Global News Podcast - The Happy Pod: My best friend turned out to be my brother

Episode Date: July 25, 2026

Dave and Andrea met by chance at work. They got on so well they could complete each other's sentences - which made sense when they discovered they were actually siblings. Dave was Andrea's biological brother, but had been adopted by another family when he was a baby.Also, grandmother Anita LeBrun wanted to enjoy her favourite glass of wine in the assisted living facility, but she wasn't allowed due to licensing laws. So, she changed the law, and the "Grandparents' Happy Hour" bill has been introduced in Minnesota. Plus, the walking festival in the Netherlands which is keeping Dutch children happy. The women making waves in the world of Lumberjacking, and the 'Plastic Soup Surfer' tells us about his adventures. Our weekly collection of inspiring, uplifting and happy news from around the world.(Picture: Dave and Andrea. Credit: BBC/PA Wire) Presenter: Holly Gibbs. Music composed by Iona Hampson

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This is the Happy Pod from the BBC World Service. I'm Holly Gibbs and in this edition, we meet Dave and Andrea. She made a promise to her mum when she was six that she'd find me. And I remember her mum looking over my shoulder as she was hugging me through the tears saying, you can't be promise. Out of anybody that I know, I would have chose you to be my brother. They became friends at work, only to find out they are actually brother and sister. Also on this podcast, the 82-year-old woman who challenged the law to bring happy.

hour to her assisted living facility. I was very happy, excited that I had a part in it, and I hope that I can motivate others, especially seniors, to stand up for something they believe in. Plus, why walking could be the secret to the happiness of Dutch children. They run up and down the route. They sing songs, marching songs, scouting songs. The children are always fantastic.

And? Next time you're walking on the beach this summer and you see a bottle, you know, don't walk past it, but pick it up because you never know where that bottle might bring you because, in my case, it even got me to the Pope. One of our listeners tells us about his adventures challenging policymakers on plastic pollution from his surfboard. Dave and Andrea met by chance when they both worked in the north of England. They became friends and bonded over their similarities. Then one day, Andrea, Andrea, revealed that she'd been looking for her long-lost brother for 30 years, and the mystery was soon

solved. The BBC's Rowan Bridge has been to meet them. That'll never happen. I said, what the chances of anything like that being able to happen? It kind of wasn't just a normal person that I'd chat to in the day. There was just something there. We couldn't put our finger on it, what it was. People don't meet like that. It's not what happens in everyday lives, but ours are not everyday lives anymore. Let me introduce Dave Greene. He used to drive buses. The last time I drove a bus was 1990.

I used to have a motto. It's just nice to be nice. As a supervisor at Manchester Airport bus station, he met Andrea Armstrong. I've come to fill the vending machines and clean the vending machines. And that's how you got introduced to Dave. Yes, we used to...

The two struck up a friendship, and that's where this story begins. We were two strangers and more discussions we had. the more we realise we had in common. I like motorbikes, she liked motorbikes, she had a bike when she was a youngster. We were having a chit-chat, and I remember putting my arm around her,

and she said, oh, she said, we're just like brother-sister, me and you, aren't we? I said, yeah, we look quite good together, don't we? So we could be brother-a-sister, me and you. I'd ask him a question, he'd start talking, and I'd have to finish his sentence for him. Which, again, was quite uncanny, really. But it was a fateful phone call in 2007

that was going to change everything. Me and my ex-partner, we fostered. This particular day I was quite distraught because the foster child had to be returned into care. I called her and said, I'm really down today because the foster child's got to go back into care. And I feel like I've really let him down because I'm adopted. And I was like, I can't believe you've never told me this in two years. I said, well, my brother was adopted. His name was Stuart.

To which I replied, okay, my name was Stuart, Stuart Proudlove. And I went, that was his name, Stuart Proudlove. She told me back a few minutes later and said, I've spoke to my mum and were you born in Withershaw, a hospital on the 24th of March, 1966. I said I was. We both crying at this point because we knew what was coming. Told me mum, I said, I think I found Stuart for you.

And she just didn't know what to say. Called Stewart back, Dave. And I said, it's got to be you, it's got to be you. And I did say to him, out of anybody that I know, I would have chose you to be my brother. Dave's mum was 15 when she had him in the 19th. My mum got two choices. Give him up for adoption or her mum, my grandma, would have brought me up as her own. So I think I was given the best opportunity to have a great life. What did find out I was adopted. It was no real sort of urge to find out anything more.

How much to the university? 30 pounds on that. Now back in the 80s when Dave was driving, buses were a lot cheaper. I've done this left turn onto Mainwood Road hundreds of times. We're on the number 11 bus, which takes a six. similar route to the one Dave used to drive. It's one that took on a whole new significance when he drove with Angela to be reunited with his birth mum.

The nearer we got, I kept saying, I'd drive a bus on this route. Oh my God, I'd drive a bus along this road. And then we got to Mum's house and I said, I drove a bus past this house. I stood back a bit because I really wanted to see my mum and Dave together because it was just something she'd wanted so much

and she just couldn't believe it. It was a surreal moment. And then we just all hugged. You know, I couldn't believe that I'd got my brother and my mum together. It was amazing. She made a promise to her mum when she was six that she'd find me. And I remember her mum looking over my shoulder as she was hugging me through the tears saying, You can't be promised.

Sorry. So, yeah, it was a really good time. Now, after this family reunion, nothing was ever going to be the same again. Hello? Thanks for seeing you here. Did you come here often? And coming together at the bus station where it all began, it was clear some things were always the same.

Certain bars of chocolate. We eat the same way. The tomato sauce buddies. Yeah. A chance meeting brought a brother and sister together, and now they're making up for lost time. I've always thought it's not what you're having your life, it's who you have in your life.

Somebody or something give me the thumbs up that day. We can't get those years back, but what I enjoy is making every day count with you now. I've got the one thing in my life that I need to make it special and that's yourself. Dave and Andrea ending that report by Rowan Bridge. To the state of Minnesota now where a grandmother is celebrating after she successfully campaigned to change the law. 82-year-old Anita Leiburn wanted to have her favourite glass of wine in her assisted living facility, but discovered that because of a licensing issue, she wasn't allowed.

Well, thanks to Anita, legislation which has been nicknamed the grandparents' happy hour bill, was signed this week. The Happy Pod Shantelle Hartel has been catching up with her. This is my home, and I enjoy being with everyone. And it's so nice to have a glass of wine where we can relax and be willing to share about our lives and talk about the current things that are happening in this. world. I know it was quite a process to actually get to this point because it involved you

testifying before a Senate committee. Would you just tell me a little bit about that experience and how you felt doing that? Well, I'd never been to the capital before, so that was an experience there. And I'd never ridden an Uber and I got to do that. So that was exciting for me. When we got there, I just didn't realize how big the capital was. And everybody dressed and the gentlemen and suits and the girls all look so nice. And so it's quite an experience for me. And how did it feel when finally this law did change? And there was a signing ceremony that you were a part of not too long ago.

I was very happy, excited that I had a part in it. And I hope that I can motivate others, especially seniors, to stand up for something they believe in. Is Happy Hour now a thing? Have you been able to enjoy the benefits? of that already? August 1st, we will be able to, they'll bring in the wine and we can, we can have it without having to go and get it ourselves. We're having an all-day party with a food truck and drinks and lunch and on the patio. We'll have a grill for dinner. They'll be grilling for

us. And what would be your drink of choice, Anita? What are you looking forward to come August, first in that party? Well, I like pino grigio. I ain't any white wine and everybody will really enjoy that. It's a social thing, isn't it? It's important. It is special. Very special.

And how do you feel about all of this attention that's been on you? I know that you've been described as the resident superstar. How does that feel? Well, I have gotten a lot of attention and I'm not used to that at all. So I think it has been so special and it's been so nice. Hearing from people I haven't talked to for so long. I've gotten cards, I've gotten letters, texts. It's just every day is something different.

So it's pretty exciting for an 82-year-old woman. And your family as well, I'm sure, must be very proud. Yes, they are very proud. Even the grandchildren are so proud. They've called me and their friends have called. them. So yes, it's been exciting. I know that when you gave your testimony in the Senate

you were talking about the fact that it wasn't, you didn't feel perhaps it was right that just because you were living where you were, that you weren't able to enjoy the social benefits that a drink can have and I know that you were quite passionate in that defense.

Would you just talk to me a little bit about that and why you feel so strongly about this? My generation wants to stay as independent as long as possible, and we shouldn't be punished for, you know, growing older. It's just nice to be able to have that. Anita Le Byrne. Dutch children are consistently ranked among the happiest in the world.

But what's their secret? Some suggest it might have something to do with a unique tradition. Every summer, thousands of children all over the country take part in a walking festival, as Branca Lessa-Dissar reports. What's the secret to children's happiness? I'm very happy when I get some stuff I want. My birthday cake. Going to my friends party.

And just a tiny bit of TV and video games too. Parties, cake, video games? Well, the Dutch seem to have found a simpler answer. Walking. Every summer, hundreds of thousands of children all over the Netherlands participate in the Yavon Fidarser, or in English, the evening four-day walk. So the evening four days is a walking festival. The idea is simple.

For four nights in a row, participants will meet at an agreed point and walk a set distance together. How it works is you turn up at the start. There you, on the first day you come to the tent, you get your ticket, and it has little boxes for every day. and on the route you get punched in those little boxes for every day that you've walked the route through the checkpoints. It's not a competition, but those who complete all four days get medals, flowers, and, if they're lucky, sweets. Arthur Van Eden works as a volunteer at two of Amsterdam's walking routes.

I am responsible for making the routes and the traffic regulations. He grew up attending these walks and knows firsthand the positive impact they can have. First I did it in 2006. At that one, I really remember just seeing the city for the first time, instead of just going from place to place, actually looking at buildings, looking at what's around me. The Yvon Fidasa is the younger sibling of the Fidasa, a four-day march that takes place in the city of Nijmegen in the Netherlands.

It's originated as a military training event in 19. to build the physical stamina of conscripted soldiers. But it has gradually become a civilian event, with tens of thousands of people taking part every year. While the FIDAS is more intense, with longer distances being crossed and a stronger focus on physical exercise, the kids' version is all about discovery and spontaneity. In the Netherlands, it's very common to walk to school or to bike to school,

but you're also always going somewhere. And without FDAS, you're also always walking. in a circle, but we're showing you different parts of the city. If that sounds like something children might find boring, well, think again. They really make a festival of it. They run up and down the route. They sing songs, marching songs, scouting songs. In fact, Arthur explains that it's often the adults who are the problem. The children are always fantastic. It's mostly the parents that get in the way of the fun.

They want to cross quicker. They want to get finished. Dutch kids are consistently judged to be some of the happiest in the world. This year, a UNICEF report again ranked them number one out of 44 Western countries for overall well-being and mental health. Strong social ties were cited as a key factor. Could this tradition be the secret to their happiness? Working can be very nice for your health, for your well-being,

but also because you're doing it together, you get a sense of camaraderie and, And you also see your neighbourhood in a different way. But for Arthur, there is something even more essential about the Afrofidarser. It isn't just about the perks of walking and camaraderie. It's about how we view childhood and the role we give children in our society. Children are very often seen as dumb or just not needing much in the sense of maybe you just entertain it. But they have a very rich inner world that you need to build.

build up. You need to make them part of the environment. You need to let them have autonomy in show them that you can walk, you can do all these kinds of things. That was Branca Lesser-Dissar reporting. Coming up on the Happy Pod. We need to allow them to do that just like the men do. The women have been the one who have been educating for themselves and pushing the support forward and the whereby the theory support them in that. The women making history in lumberjacking.

You're listening to The Happy Pod. Our next story comes from one of our listeners in the Netherlands. Moraine Tinger is known as the Plastic Soup Surfer. He earned that name after he made a surfboard out of washed up plastics and surfed it along the Dutch coast. He's on a mission to encourage the world to be better at preventing plastic pollution. I caught up with him about his adventures. As a biologist, I understood the science behind plastic pollution

before it really became to the global headlines. And I'm an avid wind surfer and kite surfer as well. And I saw that plastic washing up on the beach. And that's when I decided I wanted to build a surfboard from that. And I was cleaning up each day, cleaning the beaches and the small uninhabited islands. And I thought, you know, why don't we have a deposit return scheme in the Netherlands? A deposit return scheme is when you as a consumer pay a little extra,

say 15 cents when you buy a bottle of soda or whatever or a can of beer but you get that money back those 15 cents once you bring back that bottle to any store or anywhere where they have a the post return key machine but I did collect 60,000 signatures and with those signatures I went up to Dutch parliament and I'd also written a resolution myself and that resolution got adopted and that became the basis for the policy in which we saw the POS return scheme for small plastic bottles introduced in the Netherlands and also later on cans. And more importantly, that reduced litter from bottles in cans by 80% within six months after its introduction. So it was a huge success. Why is it important to you? Because you've set out quite a mission here.

Why? Yeah, that's a good question. I found a way for myself not to be become cynical. By setting out, I saw how people want to do the right thing. When you set out, you meet so many people that want to help. And I think that is what gave me the strength to keep on doing this. A winter from Nice to Rome last May, on some of these days, the wind would be so strong and against me. And I'd totally exhausted once I'd reach a beach. People would run up to you see what was written on your sale. And I tell them what I was doing and they'd say,

come over, come over to our house, that feeling of positivity, of people wanting to help out. Well, speaking of your trip to Rome, there was something else that happened there. Yeah, so I actually had a private audience with the Pope Leo the 14th. He welcomed me in the Vatican in his private library.

He said he, knew the deposit return scheme from his youth because he as a child would actually look for bottles with deposits on it for pocket money. And I offered him a deposit return scheme machine for in the Vatican. But of course, it's not only, it's not about the Vatican. It's about the message or the symbol that the Vatican would send across the world and especially to Italy, which was my greatest. goal. And we've been in contact with the Vatican since. That's huge. That would be a massive milestone for you. Yeah. The Vatican could be like the crowbar. I don't know how you say that in English, but in Dutch you say the crowbar to Italy as well and other countries as well.

For anybody out there listening who also have a passion and a belief that something should be different in the world. What's your message to them? I think the most important thing is just start. We tend to wait for a perfect moment and then, you know, wait for that moment. And then that's when we start. In that way, we sort of delay and keep on delaying and never get to it. Next time you're walking on the beach this summer and you see a bottle, you know, don't walk past it, but pick it up because you never know where that bottle might bring you because, in my case, it even got me to the Pope. That was Moraine Tinger. Do you have a story that you'd like to tell us? Please let us know.

The address is global podcast at BBC.co.uk. A library here in England is getting a reputation for something other than its books. Anne LaBea Park Community Library in Hull has now been the meeting place for four happy couples finding love. Mandy and Adrian Strickland are one of them and they've been speaking to my colleague, Neula McGovern. I was a volunteer, well still I'm a volunteer at the library. We've been a community library for about 14 years. Get to know the customers.

Adrian came in regularly to get a book. We introduced a coffee corner and he said he could bake a cake and we challenged him to make one. Good. Basically. And then he came in the following week with an amazing cake,

which we didn't believe he'd make. either. And he then went on the cake rotter and we became friends for probably 10, 12 years and then circumstances change. And here we are now, 18 months later, we're married. And you got married last month, I understand, Adrian, and then had a reception for friends and family at the library. How did it feel to return among the books to where all this love started? Well, it was quite emotional. I would say that the whole event was very emotional for me. But I just love the people at the library.

The whole group of people is especially good to me. And, man dear, she was a really good friend for many, many years. And we only really met and looked after each other was when, unfortunately, my wife died. And I was either quite a bad way. and when I was going to the library, people put the hands around me and gave me a cuddle and that was really nice. And then my son invited me to go over to Japan

just to rehabilitate. And it was such a long time over there. Somebody had to look after my affairs while I was out there and who should put up a hand. But Mandy. And afterwards we got together and, yeah, things went from strength to strength. And here you are now.

Because there are three other couples Mandy that also met at your library. What's the magic among those books? Well, I think apart from the books, I think as Adrian was saying, is such a lovely community because we're all volunteers. And we meet up for events

and we have a coffee corner. We have one couple met at one of our art groups. Another couple met, I think, over a jigsaw they were completing in the library. Everybody's just very, it's a very welcome in place. It's not a place where you have to be quiet and we're not quiet. We have lots of things going on and we rely on each other to keep the library going. Mandy and Adrian Strickland speaking

to Neula McGovern. Let's end on the shores of Lake Hayward in the US state of Wisconsin, where thousands gather annually to watch the Lumberjack World Championships. It's a competition that has seen a big increase in female participation since the games began more than 60 years. years ago, as Rebecca Wood reports. I know where they do, these ladies are cutting on 11 inches of the legs turned white pine. From chopping to log rolling, soaring to speed climbing. The lumberjack world championships attract competitors from all around the world who want to showcase their timber sports skills.

Among them is 24-year-old Carolina Urban Over. She hails from the Czech Republic and has just broken not one but two world records. at the event. She's one of 40 women who joined 66 male competitors this year, a far cry from the female representation she saw when she first started out. This was like, you know, something unique, like makes you a little bit different and you can need a lot of different people. Carolina was introduced to the sport when a new neighbour moved into her small Czech village

and she began to train weekly in a barn. She quickly discovered she was. fast and her new records prove it. And away there, ladies and gentlemen, nine inches of late-turned white pine. In the women's standing block category, where an axe is used to speed chop through an upright block of wood, she cut through 22.8 centimetres of white pine in under 20 seconds. She also broke a record in the women's underhand chop,

which involves splitting a log you're also standing on and comes with a much greater wrist to your toes. And while Carolina may be an anomaly in her home country, for another competitor, Meredith Ingridson, lumberjacking was always going to be a part of her life. Olivia popping, Meredith Ingrison, raced across. Olivia's a step ahead.

A Hayward native, she was introduced to the sport at the age of three and has just broken the world record for the women's boom run. That's where competitors race back and forth across eight lynx cedar logs floating in water. She says she's been treated like a celebrity, at the town this week and is keen to encourage new young competitors. There are a lot of colleges across the US that have timber sports and they're teaching and getting men and women into the sport of lumberjacking.

And I think it's just another reason to be active and engaged in the community that we are in, whether it's bringing in new kids or supporting the kids that just started rolling. I think that's so important. The organizers say the number of female competitors in lumberjack, sports has more than trebled in the past 30 years. And while women have always taken part in the world championships, they were originally limited to just log rolling. Getting them entry into other categories took time as event director Samantha LaSalle explains. It was the women pushing the sport forward. They were saying we can do more. We can do this event that the men are traditionally

done and had more of them practiced and got competitors in it. We said, you know what, there's enough yells that can do this and do this at eye level. And we need to allow them to do that just like the man do. And as more take part in the competition increases, for now seasoned competitors like Carolina, it only serves to spur her on to train harder and keep up her record-setting streak. I feel really proud of myself.

I'm really happy what I did. Carolina, ending that report by Rebecca Wood. 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.com. UK. The editor of this edition is Karen Martin. I'm Holly Gibbs. Until next time, goodbye.