Global News Podcast - The Happy Pod: The injection that saved my sight

Episode Date: January 17, 2026

We hear from a woman whose determination to avoid going blind has inspired her doctors to develop a new treatment for a rare eye condition. Nicki Guy says the injection of a low cost, water-based gel has been life changing and given her the chance to see her son grow up. The treatment has already helped restore the eyesight of dozens of other people with hypotony - which can cause the eye to collapse, leading to blindness.Also: the new Barbie doll that's designed to help improve understanding and acceptance of autism. A neurodiverse writer says she hopes it will help young girls understand it's not something to hide or be ashamed of. A revolutionary way of treating some cancers is being offered to people in the UK with an aggressive form of leukaemia for the first time. Research has shown genetically modifying the patient's own cells to recognise the blood cancer, can extend their lives or, in some cases, offer a cure. Plus, how one man's regular habit of having gumbo at the same restaurant twice a day may have saved his life; the 24-year-old in charge of protecting the Pacific Ocean around the remote Pitcairn island; and the amateur football team who pulled off one of the biggest upsets in English footballing history by beating a side from the Premier League.Our weekly collection of inspiring, uplifting and happy news from around the world.Presenter: Valerie Sanderson. Music composed by Iona Hampson Picture: PA

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Watch with a free trial now at Britbox.com. This is the Happy Pod from the BBC World Service. I'm Valerie Sanderson and in this edition... I was just like, I'm not giving up. I refuse to accept that this is how it's going to be. There has to be something else we can do. There's got to be another way. It's incredible.

It's life-changing. It's given me everything back. How one woman's determination led to a new treatment that's giving people their sight back. A new form of cancer therapy is extended to help people with an aggressive form of leukemia. We are able to offer them years and potentially a cure. So this is, of course, revolutionising the way we tackle this cancer.

A new doll designed to help understand and acceptance of autism. It was brilliant. It was such a proud moment and just knowing that so many other children are going to have that exact same reaction and that so many little girls are going to be able to see themselves in a doll. Also, how one man's routine

of having gumbo twice a day may have saved his life. Plus, you can be an underdog in any story, you can achieve whatever you want to achieve and things that seem completely impossible might just become a reality because that's exactly what happened on Saturday. One of the biggest upsets.

in English footballing history. We start with a life-changing new treatment that's giving people their sight back. It involves injecting a low-cost water-based gel into the eyes of patients with a rare condition called hypotony, which can cause the eyeball to collapse and lead to blindness. In a trial, seven out of eight patients responded well to the treatment, which was developed at Moorfield's Hospital here in London,

after one patient challenged the doctors who said they couldn't stop. her going blind. Nikki Guy had already had the previously standard treatment of steroids and silicon oil injections in one eye, but they don't restore much vision. Nikki told our health correspondent Sophie Hutchinson that when her other eye was affected, she was determined not to give up. I think I allowed myself to dwell maybe for half a day, a day. I was just like, no, this isn't it. Like there has to be hope. I have to move forward. I can't sit still. I mean, there's no denying, it was challenging. I couldn't see

to get around my house. I found it incredibly tough to get outside. My husband's a chef, so he's really not around very much at all. I was the primary caregiver to our child, so it's things like that. We were living by the sea. How am I going to see my child if he runs off? He was quite young at that point. So there was

so many things. Suddenly I couldn't cut a slice of cucumber or a bagel. So it was exceptionally hard. How did you cope? Determination, grit. I was just like, I'm not giving up, I refuse to accept that this is how it's going to be. So in your determination, what happened? The only reason I couldn't see was because the eye had kind of collapsed, the structure of the eye,

the vision is still behind it. And it soon got to the point where it's like, this isn't tenable. And we had to have the conversation where the doctors thought that I would need to have silicone oil put into the left eye. When it became evident, it wasn't going to fix itself. Obviously, it hasn't given me my vision back in my right eye, the silicone oil. And that's when I said no. I was like, there has to be something else we can do. There has to be something else. There's got to be another way.

And so what then happened? Well, I'm incredibly fortunate that my doctor listened to me. He really took on board what I was saying. And to his credit, he went off. He did a lot of research. He took it to the board at Moorfields and to the other doctors. And they came back and they said, because it's you and because we know that you won't let this go, we've come up with this idea and we're happy to try it on you.

So instead of filling the eye up with the silicone oil, they wanted to fill it up with a clear jelly. Therefore it meant that it would hopefully have more longevity and what the vision is looking through is a clear substance rather than oil. Did you have any hesitation? No. I think at one point my doctor called me gung-ho. I was like, let's go, let's do it now. And it was just amazing every week or every month coming back to hospital and slowly being able to read one line further down on the site chart. I'd gone from counting fingers and everything being really blurry to being able to see. It's incredible.

And I think currently, I think last time I had my eyes checked in clinic, I think I was one line below. driving standard. So, you mean, it's, other than saying it's incredible, I don't know what else I can say. I'm interested in how you feel about your doctor and what was done for you. I generally don't think I can put it into words. I think I am so incredibly fortunate that I was referred back to Moorfields from living overseas. I'm so fortunate that I happened to get his clinic. I'm so fortunate that he's listened to me every single step of the way and that he let me be stubborn and he was stubborn with me and he agreed that more had to be done and more could be done and let's fight together let's find a solution what can we do he's pushed as much as i have pushed when he

told me that other patients were receiving the same treatment that was mind-blowing at one check-up he said to me before you patients were going blind And again, you just can't fathom that. So the fact that patients have now had this treatment and have had some kind of success is absolutely wonderful. What does it mean to you now to have this vision? It's incredible. I mean, I keep saying the word incredible.

But I mean, it's life-changing. It's given me everything back. I mean, I used to take loads of photographs and be a keen photographer. I can do that again. I can see my child grow up at every birthday. I can make him a birthday cake. I can go skiing again. I mean, not without mishaps, but I can ski.

So, yeah, I mean, if my vision stays like this for the rest of my life, it would be absolutely brilliant. It would be wonderful. Nikki Guy. A few weeks ago on the Happy Pods Diabetes Special, we spoke to the woman who inspired the Barbie doll with the condition. This week, the toy maker Mattel, released another doll, Barbie with autism. Holly Gibbs has more on the story.

Look what I've got. Wow. That's the sound of five-year-old Penelope, seeing autistic Barbie for the first time. Do you want to feel them? Look, the fidget spinner moves. Wow. Tanya is her mother.

It was brilliant. It was such a proud moment and just knowing that so many other children are going to have that exact same reaction and that so many little girls are going to be able to see themselves in a doll. Did you like it, Penelope? Yes.

Yes. Did you love all the accessories? Yeah. Yeah. It's huge for children to have a Barbie that represents them. It helps with inclusion and it will help with opening conversations also between children, adults and educators to be able to use the Barbie doll as a way to explain autism to other children. I see ear defenders which helps the noise get blocked out. Some of the doll's features include loose clothing, headphones and a fidget spinner.

Autistic Barbie also has eyes that look slightly to the side to wrap. represent how some members of the autistic community might avoid eye contact. Fidget spinner. I used to have fun of something. Autism includes a wide range of conditions, which influence how people experience and interact with other people and their surroundings. According to the World Health Organization, around one in 127 people across the globe have some level of autism.

Oh, she's so nice. I feel like I'm actually going to cry. She's so nice. I spoke to the autistic and ADHD creator and author Ellie Middleton. She was diagnosed at the age of 24. As a child teenager, I had struggled a lot, but it was always kind of put down to being mental health. Although, like, I did, I really struggled socially. I really struggled with kind of getting really overwhelmed. I kind of always knew that I was different and always really struggled,

but never got that diagnosis and that understanding. Do you hope that having things like the autistic, autistic Barbie will raise awareness of autism so that people like you could have got the diagnosis a lot younger. Yeah, I think it's huge of just the fact that like Barbie is a woman. I think we've even, you know, 10 years ago when I was growing up or 20 years ago, we just didn't consider autism to be something that was present in women and girls. We kind of had the theory of autism being the extreme male brain. It was it was called at one point, even just the fact that such an iconic woman figure Barbie is autistic.

Just kind of will be such a massive education piece for people that actually, yeah, women and girls can be autistic. I think will help people maybe join the dots earlier on, which was kind of what didn't happen with me. How do you feel personally to see autism reflected in a Barbie doll? Yeah, so emotional. So emotional to see it. I think it's so nice to like see those parts of myself that, you know, maybe I, I'm still

learning to be proud of. It can be a bit of a learning process to be like okay with, you know, wearing the ear defenders when I need the air defenders using a fidget toy when I need a fidget toy. So seeing those in Barbie, I think, is a reminder of like, actually they're not something that I need to be embarrassed of. There's something that I can wear with pride. There's something that are okay to show publicly. How does it feel knowing that young autistic girls will grow up with a Barbie doll that represents them. I think knowing that they won't hopefully have to go through all of those why, why, why, why, why questions, because they'll just have the context of, oh, that's why I work a little bit differently because I'm autistic. And then kind of the extra layer added on of knowing that

autism is a neutral thing. It's not something to be ashamed of. It's not a bad thing. It's not something to hide away from because they can see that represented in Barbie. I think, you know, it just takes away all of that self-blame, I think, for things going wrong or that shame for the way that you are. And we'll hopefully let these girls, you know, accept themselves as they are and love themselves as they are and forgive themselves for the things that they find slightly more difficult or need a bit more support with. Ellie Middleton, ending that report by Holly Gibbs. Now to a remarkable story of how one man's frequent visits to a local restaurant may well have saved his life. Staff was so used to seeing their most regular customer

though when he stopped coming in, they knew something must be wrong. Riley Farrell has the story. For the last decade, 78-year-old Charlie Hicks has visited the shrimp basket in Pensacola twice a day. He always sat in the same sea and his order never changed. Gumbo, light rice, hold the cracker. That constant presence is why Charlie's sudden absence in September was so jarring. Mr. Hicks don't miss no day.

then something was wrong. Dinell Stalworth was so worried he left in the middle of his shift, drove straight to Charlie's apartment and knocked on the door. There was no answer, but he kept knocking until... I heard a voice just like, help! And then I opened the door up. He was laying on the ground, and I didn't know what his conditions was. That was the scariest part right though.

It's thought Charlie Hicks had been there for days. He was dehydrated and had two broken ribs. The restaurant employees brought his gumbo to the hospital. Then they even found him a new apartment right next to the shrimp basket, so that they could keep an eye on their favorite customer. Three months after the accident, Charlie was back at the restaurant, picking up his routine right where he'd left off. I'm glad to have you back though, buddy.

He's that uncle, he's that grandfather, he's that best friend, he all in one. We made a connection. We made a connection. The life-saving power of gumbo And looking out for one another. Riley Farrell reporting. Coming up in this podcast, the 24-year-old responsible for protecting part of the Pacific Ocean.

I would say the oceans around our islands are very pristine and full of life. It just makes you want to get in it and then never come out. Shopping for a car should be exciting, not exhausting. but sometimes it can feel like a maze. That's where Car Gurus comes in. They have advanced search tools, unbiased deal ratings, and price history, so you know a great deal when you see one. It's no wonder Car Gurus is the number one rated car shopping app in Canada

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The truth is, AI agents need you. Sure, they'll process, predict, even get work done autonomously. But they don't dream, read a room, rally a team, and they certainly don't have shower thoughts, pivotal hallway chats, or big ideas. People do.

And people, when given the best AI platform, they're freed up to do the fulfilling work they want to do. To see how Service Now puts AI to work For people, visit servicenow.com. If journalism is the first draft of history, what happens if that draft is flawed? In 1999, four Russian apartment buildings were bombed, hundreds killed. But even now, we still don't know for sure who did it.

It's a mystery that sparked chilling theories. I'm Helena Merriman, and in a new BBC series, I'm talking to the reporters who first covered this story. What did they miss the first time? The History Bureau, Putin and the apartment bombs. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back to another medical advance now, and for the first time, a revolutionary way of treating some cancers is being offered to people in the UK with an aggressive form of leukemia.

It's one of a growing number of personalized treatments which work by genetically modifying the patient's own cells so that they can recognise and target the cancer. Doctors say it can extend people's lives or in some cases cure them completely. Here's the BBC's medical editor, Fergus Walsh. You've done some obsies, he's ready to go. Yes. He's had any pre-meds? Yes.

This is a huge day for 28-year-old Oscar Murphy and the medical team at Manchester Royal Infirmary. His aggressive blood cancer, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, has come back, Despite extensive treatment, Oscar says it's time for something new. The leukemia that I've got is so fast-active. It needs an even quicker response to stop it. And we've now got an answer for that. A few weeks ago, some of Oscar's T cells, a key part of his immune system, were sent to a lab in Stevenage.

there scientists genetically modified the cells so that they'll recognise and lock on to Oscar's cancer. The cells have been reprogrammed to form a treatment known as CAR-T therapy. In a clinical trial, 77% of patients went into remission after treatment, with half of those showing no signs of cancer after three and a half years. Oscar's haematologist Dr Eleni Thaluli said the case, CARTI therapy was safer than existing treatments and was much more effective. Usually this type of leukemia, patients don't live beyond six to eight months. With this therapy, we are able to offer them years and potentially a cure.

So this is, of course, revolutionising the way we tackle this cancer. So when the infusion's finished, I'll just be doing your ups. One of the nurses hooks the treatment bag onto a stand. There are only three teaspoons of liquid inside, yet it contains 100 million carty cells. It's very sci-fi, but it means that it gets rid of it permanently, and my own cells can do it. It's just fantastic. Oscar got married last month in hospital.

There's a lovely video of his wife, Lauren, wheeling him past all the staff on the ward. Chris Williams, who's 29 and from Belfast, had the same aggressive form of leukemia as Oscar. He received the CARTE therapy when it was still an experimental treatment and has been cancer-free for nearly three years. I feel very grateful because a few years ago

I was very, very unwell. And now, a couple of years later, I'm able to live a full life. I was able to go back to work. I met Chloe and now were engaged. I have fantastic support for my family and they're over the moon as well. It's a big day, isn't it?

Yeah, and it's been a tough road, hasn't it? To say the least. The success of Chris's treatment is precisely what Oscar is hoping for. He's just had a second and final infusion of carty cells and should be discharged from hospital in a couple of weeks, hopefully putting his cancer treatment behind him. I want children.

I want the white picket fence with my amazing wife. And I just want that normality. I want to go back to my job that I love and just be back normal. This is my gateway to doing it. I can't wait to be quite honest with you. Oscar Murphy ending that report by Fergus Walsh. For many of us, our early 20s are spent deciding what we want to do or taking on fairly junior jobs.

But Tarika Christian, whose 24, is already in charge of protecting nearly a million square kilometres of the Pacific Ocean. She's one of fewer than 50 people living on the tiny island of Pitcairn and a direct descendant of Fletcher Christian, who led the British sailors who settled on the previously uninhabited island after the mutiny on the bounty way back in 1789. Terica spoke to our reporter Jacob Evans about living and working in one. one of the most remote inhabited places on earth. So I oversee the tourism department,

natural resources department and our borders department. Three people in the department can't speak for all on the islands. So we make sure we involve our community very heavily in decision-making. What makes Pitcairn so important? What's so good about the oceans around Pitcairn? I would say the oceans around our islands are very pristine. and full of life. It just makes you want to get in it

and then never come out. And I was wondering if I could ask you about being a picketner. What's it like to go up on one of the most remote places on Earth, really? It's a different lifestyle growing up here. It's one that's free. There's not very many places

where you have your grandparents, your great grandparents, your aunties, your great aunties and all of that living in such a close area if that makes sense. But also, like, you grow up in nature so you automatically learn to love it. And when was the first time you left, Ben?

So I was 12 when I left. So I thought there was something wrong with New Zealand's water. You even just notice a difference in like the air. It's something you get used to over time, the more time you spend overseas. But there's definitely a difference in the noise pollution, light pollution, the water. I don't know how people can drink water from a tap.

In the outside world, like, the taste of, like, chlorine and fluoride is just disgusting. Is there anything you miss about New Zealand or anywhere else in the world? Oh, yeah, fast food, definitely. It took us a little while to get used to it, though. You noticed that, like, the lettuce wasn't fresh. But then it's, like, so easy to just go out and get a burger. Whereas here, you kind of have to, like, make your patties, go get your lettuce from the garden, go get your tomatoes.

Like, it's great having to be. things that are like fresh and delicious and everything but along with it comes work and everything like that too so it's not something that like i miss terribly but it's something that every now and then you're like man i wish i could just go down the shop and get Chinese for dinner or something like that yeah i see you're quite big on social media as well talk to me about that yeah i've got a tic-tok and youtube facebook things like that i suppose growing up as a young person And I've had the opportunity to experience Pickern in its natural environment with such blue waters and green trees. And also had the opportunity to experience New Zealand and how networking and social media and all of that works there.

And so I realized what a gem Pickern was to actually share with the world. And not very many people actually know Pickering for what it actually is, just what they really. on the net and everything like that. But nobody's actually really heard of life on picture and from an islander and actually seen it and experienced it through the eyes and lifestyle of an islander. That's one of the things that I was really into for doing that. And so are you going to stay on pick, Ken,

do you reckon your whole life? What's your goals for the future? What my goal is before thinking about anything else is that there's actually a pickering to come back to. if I ever did decide to go off island. What I would want to make sure is that there's a pick-round to come back to. Tariq Christian. They say everyone loves an underdog,

and this is a story that sporting dreams are made of. A team of amateurs from a small town taking on highly paid professionals from a huge club and winning. The match was in the third round of English football's main knockout tournament, the FA Cup, and non-league Macclesfield beat the current title holders Crystal Palace in a remarkable two-on win. Celebrations erupted in the small town in northwest England,

but some of the players had to get back to their day jobs, as Frankie McCamley reports. In a century and a half of FA Cup history, there has never been a result like this one. McElcalfield Football Club are in the sixth tier of English football and sit 117 league places below Crystal Palace, who are the current title holders. But last weekend, Macclesville,

Field beat Crystal Palace to one knocking them out of the competition. Their coach, John Rooney, says he never dreamed of a result like this. It was near rack and especially when he scored later on. I was thinking, oh, please, not now. But the lads defended incredibly them last couple of minutes and got us through to that neck round. You need to enjoy them moments because they don't come round really often and thought they needed to enjoy that night. And I'm sure they did.

But the fans, as the shock sank in, celebrations went well into the night. All we said was if we score first, this could be the dream, couldn't it? And we've actually done it. Just the proudest moment of being a Mac FC fan. It's ridiculous. Like where we are going to be in a few weeks' time. In the fourth round of the FA Cup, it's brilliant. Can't believe.

Heart rate still just calming down in the moment. Absolutely fabulous second out performance. Yeah, absolutely little bit every single second of it. Even the mayor of Macclesfield, Emma Gilman, joined in. It means people coming to our town, visiting our town, spending money in our town. All of those things are fantastic. But for some of the players, there wasn't much time to celebrate. McElwfield defender Sam Heathcote had to head home and get back to teaching young children's sports, his day job.

Straight back to it this morning, back down to reality. But now I'm looking forward to see all the kids. A few of them might have watched it. And with this reception, they clearly did. Including the head teacher who admittedly didn't know. much about the game. It was a Premier League team, is that right? It was.

So that is... That is a team that plays in the Premier League every single week. And I believe at one point, when I was watching the game, they said there were 10 international players on their team, is that right? So 10 people who played for their country, for the best in their country, but they couldn't beat Mr. Eaco's team.

She would give them a huge... and even louder round of applause. I never thought I'd be in this position to come back in on a Monday, having won that game. so I still can't get over it now, to be honest. It's amazing. I'm so happy for everyone and everyone involved with that football club.

He hopes his success will inspire some of his students. You can be an underdog in any story. You can achieve whatever you want to achieve, and things that seem completely impossible might just become a reality because that's exactly what happened on Saturday. The club now hope to build on their incredible win, but whatever happens next, this FA Cup shock will be going down in the history.

books. Frankie McCamley. And that's the final whistle from the Happy Pod for now. We'd love to hear from you if you have a story you think we should cover. As ever, the address is Global Podcast at BBC.0.0.U.K. And you can watch some of our interviews on YouTube. Just search for The Happy Pod. This edition was mixed by Craig Kingham.

The producers were Holly Gibbs and Rachel Bulkeley. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Valerie Sanderson. Until next time, bye-bye.