The Happy Pod: The 'privilege' of helping brain tumour patients

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Listen to Choiceology at schwab.com slash podcast, or wherever you listen. If you are currently overpaying on software to run your business, remember this number. 10,000. That's the number of new businesses that join Odoo per month. Join Odoo today at odoo.com. That's O-D-O-O dot com. This is The Happy Pod from the BBC World Service. I'm Holly Gibbs, and in this edition, the new rapid test that's transforming brain tumour diagnosis. I'm really excited. I think when the first time we ran this test, and we got it to work in-house, and we got it to work really quickly, it felt completely unreal. I will never tire of seeing this approach work. We speak to some of the doctors behind it. Also on this podcast, how one island is celebrating its first baby in more than three decades. We have this beautiful home that's my family home that's steeped in our history and ancestry. So to be surrounded and supported by that felt very special. Plus, meet Gary. I thought if I was my daughter, I would be searching high and low if we had exhausted all avenues through the family and friends. And I just thought, this lady needs one of my kidneys more than I need two of them. He responded to a social media appeal. of a woman who needed a life-saving transplant. And the six-year-old breaking records with a Rubik's cube. We start with a story of a medical breakthrough in the diagnosis and treatment of brain tumours. We recently reported this on the Global News podcast. And in this edition, I'm going to bring you a different interview so we can explore this scientific advancement a bit more. It's a rapid test that can reduce the time it takes to get an accurate diagnosis from up to eight weeks to just two hours. It's already been used on some patients and it was developed by a team here in England at Nottingham University Hospital. Dr. Stuart Smith, a consultant neurosurgeon, and Dr. Simon Payne, a consultant neuropathologist. I spoke to them both for this edition of The Happy Pod and started by asking Simon to explain the test. It's an amazing test. And I think to understand why it's an amazing test, you need to know a little bit about brain tumours and how they're diagnosed. They're really complex things, as you might guess. They are really difficult to diagnose with confidence. You really need quite in-depth, comprehensive molecular testing to make a diagnosis these days. And that takes a long time. It can be weeks and it's certainly not something you can do within the time period of the operation. And what this test that we've developed, building on work of colleagues, frankly, all over the world, but particularly with colleagues here in the university, Professor Matt Luce, principal amongst them, and a PhD student called Simon Deacon, what we've developed is a test that allows you to condense all of those weeks of waiting into about an hour and a half, two hours for an initial result. And then all the other data that you need after 24 hours. It's taking really complex genetic tests and putting them all in one test and speeding it all up. That's amazing. How is this going to help patients? I assume it means that quicker diagnosis means you can catch the tumour early? Yeah, I think, as Simon correctly said, there are many, many different types of brain tumour and some of them are more invasive into the brain than others. And we know that the extent and how sort of aggressive we are with the operation in terms of how much we try and remove varies between tumour types. So that information in the operation, I think, will help surgeons make better decisions and to tailor the surgery much more specifically to an individual patient. Well, Stuart, you've actually already used this on a patient, haven't you? Yeah, I mean, we've actually used the technique on quite a few patients in the process of checking it. We've actually used it on a number of patients in the process of checking it. We've run this technique alongside the standard technique and it's pretty much always given us the same answer. So we're confident in its accuracy. It's also important to say that there's an added benefit beyond the surgery and that the standard techniques that we use, as Simon described, to diagnose the genetics, the DNA and brain tumours are very good and very powerful, but they can be quite slow and it can take six to eight weeks to get a full result back for a patient. Whereas this current, this new technique will speed that up to a few days and that will allow, hopefully, patients to progress on to the correct treatment more quickly. And Stuart, what's the feedback been from the patients that have already benefited from this test? I think definitely people like answers quickly, whether that's good news or bad news. I think people do appreciate hearing certainty quickly, being able to move on and come to terms with that knowledge. It's the weight that comes with it. It's can be very corrosive for patients' mental health. I want to ask you both this one, but Simon, maybe let's start with you. How excited are you by this test? I'm really excited. I think when the first time we ran this test and we got it to work in-house and we got it to work really quickly, it felt completely unreal. As a pathologist who's used to waiting a long time or having to go through lots of hoops to get an answer, to see the answer come up on the screen, thanks to the patient, it was just remarkable. I will never tire of seeing this approach work, but I think the real excitement will come when I see it being used routinely and we can have this really fantastic service much quicker, much more accurate than certainly our microscopy methods. And it's making such an impact for all of our patients, not just one or two who are in our trial. Yeah, absolutely. Same from the surgical side. I mean, I remember, you know, colleagues coming into theatre to see you know, going around to the laboratory, you know, going to see the data just appearing on the computer in seconds or minutes, you know, and it's, it is incredible. As you've said, this has been developed in England. Is this something that could be rolled out across the world? Yeah, there are certainly other hospitals around the world doing it in limited numbers. I mean, I think certainly this is the sort of most advanced phase, actually being sort of rolled out into, you know, more routine or aiming to move to routine clinical practice on a sort of healthcare-wide system. We've had inquiries from around the world. Many countries have contacted us and Professor Luce to see demonstrations of the system. So even as far afield as New Zealand, I think people have made inquiries and we've given them demonstrations of what it can do. And so I think, yes, absolutely, there's a lot of excitement. I'd be surprised if it wasn't taken up by other countries and other healthcare systems. Yeah. I think this is a sort of test that even in middle to lower income countries, perhaps when, because it provides all of those answers that we need in one test and bypasses a lot of the standard testing that we're doing, which in itself is very expensive. I think, yes, not just in the developed world of economies similar to ours, but elsewhere, this is exactly the sort of technology that has got enormous potential for them. So what is next for this test? So there's an initial rollout into centres in the UK in a couple of waves. And what we're really trying to do is to get the evidence that this test really does work as well as it does. Which we have no doubts about, but that's the sort of hoop that you've got to go through. Get those other centres using the test as we've been using it in Nottingham. My final question is a personal one, because this is the happy pod, so we talk about feelings on the happy pod. My final question is, how does it feel personally for both of you to be working on something that can change people's lives? Stuart, let's start with you. It's a massively positive thing for me. As a surgeon, I usually deal with an individual patient. And, you know, being able to do this project at a much more sort of system-wide scale and hopefully make a real improvement across the system and hopefully a lasting improvement in care for brain tumours, you know, that's a real privilege. And it's a real positivity. And, you know, it certainly gives you a sense that you hopefully may change for the better, which I think is a good thing positively for me as an individual. And I get a great deal of satisfaction from that. I think it's a real sense of privilege. It's a real privilege, actually, to work with such a great bunch of people who all pull together for a common good. And to feel that you've, you know, had a couple of colleagues say to me, you've made a real difference here. And, yes, as doctors, we all will make a difference for individual patients, hopefully. But I think it's quite unusual when you can be part of something like this, which is going to make, you know, a step change difference in the way that patients are treated. And to see people working together for that common good and it all working is just fantastic. That was Dr. Stuart. Dr. Stuart Smith and Dr. Simon Payne. A baby has been born on one of the most remote and northerly Scottish islands for the first time since 1992. David Del Day has been to the Orkney Isles to meet little Duncan. Less than a week old, but already a history maker. You're so good, Duncan. You're so good. Far from the bright lights of a maternity ward, baby Duncan, entered the world with an outlook of green fields, cows and the sea at North Ronald Seas South Bay. For mum Alice Trailford, whose first two children were born in a hospital, the remote location just seemed like the right choice. At that stage in my life, I felt safer being in the hospital with all of the machines strapped to me and being told what was happening. And then 10 years later, I now feel safer being more in tune with my body and being able to listen intuitively and navigate birth instinctually as opposed to outsourcing what was happening. So it felt really right and it was just such a blessing that that was supported here as well. So to be surrounded and supported by that felt very special, a very special introduction for him to come to earth. So Duncan, this is Duncan, this is your great-grandfather who is the most amazingly kind, brave man in the world. Alice's family, the Trails, once owned the island with their connection stretching back hundreds of years. Duncan takes his name from his great-grandad, once the lair of the island. I didn't know that I was going to name him after Duncan when we arrived but I was sitting on the sofa in the other room and right in front of me was a collar. I was wearing a collage of his pictures with my grandmother and so he's been very present with us. He was an incredible man, so kind and really strong. Duncan's parents have praised the maternity team in Orkney for their support. He came a bit earlier than anticipated. So two midwives were flown out shortly afterwards on the Coast Guard helicopter. With the last baby born here in August 1992, it has been quite the wait. Historically. When the lair was in the island, a flag was raised to let folk know. So there seemed an obvious way to inform residents of the birth. We gave all of the islanders a little bottle of whisky. We found lots of magical four-leaf clovers over the years and have kept them in a book here. And I decided that this was the time to use them. So we stuck a four-leaf clover onto a bottle, a glass bottle, and also taped, glued a groaty bucky to the lid and filled it with whisky and we gave them to them. We gave them to each of the islanders. So when the baby was born, we raised the flag and then everybody opened their whisky and shared a dram and celebratory drink together. Oh yes, I was born on the island here myself, many years ago, in a box bed. That's Billy Muir, a friend of the family and fellow North Ronaldsey man. In the old days, it was just a regular thing and we would hear of stories that the birth became a bit difficult. They would take a boat and go to Sandy for the doctor and get help. And I think in that days, it was a pair of oars and a sail. While Duncan will be here till November, the few months after that will be, well, a bit different. Alice and partner Jorge will then head back to the Costa Rican jungle, where they run a school. David Delde reporting. Now let's turn to Ghana, where an entrepreneur has worked out a way to turn plastic packaging waste into school desks. Justice Beidou has been to the capital to meet Makafi Awuku in his workshop. Well, so this is McIntosh Africa. Welcome to McIntosh Africa. So let's walk around and let me show you some of them. Yeah, a big guy with a big smile. Makafi Awuku has an infectious passion for recycling plastic. He shows me his current stockpile. So it's a huge heap. It's a huge heap of plastic bottles, sachet rubbers that have been collected together. How much, how much plastics do we have here? So what you see here looks like about 400 kilograms. Wow, that's a lot. We generate about 1.1 million metric tons of plastic waste in Ghana every year. In Ghana, it is thought that just around 5% of plastic is collected for recycling. Makafi's latest project addresses another problem here in Ghana. A shortage of school desks. We have a lot of desk deficits in our schools. We have a deficit of close to 2 million. Makafi makes desktops from the plastic sachets that are commonly used for drinking water here in Ghana. He has 300 drop-off points for the sachets around the country. And he supplements these by buying more that have been gathered by waste pickers. So when the dry shreds come here, we have this heat transfer. And then we have hydraulic press that we use to press it. Okay, so we set it and then we wait. So this looks to me like a big sandwich making machine, but instead of sandwich, this is plastic materials that have been put into this machine and then being pressed together. Yes, that's close enough. These sandwich machines, can create a range of materials from a leather-like fabric to these desk boards that are just like plywood. They are sanded and drilled to the desk frames. So far, Makafi has supplied 600 desks to 12 schools around the country. They cost about 60 US dollars each, but they are not paid for by the schools. But with grants, and corporate donations. I travelled to a nearby school to see them for myself. So this is a classroom of about 60 pupils. And as I enter here, I can see Makafi's desk lined up with the students sitting on them and using them. I'm just going to go have a chat. When we are writing exams, you know, the wooden decks, they are not that smooth for the pupils. So when we are writing, the writing don't look smooth. But this one is good for us. It's really helpful. So when we are writing, the writing doesn't look smooth. It's really helpful. The wooden decks, they break easily. But these plastic decks, they don't decay and they don't break easily. They are very hard. Well, I can't resist asking the students to test the strength of the desks. OK, so three, two, one, go. That report was from Justice Beidou. And for more on this story, just search for People Fixing the World, wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Coming up on the happy part, the rising popularity of the Afgas sauna. You have all the amazing health benefits of being in the sauna, but you have the entertainment factor as well. So you kind of, it takes the mind off the heat as well. Winning never sounded so good. What would you do if you want big? At Crown Coins Casino, real people win real money. Win real prizes every single day. Hi, this is Chelsea from Dallas. I just hit the jackpot. Won over 1,500,000 K. Visit crowncoins.com. Sign up in seconds, enter code crown and get a free lucky wheel bonus. You may win up to 10,000 sweeps coins. crowncoins.com. That's C-R-O-W-N coins.com. No purchase needed. Code valid for new users only. Void where prohibited by law. 18 plus terms and conditions apply. Crown Coins Casino. Self-directed investing. Trading. Full service wealth management. Automated investing. Financial planning. 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Choiceology, an original podcast from Charles Schwab, is a show about the psychology and economics behind our decisions. Join host Katie Milkman, an award-winning behavioral scientist and author of the bestselling book How to Change, as she shares true stories from Nobel laureates, authors, athletes, and everyday people about why we make the choices we do, and how to make better ones to help avoid costly mistakes. Listen to Choiceology at schwab.com/podcast, or wherever you listen. You're listening to The Happy Pod. A woman in Wales has received a life-saving kidney transplant after her plea on social media found a donor match. In her post, 41-year-old Karen Davey said that she didn't want to leave her family without a mother. But to her luck, a man called Gary Summerfield contacted her and turned out to be a match. Matt Murray has been to meet them. They were strangers, but now they'll forever have a bond. You're looking really well. Gary Summerfield, a doctor in the US. Summerfield meets Karen for the first time since the transplant. saw Karen's emotional Facebook plea for a living kidney donor and immediately volunteered to be tested after she posted she did not want to leave her family without a mother. My main thing is the kids. I want to be around for the kids. The fact that somebody came forward and has gone through all the testing, because it's a lot of testing, I was just amazed. And Gary, it was the Facebook posts which really struck home with you, didn't it? That's right. Karen being a very similar age to my daughter, and she mentioned the children. And I thought if I was my daughter, I would be searching high and low if we had exhausted all avenues through the family and friends. And I just thought this lady needs one of my kidneys more than I need two of them. Ten years ago, the mother of four from Brynner underwent a heart transplant after having a heart attack at 31 years of age. Patients must be taken to hospital. Patients must take anti-rejection drugs daily following the operation so their bodies do not attack the new organ, but they can damage the kidneys. And Karen always knew she'd need another life-saving transplant. They've been deteriorating for a few years, probably about three years ago now. They said I was in stage three kidney failure, and it just gradually went from there. Gary underwent extensive assessments for over a year, and at 60 years of age, he underwent the six-hour procedure in July. So I thought, I'm going to go for this. Like, it would be selfish of me to want someone to come forward for my family, yet I'm not going to think about it for Karen. It's up there with getting married and having my children. Seeing Karen like this, yeah, yeah. You know, donate my kidney to her, yeah. It's up there with the top three for me. A very deserving lady, deserving family. I would go through it again, no hesitation. No hesitation. With the average weight for a kidney failure, it's up there with the top three. After a kidney transplant around three years, Karen felt she didn't have that time. Mentally, to be able to handle the stresses that transplant brings. Karen's husband, Matthew, and her 17-year-old son, Brandon, say they will always be grateful to Gary. Everyone knows what's going on in the world at the moment. It's a horrible place, you know, at times. But it really does give you hope that there is kindness in the world, and you've just got to look, you know, kindness will come to you, and it is just mind-blowing, you know, and we'll never, ever be able to repay Gary and the family for what they've done, and, you know, and just giving Karen another chance. It can be scary, obviously, when she's going into surgeries and stuff like that, but have hope. Well, it's just an amazing feeling, like, you just know there's still good people out there. Gary shows Karen the pin badge he's been presented with for being a living donor, but it's the gift of life which is the real reward for both. That report was from Matt Murray. Our next story is about a sauna with a difference. An Afgas sauna is a multi-sensory ritual that uses sound, heat, lights, and even towel-based choreography. It's all designed to take the sweaty participants on a journey. The Afgas World Championships has just taken place in Germany, and my colleague Celia Hatton has been speaking to us about it. Speaking to one of the jury, Deborah Carr. It's growing globally and growing super, super fast. It's gone something that we never even heard of, sort of, four or five years ago to something that's been embraced really well. Amazing. I mean, the first thought that came to mind when I started understanding what it was is, isn't it uncomfortable for the performers to have to pull off something in a really hot, essentially very hot, sweaty box? Yeah, it is a hot, sweaty box. And no, it's not uncomfortable at all. It's part of their job and their role, and it's something that they do on a daily basis. So it's a little bit like a sport in that you build an endurance and your tolerance to the heat. So tell me about some of the performances that did really well over this past weekend. It's amazing because it really allows the creative juices, if you like, to flow from the Afgas Masters because what we want to see is that them creating their own stories and something that they've made. So it makes it really interesting because we've had stories from childhood to the team story this year was about an orphan who had an imaginary friend, to stories about Savannah, to adaptations of movies and books. So it's very wide, very varied and very creative. So how do the participants use the elements inside a sauna, the heat, the sweat, the steam to build on the stories that they're trying to tell? So what they do is they try to make the story really immersive. So one of the things that is obviously the heat, but also is smell. So they use a lot of essential oils and aromas that help take us on that journey. So they can kind of smell the journey as well. It's very theatrical. So the sauna masters will wear a costume. There'll be sounds and lights. Sometimes there's a screen in these big saunas as well. So there's almost like a movie background. There's a backdrop to it as well. So it becomes like almost like a 360 experience. Wow. I mean, some people might say they just want to relax when they go to a sauna. Why do you think this is so popular? Because it is quite relaxing because you have all the amazing health benefits of being in the sauna, but you have that entertainment factor as well. Debra Carr speaking to Celia Hatton. We end in China where a six-year-old girl has made history with a Rubik's cube. Kerry Allen has the details. Earlier this week, a six-year-old girl from China made international headlines for breaking a world record twice in the space of three days. Look how big my trophy is, you can hear her saying. This is Lian Yunzhi, who's from Chengdu in China's southwest Sichuan province. She's now broken the women's world record for solving a standard Rubik's cube with average times of 4.52 seconds and 4.2 seconds. She's now broken the women's world record for solving a 2.7 seconds. These took place at two different World Cube Association events in China. Lian has become the only female competitor in the world with an average time of solving the cube in under 4.5 seconds. And she has mastered more than 1,300 different solving algorithms. She first began learning how to use the Rubik's cube when she was four years old, after her parents bought her one as a gift. Her mum told local media that around this time, she enrolled little Zhizhi, as her daughter is known, in lots of different activities, seeing if she was interested in dancing or musical instruments. But the Rubik's cube soon became a favourite toy, and she started spending two to three hours a day playing with one. By the time she had turned five, she was able to solve the Rubik's cube in under 10 seconds. Her skills have gone down a storm with her classmates. Lian has been competing in speedcubing events across China since 2024, and her wins this month are the third and fourth time she has broken the world record. So she's definitely become one to watch in the world of Rubik's cube solving prodigies. But she's amongst fierce competition in China. If you're a long-term listener of the Global News Podcast and the Happy Pod, you might remember back in 2023 the story of Cao Xixian, who at the time was age six, and she set the women's world record then, at 5.97 seconds. A Chinese boy also holds the world record for the fastest overall average, which is recorded from five different attempts. An average time of 3.51 seconds has become the speed to beat, and this was set earlier this year by 12-year-old Wang Yiheng. Kerry Allen reporting. And that's all from the Happy Pod for now. We'd love to hear from you. As ever, the address is globalpodcast.bbc.co.uk. The editor of this edition is Karen Martin. I'm Holly Gibbs. Until next time, goodbye.