it back and it looked like brand new.

Yeah, when she brought it, it was like a piece of charcoal. I mean, a piece of charcoal and just completely charred and black. And it's quite something to see their faces when we open up that piece of paper. And it's the only thing that she has left from her husband.

Why is this important to you to fix and restore this jewellery free of charge? Why is that important to you? It's really a personal and a very emotional thing to receive back after it's been lost. So what's driving us is really the ratio between the cost of doing it to what we get in return. The benefits are so, I mean, they outweigh the cost. So I think that's what keeps us going. The rewarding feeling that we get with every piece that we deliver and the piece of hope that we offer to people. We'll keep going until the last piece comes through. You know, we see all the stages of the emotional spectrum and we're seeing it live and

it's here in our store and it's just a beautiful blessing. It's a beautiful blessing. It fills your heart too. Makes us feel good too. Omi and Ayelet Chandy. Still to come, how do you build a hurricane-proof house? And might the result look a little bit like Lego? It is really the simplicity of it that you're alluding to, which makes this so affordable and fast. If you're hearing this, you're probably already listening to BBC's award-winning news podcasts. But did you know that you can listen to them without ads? Get current affairs podcasts like Global News, AmeriCast and The Global Story,

plus other great BBC podcasts from history to comedy to true crime, all ad-free. Simply subscribe to BBC Podcast Premium on Apple Podcasts or listen to Amazon Music with a Prime membership. Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC Podcasts. Unmissable stories from around the globe. If there's a war or any emergency happening to Taiwan, then, you know, I would be also part of it. The documentary. Gripping storytelling from the BBC World Service.

This has been our life since childhood. Every year, wars and difficult events. The documentary. The vantage point from which to survey a new horizon. Search for The Documentary wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Now, some of the other things that caught our eye recently. This might prove to be very good news indeed. Reports this week of a new antibiotic developed by scientists at Harvard and the pharmaceutical firm Roche,

which can fight dangerous drug-resistant bacteria. Zosurolabalpin is effective against carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, and yes, I have been practising that, also known as CRAB, which can cause deadly, hitherto untreatable infections. But before we get too excited, it is only working in mice so far. Human trials haven't been done yet. Still promising. And this is potentially an excellent story as well. A new aviation company has developed a type of jet fuel made entirely

from human sewage. Tests suggest that the Firefly green fuels product is nearly identical to standard fossil jet fuel, but with a far lower carbon footprint. Again, there is still a long way to go, but the company is now raising funds to build a full-scale demonstrator factory. And congratulations to the record-breaking polar explorer Preet Chandi, who has completed another feat of endurance, skiing alone almost 1,130 kilometres across Antarctica from the edge of the landmass to the South Pole. Her time, 31 days, 13 hours and 19 minutes, looks set once confirmed to give her another record.

Captain Chandi, who is a serving British Army officer, told us about her achievement and how she's doing. You know, I feel tired, I do, but I feel the best I felt after any trip. But I think a lot of that's learning as well. You know, we learn from our previous mistakes. I learned a lot from my last trip, which was incredibly difficult and didn't go to plan at all. And, you know, I failed to reach my end goal last time. But I think those failures are important.

I'm glad I've had them because I think they helped me succeed this time around. What was involved in it per day how many hours did you ski? 12 to 13 hours a day and I was super disciplined so I'd stop every hour for five minutes have some water have some food and then keep going next hour and generally the last two hours could be pretty difficult but I would never let myself stop early. I was having 5,000 calories a day and I still lost 10 kilograms that's about normal and making sure I got my sleep so that I could keep going the rest of the day so it was only really the last day that I kind of had three and a half hours sleep to do my final 18 hour

push otherwise I was getting seven to eight hours. Did you know you were on track to beat the record? I did, yes. Yeah, for the first half. I never really let myself think that I was definitely going to get it, though, because, you know, things happen. Equipment might fail. The weather could get worse. So I just said to myself, just keep going, you know, keep working hard, keep the discipline up, and then hopefully we'll all come together.

That was Captain Preet Chandi, and she was speaking to Michelle Hussain. Now, we heard a little earlier about the impact of devastating storms in Australia. A firm in Miami in the US has come up with a new type of construction that it says is far stronger than traditional methods and can withstand intensifying hurricanes and other extreme weather events. And the shape of the bricks might remind you of something if you have children, or indeed used to be a child. Here's Patrick Murphy of Renko USA. I was raised in a construction family, and we partnered with an individual from Turkey who had an idea to change the way we build and change the material. We are faster than traditional ways to build. We are greener, 98% more green than concrete, stronger than most other building methodologies.

It is lighter, cleaner, and quieter. So it checks a lot of boxes. We believe it can help solve a lot of problems in the world as it comes to affordable housing. And what sorts of materials are we talking about? I understand that there's a lot of recycled material in your bricks. Yeah, so it's mainly recycled glass, recycled plastic, calcite, which is like a limestone dust, and then a resin that holds it all together. That's like the glue. And it's basically like a mold. You mix all that stuff up, heat injected, and it comes out into these blocks, which can be configured into basically any size. Now, I have to say, I have seen some pictures of these blocks. And I have to ask, did you need to get permission from a certain Danish toy manufacturer?

We did not. It is really the simplicity of it that you're alluding to, which makes this so affordable and fast because everyone played with Legos at some point. And when we send the material to a job site to be built, it's color coded. And each different size block has a different color on the plans. And you look at the plans and you get the red one. Boom, you get the blue one, the green one, just like you do as a kid. And they stack together.

Are they literally in bright colors? The blocks themselves are not, but on the plans they are. Oh, that's a shame. You've missed a trick there. We've talked about it. And because it's so relatively lightweight and easy to use, is this something that would be useful in places that suffer from earthquakes and so on to rebuild and provide replacement housing when disasters have happened? Yes. In fact, our partner is working with the

Turkish government after that devastating earthquake last year to build tens of thousands of homes there. So as we continue to grow, we definitely want to start talking to more governments and agencies to get this in front of them, because we think it's a great solution because you don't have to fly in tens of thousands of skilled trades people and heavy equipment to build this. So in a disaster situation, when you're going to rebuild, the local workforce there can learn to do this themselves. They get a job, they're rebuilding their own community. When you saw the first building completed with your new product and your new building style and material, what went through your head? We were blown away.

To see the workers putting it up with no crane, with no heavy equipment is also sort of awe-inspiring. It's just coming from the industry. You always expect a bunch of waste and heavy noise and concrete trucks and rebar. And we had 11 workers erect these 96-unit apartment building in a matter of days. When you were little, did you play with Lego? Of course, I still do. Just bigger ones now. That was Patrick Murphy of Renko USA. The World Darts Final doesn't traditionally attract the sort of attention of football, cricket or rugby. But this year was something special, thanks to the player who actually came second, a teenager who's become known as Luke the Nuke.

The buzz began as Luke Littler, who is 16, won round after round. People who don't normally care about darts at all started watching and got behind him on his remarkable run to the final. Might we be about to see the youngest world champion in the sports history? Well, no. The pre-tournament favourite, another Luke, Luke Humphries, won the PDC World Final 7-4. And since he's the actual winner, we should hear from him. Really special. I'm really, really pleased. But it was the teenager that everyone was talking about, and he is very much in demand. My colleague Sarah Montague caught up with Luke Littler

and his posse of minders as he walked between interviews. It's been crazy. I knew win or lose. Last night I was going to be speaking to everyone, speaking to everyone who wants to talk to me. Well, I wanted to ask you about that because you did lose last night, but does it feel like defeat? It doesn't look like defeat. It's just I've gained a lot of experience, gained a bit of money myself

and the biggest thing is confidence and the experience so whatever big tournaments are playing next then I've got that stage experience. So how did it feel last night? How did it feel this morning? What have you been doing? Have you slept? I slept for two hours but last night it was just, it was good to be involved in a good final, me and Luke played really well. What is next? Whatever I can qualify for.

You've got to qualify for all the Belgium, Germany and Polish tours. So as much as I can qualify, that's how much I'll be playing. And so for somebody who... Because you know the effect you've had. You know how many people watched it last night, more than has ever watched a darts final before. You have had a huge effect on the game. For somebody who perhaps hasn't played or is just starting,

what would you say to them? If you like the sport, then practice. If you're young, try and find an academy. Get involved, make friends and just enjoy it. And for you, you're £200,000 richer after last night. How are you going to use that? What are you going to do? I've not even thought about it yet. I just want to go home. You've got a lot more interviews to do. The world wants you. We'll let you get on, Luke. Thank you. Thank you. Luke Littler, and congratulations to the winner, Luke Humphries.

And that's all from us for now, but we do enjoy hearing from you, so do email us. Our address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. This edition was mixed by Annie Smith. The producers were Anna Murphy and Harry Bly. Our editor is Karen Martin. I'm Jackie Leonard, and until next time, goodbye. Goodbye. ads. Get current affairs podcasts like Global News, AmeriCast and The Global Story, plus other great BBC podcasts from history to comedy to true crime, all ad-free. Simply subscribe to BBC Podcast

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