Outloo‪k‬ BBC

From the time he started playing rugby at the age of four, Alix Popham and everyone around him knew he was destined for big things. He didn't disappoint, representing his country, Wales, more than thirty times during a long and successful career at the top of the game. When injury forced him into retirement in 2011, he became an entrepreneur and fell in love with an old schoolfriend, Mel, with whom he had a baby girl. But their bright future dimmed when Alix found out last year - at the age of 40 - that he has early-onset dementia, a condition his doctors blame on brain trauma suffered throughout his career. He now struggles to remember many of his finest moments on the pitch. The devastating diagnosis has rocked his family - and the sport they love. Alix and Mel spoke to Jo Fidgen.

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Picture: Alix Popham and Mel Bramwell-Popham
Credit: Alix Popham

In 1990, Manuel Barriuso was a professor of Russian literature in Havana when one morning he was ordered to the city's paediatric hospital. Unknown to him, a plane-load of seriously ill children – all victims of the devastating Chernobyl nuclear disaster – had arrived in Cuba for free treatment in a historic humanitarian program. And Manuel – who had no medical background – would be one of their translators. He had to abandon Tolstoy and Chekov and learn about oncology to translate life and death conversations between medics, sick children and their distressed parents. Manuel's sons Sebastián and Rodrigo have turned their father's story into the award-winning feature film, Un Traductor.

Presenter: Emily Webb
Producer: Maryam Maruf

Translations by Jose Lopez and Melissa Riggall, and voiceover by Martin Esposito.

Picture: Manuel Barriuso with his sons Sebastián and Rodrigo Barriuso, 1992.
Credit: Courtesy of Rodrigo & Sebastián Barriuso

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Nissim Black grew up in the American city of Seattle, where he made his name rapping about drug dealing and drive-by shootings. These were all subjects that were familiar to him, and his music was doing well, but nevertheless Nissim became increasingly unhappy with the gangster image he portrayed. He started as a Christian looking for answers in the Bible, but a growing interest in the Old Testament led on to a conversion to Orthodox Judaism, and ultimately a move to Jerusalem. Nissim still raps, but now he does it in a Shtreimel hat.

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Presenter Emily Webb
Producer: Harry Graham

Picture: Nissim Black
Credit: Tziporah Litman

Sue Brierley adopted her son, Saroo, after he had been found wandering the streets of Kolkata as a five year old. He had got on a train that took him across India and away from his birth family, and couldn’t find his way back. Sue always believed that Saroo’s birth mother was alive, and would send comforting thoughts to her every night, sharing the boy's progress as he grew up in Tasmania. 25 years later Saroo used satellite maps online to retrace his steps to his first family’s home in India, and Sue finally met the birth mother she had thought about for so long. Saroo’s story was made into the Oscar-nominated film Lion, in which Sue’s character is played by Nicole Kidman.

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Presenter: Emily Webb
Producer: Rebecca Vincent

Picture: Sue Brierley with Saroo, shortly after his adoption
Credit: Photo courtesy of Sue Brierley

In 1961, American couple Allan and Sandra Jaffe were on their honeymoon when they stumbled upon some of their favourite jazz musicians playing at a small art gallery in New Orleans. Within days the young couple had been offered the chance to run the place. Over the next 30 years they helped turn it into one of the city’s jazz institutions, Preservation Hall. Their son Ben Jaffe tells Outlook’s Emily Webb about following in the footsteps of his tuba-playing father - both in running the venue and as bandleader of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.

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Presenter: Emily Webb
Producer: Andrea Rangecroft

Picture: Ben Jaffe, Creative Director of Preservation Hall
Credit: Josh Goleman

A crazy idea thrown around a neighbourhood pub soon became the adventure of a lifetime. In 1967 New-York-City-native Chickie Donahue crossed oceans and hitched rides across a warzone to hand-deliver beers to his friends fighting in Vietnam. Not a soldier, Chickie relied on his charm and wit to get him to where he needed to go. But what began as a short morale-boosting mission soon became much more trecherous as Chickie found himself caught up in the deadly Lunar New Year attacks on what was then Saigon.


Presenter and producer: Mariana Des Forges

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Picture: Chickie Donahue in Vietnam
Credit: Courtesy of Chickie Donahue