Global News Podcast - The Happy Pod: Lost my ring, found some friends

Episode Date: October 24, 2026

Patrick Mohr thought his wedding ring was gone after it fell off his hand while he swam in Italy, but it led to an international friendship with three locals who dived to find it. Filippo Palagi, Nicola Malloggi and Edoardo Poggi went on a trip to return it to Patrick in Ireland. Also: the grandmother who competed at Miss Great Britain and made history in the process. Glamour Gran Ann wants other women to see that getting older does not mean disappearing. In Australia, the reporter who ended up saving a man's life while covering floods in Brisbane. ABC reporter Will Murray pulled a man from a sinking car, after the driver accidentally drove into the flood. Plus - World Athletics are holding their first ever World Treadmill Championship. And the live stream in Finland where you can watch puppies 24/7.Image: The three men who helped Patrick find his ring, posing with Patrick holding it. Credit: Patrick Mohr.Our weekly collection of inspiring, uplifting and happy news from around the world.Presenter: Holly Gibbs. Music composed by Iona Hampson

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. The Hubble Space Telescope was designed to peer deeper into the universe than ever before, unlocking some of its greatest secrets. But after launch, a devastating flaw emerged. A significant spherical aberration appears to be present in the optics. National disaster. Hulble launched with flawed mirror. The BBC Space Podcast 30 minutes is telling the inside story of how NASA rescued Hubble. The future of space astronomy depends on it.

From the BBC World Service, 13 minutes, trouble with Hubble. Listen now on BBC.com, the BBC app, or wherever you get your BBC podcasts. This is the Happy Pod from the BBC World Service. I'm Holly Gibbs, and in this edition... It was the gauntlet of emotion, you know, lost, disappointment, frustration, anger, right through to kind of the magic part and then, you know, really the joy of friend building. I not only got the ring back, but, you know, met these three lads. How won Irishman's lost wedding ring led to an international friendship.

Also on this podcast, meet the grandmother who competed at Miss Great Britain. 71 is an age that can be tricky. Because glamour gran'an is all about doing things, but if I can, anyone can. Plus, the reporter who saved a man from drowning. When we saw him floating away, we were sort of thinking, you know, please, can we get emergency services here first? And then when it became very clear that he wasn't able to get out and he was sinking very fast, there was no thinking involved.

And watching puppies when they are sleeping and eating, it's very simple way of delight. The live stream where you can watch puppies to your heart's content. When Patrick's. Moore's wedding ring slipped off his finger while he was swimming with his daughters in a river in Italy. He was devastated. Patrick asked three local men if they could help him find it, but without success, and he left thinking he would never see it again. Unbeknown to Patrick, those three Italian men continued their quest to find his ring and even went on an epic journey to return it to him in Ireland.

The Happy Pod's Amelia Clark has been speaking to Patrick about the day it all began. and the unexpected friendship forged by an act of kindness. My fingers shrink a little bit when they're cold, I think. So one of the girls grabbed my hand, it slipped, and before you know it, the ring slipped off with them. And it all happened in a split second. The ring is gone. What are you going to do?

You can't see the bottom at all, and the ground is covered in moss and ferns. So you just realize straight away, I've lost it. Did you keep up any hope that you were going to find it again? Well, straight away, to be honest, no. I felt that it was a goner. My wife started talking to the three lads.

I think she asked them for goggles and they didn't have them. They made a joke straight away about it being like the Lord of the Rings with the last golden ring, which irritated me. And all I wanted to do would get out of there and not talk to anyone and, you know, console myself with my own disappointment. But, you know, my wife Joanne, she had the wherewithal exchange numbers with them. The guys said they come back to the swimming spot regularly and they said, oh, we'll look for it. Now, I didn't really think they'd actually go look for it, let alone find it.

And then nine days later, we were in a different part of Tuscany in the south. And I got a text message from a strange Italian phone number I didn't have saved on my phone with a picture of what looked like my ring. and the caption on the text said, Hi, Schmeagel, look what we found. Immediately disbelief, frankly, shared it with my wife before, you know, the whole family's jumping up and down with excitement. They said quite quickly over text that they wanted to bring the ring back to me in Ireland,

which, you know, raised my eyebrows. At the end of the day, they're strangers. I just figured I'd drive back up to wherever they live in Italy. But later that evening, we ended up on video call with them and they explained the situation more to me. We had left them. They had met this nice Irish family. They said to each other, we're going to find the ring for him.

It turned out they'd actually gone back to look a couple of different times. Once with kayaks, another day with ropes to tie themselves off on the rocks so that they could dive into the water where it was moving a bit faster. And that's ultimately where they found it in the faster moving water. They said they saw a glint of light when the ferns parted. They were really into the Lord of the Rings parallels. And we went along with that story just for the crack. And so they ended up coming to Ireland.

We spent all that day exploring the Wicklow Mountains just south of where I live in Dublin. We went wild river swimming, of course, had to do that. Brought them for a sauna, pint of Guinness and a meal with the family in the house. they ended up renting a camper van to explore the country, and I sent them on a mystery tour, where I dropped their itinerary the evening before the next day, and they were excited to go on that adventure. So we've been stopping messages as a group ever since,

trading pictures, learning a bit about each other's lives, and, yeah, I guess, and making friends. But when the ring was found, certainly my middle daughter, who believes in magic swears that it was some spell, she cast over the whole situation to make it happen. So, you know, after I lost the ring, I was speaking to a few of my friends about it, you know, sharing the loss. And, you know, their message the same every time was,

be thankful you lost your wedding ring in a mountain stream playing with your family and not on a night out at the lads, drunk and having to explain your misfortune the next day. As far as losing wedding rings go, it's a pretty good place and style to do it. It was just a little bit of magic and all the ingredients were right for it. And yeah, it was the gaunt of emotion, you know, loss, disappointment, frustration, anger, acceptance right through to kind of the magic part, which was the excitement. And then, you know, really the joy of friend building. I not only got the ring back, which I'm holding right now, but, you know, met these three lads who are bang-on, sound lads. And they never would have had an Irish friend.

and frankly I wouldn't have had an Italian friend and now we do. How did you feel that relative strangers ended up putting in all of that effort to try and reunite you with your ring? Very humbled by it in some respects, I suppose. I'd also, you know, I had mentally written off that it was findable.

I'm quite a practically minded person. My wife, you know, she's since told me many times since that I learned a lesson that day that sometimes you just have to ask for help, even if it's improbable, you never know, the universe can respond. And there is a bit of magic out there sometimes. I thought long and hard how I could repay them for their kindness.

I didn't want to give them money and didn't feel right. In the end, I don't know if it was the right call, but I bought them a silver bracelet, one for each of the three guys, and got it engraved with their name. and their hobbit name, they all assumed a hobbit name and got it engraved with that as well. And they certainly seem to love that as a gift. And what's next for your friendship, do you think?

I think for sure we will keep in touch when, where and how we see each other next, unknown. You know, the lads live in Italy. We live in Ireland. But I'm certain more will come from this, whether it's invitations to their weddings one day if they decide to get married or it's holidays in Italy or. or Ireland, we will certainly meet up again. That was Patrick Moore speaking to Amelia Clark. A 71-year-old woman from Scotland has made history by becoming the oldest contestant at the Miss Great Britain Beauty Pageant. Anne Marie Harper says she wants other women to see that getting older does not mean disappearing.

I caught up with Anne or glamour grand Anne, as she is affectionately known, and she began by telling me how it all started. Actually, it's my very first time when I've done the... the Ayershire beauty pageant. I hadn't done beauty pageants before. I've always been in the beauty business and I've always sort of worked towards helping people to do their makeup and helping people to look good and feel good. And when I was asked would I like to go for an interview? I thought, I don't really know if I could. And the person that, it was Kay, who's actually my airshire director for Miss Great Britain Ershire, who said, just come for a call if you will have a talk.

I'm a great believer to keep everything. Somebody offers you an amazing opportunity. We take it. And when I was sitting having coffee with Kay, quite a few people in there went, oh, it's glamour grandin. Glamourne, hello. And I thought, this is me.

I'm going to do this. And after that, it was just, wow. What did your family say when you said you were going to do it? My family said, go for it, Mom. Yes, you can do it. My family's a great boost for me because sometimes in an annul. You know, feeling that good. They'll say, come on, Mother, you're a powerful lady.

You can show them. And, you know, in the most positive way, it's true. It's amazing what we can do when we've got people believing in us. And sometimes, you know, only takes one wee person to believe in you, to make you realize that, you know, I can do this? And what if I fail? So what if you fail? Glamourne has failed a million times, but I just keep getting back up. You know, and that's really what's in my heart.

And you made history by competing. at Miss Great Britain at 71. Tell me about that. 71 is an age that can be tricky. Because glamour grand-in is all about doing things and pushing herself forward, ice skating, skiing. I mean, I really push myself to do everything. I don't just jump on a ski rink and I don't just jump on an ice skating rink.

I go for lessons, of course. But if I can, anyone can. And that's what I want to get out there. I do a lot of motivational talking on stages. etc and that's my happiness when I'm out there sharing with other people that they can do it and it's a power of example I can't sit in a corner and no do things I've got to be seen doing it's all about believing in yourself power and it's wonderful so at the time I'm speaking to you you only competed a few days ago didn't you how did it go oh listen it was absolutely

beyond anybody's wildest dreams and again I'll say any of you could have done what I done but I'm a great believer. When I went there, I decided I'm going to do this 10 times better than I've ever done anything before. Because it's a book of red, Dran, and that's what it's all about. If you're going to do something, it doesn't matter who you are, where you're from, push it and do it 10 times better. And I did. And I really loved every single solitary second of it.

And I didn't win, which is fine. However, I did want a big award. I won the Impact Over Image Award, and that's bigger to me than anything in this world, because it's going to help me further be up there and helping other people to say, this is me just a down-to-earth women who has shown herself and others that we can do this. Well, congratulations on your award. What feedback did you have when you competed at Miss Great Britain? I can't even start to tell you.

It's been absolutely phenomenal. And it's all about, and I'm going to say these words, helping others. Because it's all in the giving, isn't it? And you know something I always say, you could be standing at a bus stop. You could be standing beside someone and just a wee hello or a wee smile can change that person's whole day. And that's what I'm all about. Trying to look out and help others. Kindness is my last.

That's my word. It always has been. That is a very good. message, Anne. What do you want listeners of the Happy Pod to take away from your story? If glamour a grand Anne can, at the age of 71, that's a powerful age, if I can do things, then so can they. And I'll stress this, it doesn't have to be going into the waterfalls, the cold tabs, it doesn't have to be anything like that. It could just be as much as getting out your bed that day or sitting up in your bed or even going to the door to open the door, to

in the door, you know, just to look out at the sunshine. That was Glamour Gran Anne. As journalists, we try very hard not to become this story. However, in Australia, one reporter ended up saving a man's life while covering floods in Brisbane. ABC reporter Will Murray pulled a man from a sinking car after the driver accidentally drove into the flood. He's been speaking to the BBC's Lewis Vaughn Jones. We went up to an area called Morton Bay, which is a couple of our

north of Brisbane. Because we heard there was big storms coming. There was a heap of rain in the morning. We set up at a park that looked like it had flood waters over it. There was a road running through. And all of a sudden, a sort of big formal drive comes roaring behind us and straight into the water. And we saw how deep it was. We'd been there filming.

So we saw that it was right up to the top of, you know, the road signs. And so when he started driving in, we thought, oh, no, he's going to get into trouble very, very quickly. So sort of ran towards the edge and kept. filming until we realized he was in real trouble within a few seconds. He started floating and then drifting downstream. And then a few seconds later, he started to sink again. And I said to my camera operator, never mind the camera, put that down, come give me a hand, get on the phone to the to the Ambo's. And I'll jump in and see if we can get him out. Thankfully, there was another man there who gave me a hand. And I'm very, very appreciative of him. Because without him, we wouldn't

got him out. You're in your your shirt, is it? Your work shirt that you've just been doing your live broadcast from and you just thought, right, jacket off and in I go? Was that it? Yeah, exactly that. And I was wearing some big, heavy R.M. Williams boots that we often wear here in Australia and I managed to get them off, but not my kind of woolen pants and suit shirt. It was sort of dragging me down as we tried to make our way to the car. But just, Yeah. And any, it was, I mean, you know, I can speak as a, you know, spent a good period of my career on the road as a reporter as well. And there's that instinct in you to not get involved and stay objective, have not become the story, but also clearly when you're one of the few people there can actually help. Was there, did you have a second thought or did you just go straight in? When we saw him floating away, we were sort of thinking, you know, please, can we get emergency services here first? And then when it became very clear that he was. he wasn't able to get out and he was sinking very fast.

There was no thinking involved. Now, if I had watched a man drown, I wouldn't, you know, it would be difficult to recover from. So better that you jump in and give it a crack, I'll live with the consequences of that. And what did you, when you were spoken to him afterwards, what was he saying? Oh, he was extremely relieved.

We gave him a big hug. I think there's a few scenes of us hugging both in the water and then when we got out, He just said he didn't see it. He couldn't tell how deep the water was. Yeah, he was terrified. Rightfully so. I bet it.

Just so thankfully that he's out. That was Will Murray speaking to Lewis Vaughn Jones. Coming up on the Happy Pod. In the state of Mexico, they relied on just a few of climate data. And thanks to our system, we started giving them fire spread simulations. And thanks to that, they reduced the mortality. rate to zero. The fire controlling app that started off as a school project.

He's the founder of the Adani Group, one of India's major infrastructure conglomerates. And with interests ranging from ports to airports to power generation and green energy. He's become one of Asia's wealthiest individuals. On Good Bad billionaire from the BBC World Service, we're delving into the life and fortune of billionaire businessman Gautam Adani. Listen on BBC.com, the BBC app, or wherever you get your podcasts. You're listening to The Happy Pod. If you're a regular gym goer, you're in with a chance of becoming a world champion. World Athletics are holding their first ever world treadmill championship.

All you have to do is run five kilometres on the treadmill and your time is locked on the global virtual leaderboard. The BBC's Sarah Dawkins has been speaking to some of those giving it a go. Really, like, exhilarating. I feel like we're all in it together, even though we're at a focus on ourselves, we're pushing each other. It's so good. You're shouting everyone. The music's all buzzing. It's great.

These runners in Southampton are treading new ground and taking part in the first ever World Treadmill Championship. A brand new World Athletics event where people around the world can log five kilometres on a treadmill and compete for wild card race entries and a prize pool of $100,000. It's called Run X, pitching everyday runners against the world's best, including the likes of British marathon runner Charlotte Perdue. I think it's good to get people into running. 5K is obviously not too far, so people can have a shot at it. There's no pressure.

There is the prospect, of course, of becoming the first ever world treadmill champion. Is that spurring you on tonight? I mean, I wish it was a marathon on the treadmill. I think I'd have a better chance. Welcome to RunX everybody. Runners have until January to sign up and post their time on the live leaderboard at their nearest RunX site. After that, the top 25% in age categories from 18 to over 75 will be selected to represent their nation at the regionals. The 10 best men and women in each category will then advance to the world final in Italy next March.

There are currently only 20 countries taking part and the list of elite runners registered has not yet been disclosed. but the event is free and World Athletics President Lord Coe says it's a chance to introduce a new audience to running. I think this is a great opportunity. It's across a whole range of age groups and it's really important that when we innovate, we use technology that attract more young people into our sport. So after their 5K, here's what the runners had to say. It was really good fun. We were all running at like a similar pace.

So it was like a mini competition between ourselves to like push ourselves to go a bit faster. Peace with your time? What was it? 1426, I think. Yeah, solid. So I get a bit competitive. So I'm looking at people. I'm like, oh my gosh, she's only three seconds ahead of me.

I can beat that. Treadmill running can sometimes divide opinion. For some, it's monotonous, but for others it can be a matter of safety. Unfortunately, so many women in the winter have to change their routines with running outside because they don't feel safe. So by being able to run inside on a treadmill, it means that you don't have to stop your training. You can still be on a program.

You can still get your goals without stopping running through the winter. Whatever the motivation for taking part, the message here is to have a go at becoming a world champion. All you need is a pair of trainers. That report was from Sarah Dawkins. To Helsinki in Finland next, where hundreds of thousands of people have been tuning in to watch this. That is a litter of puppies who are only days old. Viewers from around the world have been tuning into puppy live, a 24-7 live stream from the Finnish public broadcaster Y-L-E.

Pierre Yukoschkinen is a science journalist at Yali. She's been speaking to the BBC's Ansoi and Rob Young. I think there are many reasons people love watching the Pentu live, the Finnish word meaning puppy live. Maybe watching puppies when they are sleeping and eating. It's a very simple way of delight on day. It's very heartwarming way to priding today in a world full of terrible news. And when we watch puppy live stream, we can see a canine family, dog mother, Hilka and her six newborn puppies.

And the puppies really are cute. How many people roughly watch this live stream? Well, last year there were millions, million people watching live stream. And how did you decide which dog family to choose? Did you have to audition a few? Well, it's a very complicated process because they have to screen all those healthy issues and what kind of breeder there is and how responsible way he breeds dogs. And, well, there are very many things I have to check and call very many breeders and check all those dog data.

And it's kind of puzzle I try them to solve. And of course, not there are any breeders want to come to the live shows. So that takes eight weeks and cameras are in the breeders' home and etc. Pier U. Koshkinin. We end in Argentina, where one man's school project has led to an app which helps identify and intercept wildfires before they become unmanageable. Franco Rodriguez Vial was inspired to do so after his family friends lost their home in a fire.

The BBC's Myra Anubi reports. 2026 is on track to have the highest number of ravaging wildfires ever. Spain, the US, Australia, Angola, so many places continue to grapple with this issue. Back in 2020, Argentina experienced the most wildfires in the country's history, more than 35,000. These fires had a profound effect on, student Franco Rodriguez Vial.

When I was 16 years old, and I personally had a family friend who lost their homes to wildfires. And I was in a technical high school. I wanted to do something. So I started as a curricular project with two friends, Ulysses and Joaquin. And we started developing a system to fight this global problem. So together with two friends, he worked on a school project to develop an app called Satellites on Fire that can detect, alert and monitor fires from early on and prevent them from getting bigger. Oh, fantastic. It's satellites on fire. These guys are absolutely brilliant. That's Prince William, founder of the Earthshot Prize, which rewards solutions to environmental

problems, happily discovering that satellites on fire is a finalist for one of their prizes. In just five years, this app has already massively changed the way fires are tackled. Before, by the time we got, there might already be 100 or 200 hectares burning, for example. Nowadays, we get there and perhaps there's an affected area of 30 by 30 meters, for example. Volunteer firefighter, Gustavo Cornejo, works in Cordoba in Argentina. He says before using the satellites on fire app, firefighters often relied on eyewitness reports and maps. Sometimes we were told there was a column of smoke and we didn't know where it was. We'd plot one bearing, three bearings

on a map and roughly work out where the fire might be. And only then would we start working out which road to take. Imagine all the time we lost doing that. Gustavo says this app allows him to both find and extinguish fires more quickly. But it also helps firefighters to work towards preventing them in the first place. With every spot that comes up, we're in, are building a kind of historical record of the areas where most alerts occur. So we have the approximate areas where we may need to go more and do prevention work or preventive clearing. So how does it work? Well, lots of fires are already detected using satellite imagery, pictures showing changes in temperature, which are beamed down from 800

kilometers above the earth. But Franco Rodriguez-Fiao told me that their eureka moment was using AI to combine all the possible sources of data into their app. I remember when we were starting satellites on fire that we were speaking with lots of different people who worked with fires. One of them started sharing his screen and he had 11 different systems, weather data, wildfire data, lots of different information panels to tackle the fire more efficiently and we were like, this can be happening. When you have a fire, have seconds to act. So we started looking to build an integral solution to that problem. Your system is different. How does it work exactly? So what we do is we process more than 13 satellites every five minutes

with our AI algorithms that detects basically hit signatures in the field. And this allows us to send the WhatsApp or SMS alerts to the fire brigades. So they receive a WhatsApp message with a link to Google Maps and they go and tackle the fire in time. This enables them to put it out in the first minutes with just one fire truck instead of having thousands or hundreds of aircrafts and firefighters go over the fire when one is catastrophic, but to really get to help and save people's lives, community, communities and biodiversity. Now, can you give me an example of the impact you've seen since you started doing this? Yes. For example, in the state of Mexico, they relied on just a few of climate data to tackle the fire,

but they didn't have enough information to know where the fire was spreading. So that's why they kept losing Forest Ranger lives on the fires because they got trapped in them. And thanks to our system, we started giving them fire spreads, simulations showing them how the fire was going to evolve. And thanks to that, they reduced the mortality rate to zero. Franco Rodriguez Vial, ending that report by Myra Anubi. For more on that story, just search for people fixing the world wherever you get your BBC podcasts. And that's all from the Happy Pod for now. We'd love to hear from you. As ever, the address is global podcast at BBC.co.uk.

of this edition is Karen Martin. I'm Holly Gibbs. Until next time, goodbye. The Hubble Space Telescope was designed to peer deeper into the universe than ever before, unlocking some of its greatest secrets. But after launch, a devastating flaw emerged. A significant spherical aberration appears to be present in the optics. National disaster. Hubble launched with flawed mirror. The BBC Space Podcast 13 Minutes is telling the inside story of how NASA rescued Hubble. The future of space astronomy depends on it. From the BBC World Service, 13 minutes, trouble with Hubble. Listen now on BBC.com, the BBC app, or wherever you get to your BBC podcasts.