Global News Podcast - The Happy Pod: My tattoo is his voice

Episode Date: August 29, 2026

Jessica Fletcher wanted to find a way to communicate with her autistic non-speaking son, Hunter, which could be used everywhere. So, she got a keyboard tattooed on her arm. Now they can communicate anywhere they go.Plus, meet the Plurabelle Paddlers. They are just one group of women competing in a dragon boat race where all the participants are survivors of breast cancer. Also on this podcast, would you eat a cookie which contains recycled plastic? Researchers are finding a way to make it possible. We go to the north of England, where a nursery is set inside a retirement home in the hope of bonding the two generations. In a world first, a patient has had brain surgery assisted by artificial intelligence, and meet Synergy, the mini-pig being used in a campaign to try to help the homeless in Washington DC. Our weekly collection of inspiring, uplifting and happy news from around the world.(Image: Jessica Fletcher's son, Hunter, pointing at her keyboard tattoo. Credit: Jessica Fletcher)Presenter: Holly Gibbs. Music composed by Iona Hampson

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ad-free, with an Amazon music subscription. This is the Happy Pod from the BBC World Service. I'm Holly Gibbs and in this edition. We've always had it deep on, but now with this tattoo, it almost feels magical. And it's just the most incredible feeling in the world. How one mother's tattoo has opened up a new world of communication for her son. Also on this podcast, the regatta, where all the participants are breast cancer survivors. We joke all the time that we're all in the same boat, literally.

We have differences across everything else. And then there's this one major thing. that binds us all. Plus the nursery, which operates inside a retirement home, and a world first. The AI acted as a sort of copilot or assistant adjacent to the primary screen, identifying the structures that we care most about. How AI was used to help successfully remove a tumour near the brain. A mother in Canada has come up with a unique way to communicate with her autistic child.

Jessica Fletcher has a keyboard tattoo. on her forearm, which her non-speaking son Hunter uses to talk to her. She posted it online in a video which has been viewed millions of times and has even inspired other parents to get the same design. I called up with Jessica. My son, Hunter, he's 11 years old and he was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder when he was three. At a very young age, he started communicating with a system called PECS,

And that's where he would just get pictures and bring them to me. And that turned into him using an AAC device, which is an iPad with symbols, and it, like, speaks for him. And he's just the light of my life. He is the most beautiful thing about my life. Can you describe your tattoo? Yeah. So my tattoo is just a basic keyboard layout. There's no punctuation or no numbers.

But there is a space verb. There is a yes and a no button. There's also an I love you button. and there is a happy face and a sad face. And it's on my left forearm because it's easier for him to reach and easier for me to read. It's so funny because I have to look at it closely to tell what he's reading,

but he can type on it if he's standing to my left and it's upside down to him. Where did the idea come from? Hunter loves to swim. That's his main hobby. And he has always struggled with not being able to communicate in the water because he can't take his device in the water. So I've made communication boards.

words that were waterproof. It wasn't convenient and it wasn't accessible enough. So I've always been trying to come up with a new way. One day we went to a restaurant and his device died. And I started writing the alphabet because at school, one of his teachers has an alphabet board up and I've seen him finger spell on it. Well, Hunter got mad at me, flipped the paper over and started writing the keyboard layout. That's because he's learned to type on a keyboard because he likes to Google things to show me what he wants. So that was kind of the aha moment. And I was like, okay, a keyboard, that's clearly his favorite way to communicate. And then I thought, how can I make this? So we'd never forget it at home. So it's waterproof and the battery doesn't die. And then that's

where the idea of a tattoo came. And how has it helped Hunter? It's helped tremendously. A lot of kids with autism struggle with physical touch. And this has kind of taught Hunter what safe touch means. So now I'm getting a lot more affection, a lot more hugs. He says, I love you a lot more often. It's also given him the ability to speak to me privately because when he uses the device, the whole room hears what he's saying. Do you have a favorite memory of him using it? Definitely the first day I got it.

He grabbed my arm and he made such direct eye contact, which he does when he sees something that's visually stimulating to him. And he wrote Mama on my arm. Later that night, a couple hours later, I think he really had time to process and he realized that it was permanent and it was all for him. And he said, I love you, Mama, on it. How do you feel when he uses it? That must be a really special feeling. It's just we've always had it deep on, but now with this tattoo, it almost feels magical. And it's just the most incredible feeling in the world.

It's crazy that something as, I mean, it's not simple, but it is. It's crazy something just a tattoo has opened up this world of communication. for you both? Yeah, it is. And a lot of parents have reached out. I have photos of at least a dozen parents that have gone and gotten the same tattoo. There's tattoo artists all over the world that are offering to do it for free for parents in need. I've heard from artists in the United States and the United Kingdom in Ireland and Australia. And it's just crazy how global it's gotten. And so we created shirts with it on the sleeve for people that don't want to tattoo. And it's not just the autism community that's interested. I've had nurses that work with patients that have lost their ability

to speak, reach out about it. First responders are reaching out about it. It's really opening a lot of doors and opening a lot of conversations about communication barriers. I guess there's a message here, isn't there, about, you know, going out of your way to help people who can't communicate through words. Why is it important that we do find ways to communicate with everybody? Historically, we've kind of brushed off non-speakers. There's been this long-time assumption that non-speaking means non-thinking, and that's not true. Just because they can't speak, they have a whole world of thoughts and feelings and complex ideas inside of them. You spoke a minute ago just about the reaction that you've had when you posted this tattoo online. How does it feel to know that you're inspiring that change for

other families? It feels really incredible. I didn't expect it to go this viral. Like, this see that it has over 115 million views as wild. I knew in this life that my purpose was hunter, but I've always wanted to make an impact in the world and make a difference for other families. The main message I like to tell people is to always presume competence. Don't talk about them, talk to them. Don't assume that they aren't as intelligent as you are because 99% of the time they are. That was Jessica Fletcher. To the French, Elps next, where a regatta is taking place in Ex-Libah. This, however, is a festival with a difference. All the participants in the Dragon Boat race are survivors of breast cancer. The event is

run by the International Breast Cancer Paddlers Commission and one of the women taking part is Maria Fleming. She belongs to the Irish group, the Pluribel Paddlers. She spoke to me from the event. I was diagnosed in 2019 and I was 49 at the time and I remember my oncologist saying to me as he broke the news. So you're probably looking at a year and a half of treatment. And in my head I was saying, who's got a year and a half to give to cancer? I'll give it six months. But after that, I really need to be cracking on with things as if I had some control over it. I went through treatment and I had seen people out racing and drag it both.

on this piece of water in Dublin that I passed sporadically and thinking, that looks fantastic. And I remember noticing that it was all women in the boat that I saw. And I was going to wonder what that club is. And then during my cancer treatment, somebody mentioned to me the pluribel paddlers who were a breast cancer dragon boat team. So when I got towards the end of my treatment, I looked it up on the website and signed up for a trial. and it was absolutely the best thing that I ever did.

And the best thing to come out of the cancer diagnosis and treatment, where breast cancer dragon boat came from, dragon boating itself is over 2,000 years old, and it originated in China. And it's a really growing sport. But a fabulous man in Canada, Dr. Don McKenzie, who was a sports medicine specialist, wanted to try out if dragon boating and repetitive upper body

and arm exercises would help women in recovery from breast cancer to regrow their upper body strength after treatment. And he started off on a pilot with 25 women in Canada. And of course, he discovered what not only was it fantastic for rebuilding their upper body strength, but emotionally, physically, socially, it was just fantastic for the women in every way. And then the first world competition for or breast cancer teams happened in Canada then through the growing sport. And now it's gone all over the world. How does it feel to be paddling alongside women that have had a very similar journey to you? Do you know what? We joke all the time that we're all in the same boat, literally.

There are women of every shape and size and age and colour and creed. You know, we have differences across everything else. and then there's this one major thing that binds us all. And I'm not going to lie, yesterday I got a bit emotional, like looking around the lake and looking around the site and going, every one of us, every single one of us has gone through this journey. There is a shorthand that we have with each other because we understand what people have been through the journey they've gone on.

And there's something that we share and that we can know about each other that others with the best will in the world can't understand. what it might be to get a cancer diagnosis, to have to go through treatment. And I really see it that we all took those lemons and we made lemonade. What message do you hope people take away when they see you paddling? There is no family anywhere in the world now, really, that hasn't been impacted by cancer. And what I'd love for them to take from seeing 4,500 women on a lake in France paddling and living their best lives is that there is positive stories. Of course there is loss, but there is life. And there is a way

to get back your strength, your health, your happiness. And, you know, we're looking for support. We're not looking for pity. We're looking for support for us to live our best lives. And I have to say that phrase has been used so many times by members of the club as we wander around France here in between trainings, you know, stopping and having an ice cream. We just really appreciate that we're living our best lives and that we've been supported to make the best of our lives, however long that may be and it will be different for everybody. That was Maria Fleming. Now, plastic probably isn't the first ingredient you think of when you're making some cookies.

In fact, plastic probably is not in your recipe at all. However, researchers in the United States are working on a restaurant. recipe for cookies made from recycled plastic bottles. Mary Rowelofs from Forbes magazine spoke to my colleague Regina Vardianathan. It's important to note that humans aren't eating raw plastic, even in these cookies. Microbes, you know, like bacterias and algies, are eating the plastic and then breaking it down into the nutritional molecules that we think about, like proteins and fats and vitamins. And then more yeast are reassembling those things back into a food product and then a 3D printer is actually turning the final mixture into a little cookie that's reportedly quite nutrient dense.

Have you tried one? I have not. They are not doing full-scale taste testing yet. They're still waiting for sign-off. But they have done some smell tests. And apparently most participants said that they would eat the cookies in a resource limited settings. These are supposed to be quite good for you, aren't they? Which to most people might sound counterintuitive, certainly to me. I think there's protein and vitamins and fats. And in the future, they said they're hoping that they'll be able to make the starch and the fiber and the sweetener and everything really using this microbe process that they've come up with. And what's the reasoning behind this? It was conducted as part of a NASA-led project aimed at creating foods for deep space exploration. Astronauts could be among the earliest

adopters, but they could also be used in disaster zones, on submarines, or other places where fresh foods are harder to get. And this isn't the first time that plastic's been used for food in this way, is it? I think sciences have achieved this before, but on a bit of a smaller scale. So in Edinburgh study a few years ago was able to convert plastic water bottles into vanilla flavoring. But researchers in the U.S. have also been able to engineer a fungus that's capable of eating things like styrofoam and foam cups and packaging to kind of help with breaking down those materials. And why would you do this in the first place? I think that being able to do this might go a long way in helping to bolster the global food supply as demand continues to surge.

Mary Rowaloffs. Coming up on the happy pod. Those small victories of introducing synergy to someone and they previously were unwilling to work with us to get their documents, but because of her being there, they're willing. The mini pig, helping to combat homelessness in Washington, D.C. Growing businesses deal with the same problem,

too many tools, too much back and forth, and not enough time. Odu helps bring it all together. It's an all-in-one business management platform, fully integrated from sales and accounting to inventory and marketing, so your team can spend less time chasing information and focus on growth. Whether you're in retail, manufacturing or service, Odu gives you one place to manage your business.

Visit Odu.com to book a demo. It's ODbO.com. Get more with BBC podcasts, wherever you listen. Be the first to listen to your favorite shows, like evil genius, good bad billionaire and you're dead to me, with a subscription to BBC Podcasts Premium on Apple Podcasts. You can also enjoy a range of our podcasts ad-free with an Amazon music subscription. You're listening to The Happy Pod.

A community in the north of England is on a mission to bring together multiple generations. So they've built a nursery inside a retirement living facility. The owners say everyone has something to offer, no matter. matter their age. The BBC's Myra Anubi has been along to find out more. I've just stepped into a bright, open area that has both a reception and cafe. This place is called Belong. It's a retirement village, basically a building with apartments and rooms for older people who are either living independently or need more care and support. There also happens to be a nursery here. I've been invited to a room where there are about 20 people,

So the older folks, support workers, children, and they're all sat on chairs in a big circle for one of their shared activities. So right now they're having a session where one man has brought in different reptiles and everyone is having a go, touching them, and it's fascinating. Nice to meet you. What's your name?

Frieda. How did you find today's session with a reptile? Very interesting. And how do you find it interacting with the kids? I do enjoy being with it. the children. They're so enthusiastic about things, aren't they? And you just get drawn in and sort of enjoy being with them really, yes. Could you tell me your name? And if you would, I know you look really young, but how old you are? I'm 69. My name is Anne. I think it's wonderful with children

that they have opportunity to chat to the older people. I like to come and see what the children are doing. They ask some fascinating questions. They're finding out and you're finding out. It's lovely. Anne, are you going to come clean now? Oh, my gosh. You told everybody you were 69 and how old are you really?

85. And the person who knows their real ages? Well, that's Sue Eggersdorf, the co-founder of the charity that runs this nursery. Now, Sue saw a big need for a space that would let people mingle outside their own age group. What we see is, you know, a society which is becoming fragmented and people are becoming socially isolated. How can we connect some of these things that have traditionally been quite separate and diverse? It all started when Sue noticed that residents at her own mother's care home seemed secluded from the wider community,

even though they still had a lot more to give. It just felt like within the care settings, there was such diversity of knowledge and wisdom that could be used to really help young children progress and see how they fitted into the world. Back in 2019, Sue and her co-founder, Liz Ludden, founded the charity Ready Generations to create a centre that would bring elderly people and young children together. So they approached Belong Villages, an organisation that runs retirement homes, with the idea of putting a nursery in one of them. The nursery in Belong opened in 2022. It started off with just two children, but word of this unusual place spread,

and it's now full with 25 children. Alison is visiting her mother, Dorothy, who lives at this retirement village, and they both say they've seen a positive impact on both the kids and the older people. It's all the people's kneeling down on the floor. Yeah. That is sensational.

The kids make you forget the aches and... Oh, they do? Yes, yes, yes. The nursery has brought a lot of pleasure and interest. They learn to care and share, which I think is very important. That report was from Myra Anubi. For more on this story, just search for people fixing the world, wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

A man here in London has become the first person in the world to undergo live AI-assisted brain surgery. Rees Hibbert could have lost his sight, had a tumour not been removed, from his pituitary gland that contains vital hormones. My colleague Sarah Montague spoke to Professor Hanny Marcus, who performed the operation. The gland sits more or less in the centre of the brain.

And although it's not cancer, these tumours grow and grow and grow and eventually put pressure on the sort of associated structures, including those that supply his vision. And in his particular case, he was losing his eyesight. Yes, yes. Tell us how this AI tool helped when you were removing the tumour. Well, the way we do this operation is using a tiny camera placed through the nose and then looking at a screen and trying to recognize the structures at the base of the brain.

And sometimes it's obvious, but sometimes it can be very challenging, partly because these structures are covered by bone, but also because the tumour itself can deform these structures. And so the AI acted as a sort of copilot or assistant adjacent to the primary screen identifying the structures that we care most about, the blood vessels and the tumour itself. So what it has effectively knowledge of a model of a brain or of your patient's brain, and it is what while you're operating guiding you? Exactly. It's been trained on many, many operations in the past, hundreds of operations. And so it knows very well what an operation should look like. And having had that training, when it's looking at the operation in real time,

it can identify a structure and say, I think this is that. And it's just an assistant. and often it just confirms what you think, but it's an additional safety measure and we think can help patients have a more safe operation. Okay, so what, as you are there with your scalpel, a voice is saying from the AI tool, oops, don't do that.

It's on the screen rather than a voice, but yes, exactly that. It annotates the live video feed and we'll draw around the structures as it recognises them when you ask it. Okay, so you're using the screen as a guide whether to move left or to move right. Yes, well, we do the operation as you,

usual, and then at key points, the most important parts of the operation, we would usually stop and reassess to make sure that we understand where everything is and don't make a mistake. And at those points, that's when the AI is most helpful, because it provides an additional check to make sure the surgeon's got everything right. It's rather like, at the moment, most people will use GPS when they drive, but having the AI co-pilot is having someone next to you looking through the windscreen and telling you if you think you're about to miss a turn. Okay, now given this extra expertise, was it the most successful, the best operation you've ever done? Yes, it went really well, I'm very happy to say, and I'm most pleased that he's been such a good recovery.

Okay, so we should say for him, he was losing his sight now? Yes, it's back to normal, and he's fully fully back to normal too. So the point of the AI is that it allows you to remove more of the tumour and do less damage? Yes, I think it's most important for safety reasons. So the structures here are so delicate that if you make an error, even perhaps by a few millimeters, you can cause great injury to a patient. And we're very careful as surgeons, both to have looked at a patient's scan and be very cautious during the operation itself.

But it's any tool that can help you be even more safe to make sure these structures are protected is greatly appreciated. So do you think this is now the way forward for most surgeries? I think it's the very first step, but I'm bullish that in the next five or ten years, this will make as much impact in surgery as it's made outside of surgery. I'm confident having used it that a surgeon using this sort of AI will do better, make better decisions and have a better operation than surgeons not using AI. Professor Hanny Marcus speaking to Sarah Montague. We end in Washington, D.C., where a small pig is being.

being used as part of a campaign to help people experiencing homelessness. The Happy Pod's Riley Farrell has been to meet her. I'm in Washington, D.C.'s Union Station, a historic travel hub, just a jot from the U.S. Capitol. Under vaulted ceilings decorated with gold leaf, travelers bustle towards trains and buses. Locals and out-of-towners shuffle across the white granite floor. It's business as usual. Meet Synergy. Meet Synergy. A two-kilogram pig. Her toenails are painted red, and she's turning heads. But she offers more than entertainment. Synergy is training to become a therapy animal. She also works as a wellness ambassador for people experiencing homelessness. She's part of a crisis intervention nonprofit called the H3 Project. That's a synergy.

She works with the unhoused. Train stations like Union Station often attract people who are experiencing homelessness. They are public places that offer shelter from extreme weather and access to restrooms. It's also where Dr. Amy Angel spends most of her time. She works with the unhoused here at Union Station. We'll be walking along and like two people, you know, like a thug type. Well, suddenly just like they would never stop a talk. We'll suddenly, oh my gosh, that's that big next to like two people who don't speak English.

next to the homeless. Like a group that would never otherwise, like, entertain together, have a conversation, all the same thing. And that's what's amazing. She just breaks down those barriers. She founded the H3 project. The name stands for home, health, and happiness. And as we make our way through the station, Synergy is about to make a new friend. Have you seen her yet?

You've never seen. How are you? I mean, this is something. For Amy, moments like that are exactly. exactly why Synergy is here. Synergy was first just a concept because I had heard how smart pigs are. So I was just looking for an idea that would help to have a different approach, to have something to open up that conversation, someone maybe that's resistant to case management, have that outside of the box type of thing that might engage them with us.

Amy founded H3 in January 2020. First four months of COVID, I worked every single day right behind a union station. There were 67 tenths. There were 78 individuals, knew all of them, knew their stories, because frankly, there was nobody out there. Folks that were living out there, they felt forgotten about, they felt abandoned. In the past year, H3 says it has provided 93 housing matches and 217 NARcan administrations for overdose reversal. A child doesn't grow up and say, you know what, I think I want to experience a homelessness or I want to have a mental instability. Or you know what, I want to have a substance challenge. Life happens, trauma happens. There is a reason every single person is out here. And we can't understand that reason unless we're willing to really dive into someone's story

and see them as an individual, not just a number and not just statistic. Because they deserve that. What motivates me is those small things, those small wins. I mean, obviously, I want the big wins. I want the person getting employed. I want the person who finally was able to get his high school diploma at age 34. I want everyone in housing. I want those big wins. But I also have to take time, appreciate, and really celebrate those small wins, those small victories. And that's what really even synergy brings in because those small victories of introducing synergy to someone. And they previously were unwilling to work with us to get their documents. But because of her being there, they're willing.

And that's a win to me. Just know the most important thing to do when you see someone experiencing homelessness. is to acknowledge them. smiles go a long way and looking at someone's like, how are you doing today or good morning? Little things like that can literally make or break someone's day, especially when they're on the street. That was Riley Farrell reporting. 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. The editor of this edition is Karen Martin. I'm Holly. Gibbs. Until next time, goodbye.

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