:00:12. > :00:16.Welcome to the programme. Over the next half-hour, we will bring you
:00:17. > :00:19.some of our original stories and exclusive interviews from our
:00:20. > :00:21.programme since we launched in April. We start with the
:00:22. > :00:27.extraordinary story of who were separated birth at the end
:00:28. > :00:34.of World War II, and who were reunited earlier this year after
:00:35. > :00:39.nearly 70 years. They were born in Germany in 1946 after their Polish
:00:40. > :00:44.mother was sent to a forced labour camp. When she became ill and
:00:45. > :00:48.couldn't look after them, George and Lucien were taken to Poland, where
:00:49. > :00:55.they were adopted separately. George now lives in the sand chillis and
:00:56. > :01:01.they didn't even know each other existed. After is accessible search
:01:02. > :01:07.by the Red Cross programme, the twins finally met in Poland earlier
:01:08. > :01:11.this year, and we were there. Over 11 million of you have watched this
:01:12. > :01:15.film online, so if you can, stop whatever you are doing and take a
:01:16. > :01:29.few minutes to watch their story. When I found out about Lucien, I was
:01:30. > :01:37.very emotional. I just... For a while, I just couldn't stop crying.
:01:38. > :01:41.TRANSLATION: I don't know how to say thank you. I am so grateful to the
:01:42. > :01:52.Red Cross, who helped me so much. I am so very grateful.
:01:53. > :02:02.I am so excited to see him, and hope from now on, we will be very close
:02:03. > :02:08.together. TRANSLATION: It's going to be a great pleasure. It's the first
:02:09. > :02:17.happiness in my life. I feel very happy. I cannot wait to hug him. And
:02:18. > :02:18.give him a big kiss. TRANSLATION: There he is, my little brother
:02:19. > :03:11.George. Welcome, welcome. TRANSLATION: It will come back
:03:12. > :03:17.quickly enough, don't worry. My heart is overflowing with joy to
:03:18. > :03:22.welcome you on Polish soil. We are looking to the future. What has
:03:23. > :03:29.happened in the past, you cannot change it. Wars are terrible things.
:03:30. > :03:34.And we have wars right now going on around the world, and people dying,
:03:35. > :03:43.people get misplaced. It is really very sad. That is why I am saying we
:03:44. > :03:51.have a time to celebrate now, and look to the future. And, I would
:03:52. > :04:57.like to say, for ever. TRANSLATION: I was surprised,
:04:58. > :05:03.because I had heard different stories. That he was a German, that
:05:04. > :05:15.he was a Pole. George didn't either. We finally learned that he
:05:16. > :05:35.was an American soldier. Like I said before, I always had the feeling.
:05:36. > :05:43.I came to America, and now I have found out why. And this was the
:05:44. > :05:53.response your mother got when she was try to find you. Yes. So she was
:05:54. > :05:55.looking for you. She was looking for me, and she really wanted to return
:05:56. > :06:22.to Germany. TRANSLATION: When I look at her now,
:06:23. > :06:36.I see myself in her. I wish, when I was young, she was with me. But I
:06:37. > :06:40.know it didn't happen this way. It says here that by error, the
:06:41. > :06:50.children were repatriated to Poland without the mother being notified.
:06:51. > :06:56.TRANSLATION: It was a great shock to me. I was deeply shaken. I just
:06:57. > :07:01.couldn't believe that things turned out so well in the end.
:07:02. > :07:08.That film has been seen over 11 million times three broadcast it in
:07:09. > :07:15.September. You can watch all of our stories on our programme page.
:07:16. > :07:18.Or the BBC News YouTube page. Every day on the programme, we ask you to
:07:19. > :07:22.come to us with stories you think we should be covering. One recurring
:07:23. > :07:26.theme is mental health. One in three of us will experience a mental
:07:27. > :07:33.health problem over a lifetime. In July, we decided to devote an entire
:07:34. > :07:38.programme to the issue. Good morning. It is Monday, 9.15.
:07:39. > :07:47.Welcome to the programme. Today, we are discussing the state of the
:07:48. > :07:50.nation's mental health. One in four of us will experience a mental
:07:51. > :07:54.health problem at some point this year. This morning, we will hear the
:07:55. > :08:00.impact it can have on you and your families. I am Jack, I am 25. I self
:08:01. > :08:06.harmed and tried to take my own life. I ended up sectioned and
:08:07. > :08:11.under the Mental Health Act. Once I came out of hospital, there was no
:08:12. > :08:17.after-care and I felt really alone. I am Kerry. I am a mum of two and my
:08:18. > :08:20.husband had clinical depression. He didn't work for two years. It was an
:08:21. > :08:25.enormous strain on my family. There needs to be more support for people
:08:26. > :08:29.with mental health illness. An exclusive survey for this programme
:08:30. > :08:33.suggests that 69% of British adults think people with mental health
:08:34. > :08:38.problems are viewed more negatively than those with physical health
:08:39. > :08:42.issues. I am Nathan. I have had depression and anxiety for the past
:08:43. > :08:46.nine years. I now make films on YouTube to highlight the stigma
:08:47. > :08:48.around mental health illnesses. Some of the stories I have heard and
:08:49. > :08:56.experienced are outrageous. I am anxiety. Education about mental
:08:57. > :09:00.health is key. People don't speak about it enough. That is exactly
:09:01. > :09:08.what we are going to do today. Thank you, Laura, Nathan, Kerry and Jack.
:09:09. > :09:12.I am Sarah, and after my second child, developed postnatal
:09:13. > :09:16.psychosis. It was horrific. I thought I was going to kill my kids
:09:17. > :09:21.at one point, because I felt like I couldn't look after them. And a fear
:09:22. > :09:28.of having taken off me as well was awful. I had no clue what was going
:09:29. > :09:37.on. Throughout my pregnancy, I was quite erratic. I had my baby and the
:09:38. > :09:39.next day, I was doing loads of stuff. I was on a high, going
:09:40. > :09:45.shopping, going out. My mum was like, you need to slow down. One
:09:46. > :09:48.day, I was just sitting there and this fear just came through me. I
:09:49. > :09:52.dropped my plate and screamed the place down and went into the
:09:53. > :09:57.bathroom and didn't come out for two hours. I didn't know what was going
:09:58. > :10:08.on. I went to the doctor, and they gave me these pills. I took them and
:10:09. > :10:11.it just made me worse. Afterwards, it just got worse and worse. I
:10:12. > :10:14.couldn't have a bath because I thought I was going to die. I
:10:15. > :10:18.couldn't go near my children because I thought I was going to kill them.
:10:19. > :10:25.I was adamant that if I did touch them, I would harm them. I started
:10:26. > :10:28.hearing voices telling me to kill myself. How far away do you think we
:10:29. > :10:34.are, Ruby Wax, between parity for mental health along with physical
:10:35. > :10:42.health? We were discussing that the law should protect you, but 56% of
:10:43. > :10:46.employers do not hire people with mental illness. So it is a
:10:47. > :10:51.conundrum. But everybody watching the show will go, that is too bad.
:10:52. > :10:59.You know how it is. They watch the news, and it could be a cartoon.
:11:00. > :11:02.They have to get it into their heads that mental illness is a physical
:11:03. > :11:05.illness. It is not like you got up in the morning and thought, should I
:11:06. > :11:12.take up golf or should I be sectioned? When I went into
:11:13. > :11:16.hospital, a doctor said that if Bill Gates spent the money he did in
:11:17. > :11:19.malaria on the brain, which gets zilch, they would maybe have had a
:11:20. > :11:25.illnesses. You can look in illnesses. You can look in
:11:26. > :11:29.anti-Alzheimer's. You don't say to somebody with Alzheimer's, come on,
:11:30. > :11:38.you remember where the key is. But mental illness is physical. She is
:11:39. > :11:43.not making it up. It is confused with fantasy, that these people just
:11:44. > :11:47.had nothing to do. When they put money into brain research and they
:11:48. > :11:51.can locate where this is, and it will take years, but then you will
:11:52. > :11:55.be able to hold up a card and say, if you discriminate against me, I
:11:56. > :12:01.will take you to town, because I have the blood test, whatever.
:12:02. > :12:08.Nothing will change and people will keep going, that is too bad, or that
:12:09. > :12:11.is good television. I suffer with bipolar disorder. I have been an
:12:12. > :12:15.electrician for the last two years on building sites and stuff, and
:12:16. > :12:22.obviously, men deal with mental health issues a lot different clay
:12:23. > :12:26.from women. Being a young man on a building site is hard.
:12:27. > :12:33.told people about it, they say things like man up. What have you
:12:34. > :12:36.said to them? Take us to the conversation on a wet November
:12:37. > :12:42.morning when you are plastering, whatever you are doing. How do you
:12:43. > :12:45.bring it up? I get anxiety on the train on the way there. Even before
:12:46. > :12:50.I have got there, I want to go home. So you get to the door and you tell
:12:51. > :12:55.people how you feel. I say, I feel a bit weird. That is all I feel I can
:12:56. > :13:01.against me. Especially with men, against me. Especially with men,
:13:02. > :13:06.they say, sort yourself out, mate. And it is like, I can't. You don't
:13:07. > :13:09.know why you are feeling it, so unless you can put something on it
:13:10. > :13:13.like with physical things, if you have broke your leg, you know you
:13:14. > :13:17.have broken your leg. But if you have something in your head, you
:13:18. > :13:21.don't know what it is. I was sitting there a minute ago and feeling like
:13:22. > :13:24.I wanted to walk out of the door. But I want to show people that you
:13:25. > :13:31.can get up and do things and help others. I suffer from an exact sea
:13:32. > :13:35.-- I suffered from anorexia for six years and spent two and half years
:13:36. > :13:39.in different patient psychiatric wards. The handover between
:13:40. > :13:43.outpatient and inpatient services was appalling. My inpatient team did
:13:44. > :13:48.not show up to my outpatient meeting. I was left long periods of
:13:49. > :13:53.relapsed over and over again. It's relapsed over and over again. It's
:13:54. > :13:58.got to the point where I was so desperate for help that I was
:13:59. > :14:03.ringing up my GP at her house, saying to her, I need help. And I
:14:04. > :14:08.rang a local hospital to say to them, I have a very low BMI and I
:14:09. > :14:11.was not sleeping. My parents were checking on me breathing. I said,
:14:12. > :14:17.can I come in and get some inpatient health? They told me to get lower in
:14:18. > :14:22.my weight. I was anorexic. It is like waving a red flag in front of a
:14:23. > :14:26.bull. They basically said, go away, don't eat any more. It was so
:14:27. > :14:29.powerful watching so many people who have never told their story before,
:14:30. > :14:33.doing so in a room full of strangers and on national television, so thank
:14:34. > :14:35.you for doing that. Another woman who told us her story for the first
:14:36. > :14:41.time, 20-year-old student Victoria. She was seriously injured
:14:42. > :14:44.in the Alton Towers roller coasters crash in June. In an exclusive
:14:45. > :14:49.interview, she told us it was a relief to finally have her leg
:14:50. > :14:52.amputated above the knee. After six rounds of surgery, to try and save
:14:53. > :14:56.it. She came to speak to us with her mother.
:14:57. > :15:03.I think through the operations and there were more than six, you were
:15:04. > :15:08.thinking, "I am, my leg, we're going to save it." The medical staff were
:15:09. > :15:12.thinking that as well, weren't they? They were amazing. They wanted to
:15:13. > :15:16.save it. They didn't want to amputate at all. They thought it
:15:17. > :15:28.would be better to save it because I've got a fracture in my fee murder
:15:29. > :15:32.intl. Femur. The question from day one was I am owe sorry, you're going
:15:33. > :15:37.you amputate or not and I couldn't you amputate or not and I couldn't
:15:38. > :15:41.make that decision. I don't think anyone really can. He said if you do
:15:42. > :15:44.amputate it will be about here and it would be a really short stump
:15:45. > :15:51.because I've got a fracture around here. That was quite bad. I didn't
:15:52. > :15:54.want to amputate. I couldn't. I couldn't say yes, but I couldn't say
:15:55. > :16:00.no. I think in the end, getting an
:16:01. > :16:06.infection kind of made that decision for you, didn't it? Yes, it did.
:16:07. > :16:10.Operation after operation, it was looking like they could save it and
:16:11. > :16:14.I would be able to walk again with it and in the beginning, before I
:16:15. > :16:18.got an infection, I was up walking with a frame, with my crutches on my
:16:19. > :16:21.own and it was starting to look really, really good and I was
:16:22. > :16:27.starting to see like a light at the end of the tunnel and then all of a
:16:28. > :16:34.sudden, I was sleeping. I slept for three days in a row and it was, I
:16:35. > :16:40.didn't feel myself. I was, I had my friends there and I just slept. I
:16:41. > :16:44.couldn't really speak to them or do anything and then obviously you
:16:45. > :16:49.realise that something wasn't right and told the surgeon and they said,
:16:50. > :16:54."If there is sign of infection, would you sign for me to amputate?"
:16:55. > :16:57.I said yes, because I couldn't do anything myself. I had gone back to
:16:58. > :17:02.having people, like I had to sit having people, like I had to sit
:17:03. > :17:05.down and someone had to hold my leg and someone else had to wheel me, it
:17:06. > :17:10.was horrible. When you woke up after the operation, when your leg had
:17:11. > :17:14.been amputated, what did you, where were your initial emotions? My mum
:17:15. > :17:22.and a nurse was there. Mum was on this side and the nurse there. I
:17:23. > :17:25.knew the nurse quite well. I was in there that long I got to know them
:17:26. > :17:31.me and they were upset and then I me and they were upset and then I
:17:32. > :17:36.got upset, I was like, "Hang on a minute. Why am I upset?" I looked
:17:37. > :17:40.down at my leg and it was a relief not to have it there because
:17:41. > :17:46.eventually I would be able to walk again with a prosthetic. So many of
:17:47. > :17:50.you got in touch after that interview to congratulate Victoria
:17:51. > :17:54.Balch on her bravery and her pragmatic approach to her recovery
:17:55. > :17:58.as you did after our interview with Martin Compton. 75% of his body was
:17:59. > :18:04.burned and three of his colleagues lost their lives when their armoured
:18:05. > :18:08.vehicle exploded after reversing over an IED, an improvised explosive
:18:09. > :18:14.device in Afghanistan. The team had been trying to escape enemy fire. He
:18:15. > :18:18.is one of the most injured soldiers to survive and had over 500
:18:19. > :18:22.operations. He joined us for his first TV interview since leaving the
:18:23. > :18:26.Army. Martin, thank you so much for coming on the programme. It is
:18:27. > :18:29.good to meet you. Thank you. good to meet you. Thank you.
:18:30. > :18:34.You're very welcome. Aged 22 you were sent to Afghanistan and in
:18:35. > :18:42.Helmand with three colleagues, in a small tank, in a small convoy, what
:18:43. > :18:46.happened? That's right. That day we were on patrol and helping the
:18:47. > :18:49.Danish out and we happened to go through a very wellage. And as we
:18:50. > :18:58.went through the village my troop was ambushed. I happened to be in
:18:59. > :19:03.the middle wagon and I reversed, we were IE development which blew the
:19:04. > :19:09.wagon up. I managed to get out and as I got out, they shot rocket
:19:10. > :19:12.grenades which blew the engine up and engulfed me in flames. I
:19:13. > :19:19.happened to be able to put myself out. And your comrades got you out,
:19:20. > :19:21.they came back and found you, didn't they? The guys in the front wagon
:19:22. > :19:25.got out and fought back through and got out and fought back through
:19:26. > :19:27.realised I was missing and realised I was missing and
:19:28. > :19:34.eventually found me and those are the guys that got me to the Chinook.
:19:35. > :19:37.How on earth were you still alive? I couldn't tell you that bit. I
:19:38. > :19:46.officially died three times on the way back to the UK. It is a long
:19:47. > :19:51.road and obviously then afterwards, I came a long road. What you
:19:52. > :19:55.remember after that effectively is emerging from a coma, many months
:19:56. > :20:01.had passed. How many months was it? That's right. I was in an actual a
:20:02. > :20:06.coma for three months and an induced a coma for three months. They hadn't
:20:07. > :20:10.brought me around with the amount of operations and the pain I had gone
:20:11. > :20:13.through, the body probably wouldn't have survived that. What kind of
:20:14. > :20:18.treatment were you receiving? Everything from skin grafts to
:20:19. > :20:25.my lower legs and the only skin that my lower legs and the only skin that
:20:26. > :20:29.I had left. When you first saw your reflection, what did you think?
:20:30. > :20:33.That was a hard time for me. I had people around me. I had family
:20:34. > :20:38.with me and obviously Michelle was with me. And it was a case of I had
:20:39. > :20:42.to get out or I had to get out of the hospital and so I had to look in
:20:43. > :20:46.the mirror, you know, it was a hard thing to do.
:20:47. > :20:52.I wasn't kind of expecting what I looked like. I felt the same inside,
:20:53. > :21:00.you know. It was hard. What did you see when you saw other people
:21:01. > :21:04.looking at your injuries? I kind of got used to it, you know. That was
:21:05. > :21:08.because looking in the mirror was because looking in the mirror
:21:09. > :21:10.the first step and then getting used the first step and then getting used
:21:11. > :21:13.to people looking at me was another step, but that was the thing that I
:21:14. > :21:19.had to get on with, you know, it was one of those things that I've got to
:21:20. > :21:26.live with and just got on with it. It was hard to start with, yeah. Do
:21:27. > :21:30.strangers, do they stare, do they talk to you? What do they say? I
:21:31. > :21:36.prefer people that ask what happened and that way I can obviously get it
:21:37. > :21:41.out and tell them what went on or things like that, but it is the guys
:21:42. > :21:47.that stare. It is hard every now and then, but again, I get used to it
:21:48. > :21:51.and it is a case of having to. Have you sought treatment for the mental
:21:52. > :21:57.I have. And the Army offer you I have. And the Army offer you
:21:58. > :22:01.everything and they have been very helpful, but for me, it is hard to
:22:02. > :22:06.talk to anyone that's not family and I find it hard to sort of talk to
:22:07. > :22:14.other people. I've just dealt with it by racing
:22:15. > :22:21.and family. So counselling and that side of things wasn't that much use
:22:22. > :22:27.to you? It was useful in the fact of sort of highlighting my issues and
:22:28. > :22:31.that's about it really. It was more the fact that I needed to, once
:22:32. > :22:35.those hoImted, I spoke to my wife about it and she helps me now.
:22:36. > :22:39.Thank you very much for coming on the programme.
:22:40. > :22:45.You can watch that interview back on our programme page.
:22:46. > :22:51.Before we go, our reporter Benjamin Zand has been meeting people who
:22:52. > :22:56.believe we can one day live forever by cre atting digital immortality.
:22:57. > :23:01.To never daoushtion not unless I To never daoushtion not unless I
:23:02. > :23:05.wanted to. Actually, I dream I could just not everything, to have super
:23:06. > :23:11.intelligence, super strength for that matter and super speed. I wish
:23:12. > :23:15.I could just be happy all the time. Eternal happiness of which sadness
:23:16. > :23:20.never comes. But then, sadly, I realise it is all impossible.
:23:21. > :23:23.But is it really? In this programme, I will be
:23:24. > :23:30.speaking to the people who think that it is possible. Not, now, of
:23:31. > :23:36.course, but in the future and a future that might not be as far away
:23:37. > :23:41.as you think. Radical change is upon us. I will be finding out what they
:23:42. > :23:45.think the future has in store for us human beings. The future that
:23:46. > :23:48.matters is the future of cognition, not really the future of the human
:23:49. > :23:50.race. In short, I will be speaking to the people who want to make us
:23:51. > :23:56.live forever. Are you the future of live forever. Are you the future of
:23:57. > :23:59.the human race? Yes, I am the one and only future of the human race.
:24:00. > :24:10.That was a brilliant answer. You are very confident!
:24:11. > :24:16.To the majority of us, life is hard. We live, we do things, we get sick
:24:17. > :24:20.and we die and that's about it, full stop. Nothing we can do about it. To
:24:21. > :24:25.others though, that's not really the case. There is something we can do
:24:26. > :24:31.about it and that is the change of the basis of what it means to be
:24:32. > :24:38.human. Ben is one of those guys. I met him at an AGI conference in
:24:39. > :24:44.Berlin. AGI stands for artificial general intelligence and it consist
:24:45. > :24:48.of a lot of smart people. I think digital immortality is definitely
:24:49. > :24:52.going to happen. My hope it happens within my own lifetime so I can take
:24:53. > :24:56.sure it will happen within the next sure it will happen within the
:24:57. > :24:58.century at worse. Is that what century at worse. Is that what
:24:59. > :25:04.you're working towards now? Digital immortality is one of the goals I'm
:25:05. > :25:09.working towards. I aim to build an artificial general intelligence, an
:25:10. > :25:12.AI system that can become massively smarter than human beings and
:25:13. > :25:18.understand more about the universe than any human possibly could. Ben
:25:19. > :25:22.and others like him call them trans humanists. It is the idea that we
:25:23. > :25:26.can improve man in all imaginable respects. The plan is to do this by
:25:27. > :25:36.science and technology. People in the world of it, rans humanism have
:25:37. > :25:39.a common ideology. One is that the brain. Another is a controversial
:25:40. > :25:44.should not exist. It is a disease. should not exist. It is a disease.
:25:45. > :25:47.We really need to abolish ageing in the same way that we need to abolish
:25:48. > :25:54.cancer and we need to abolish rape and murder. Ageing shouldn't be
:25:55. > :25:57.allowed to exist and the fact that everyone takes for granted, there is
:25:58. > :26:03.no choice, but to just get old, die and rot. In 100 years, that would be
:26:04. > :26:07.looked on as insanely barbaric. The same way we look back at slavery as
:26:08. > :26:11.insanely barbaric right now. Thank you for watching this Christmas
:26:12. > :26:14.special. We're back on air on 4th January and you can watch all our
:26:15. > :26:22.stories on our programme page.