When Victoria Arlen was 11 years old, she became unwell with a mystery illness and lost consciousness. She only woke up years later to find herself in a hospital bed unable to communicate or move. For months she was alert, but nobody knew it and all she had were her thoughts.

Image: silhouette of a woman with hands pressed against a window

Credit: Getty Images/coldsnowstorm)

Hezni and Jilan Murad happily married and deeply in love when so-called Islamic state started targeting the Yazidi community in Northern Iraq, where they lived. When IS militants entered their village, they took Jilan as a slave. Hezni promised he would find a way to save her.

Image: Jilan (L) and Hezni Murad Credit: Hezni Murad

Rukhiya Budden says she suffered abuse and misery when she was growing up in an orphanage in Nairobi. But her life was changed when a Japanese stranger became like a surrogate father to her. Tomiji Minagawa took her in, giving her a loving home. Rukhiya is a Global Ambassador for Hope and Homes for Children and she campaigns for orphanages to be abolished. (Photo credit: Hope and Homes for children.)

Moses Akatugba used to coach a football team made up of prisoners on death row in Delta State, Nigeria. Moses was a death row prisoner himself. He had been arrested when he was 16 and accused of stealing mobile phones in an armed robbery. He says he didn’t do it, and claims that he was tortured into confessing. His case was taken up by human rights campaigners and he was eventually pardoned. But not before he had spent ten years behind bars – the last two of them on death row. (Image courtesy of Moses Akatugba.)

Rolf Sorman was one of the survivors of the Estonia ferry disaster 24 years ago. The ferry that sank in the Baltic Sea while sailing from Tallinn to Stockholm, where Rolf is from. He tells Jo Fidgen about his dramatic survival. (Photo courtesy of Rolf Sorman.)

It’s South Africa’s most iconic photograph – a dying 12-year-old school boy, Hector Pieterson, being carried away after he was shot by police during the 1976 Soweto Uprisings. The picture - taken by journalist Sam Nzima - exposed the horrors of apartheid to the world, and it also had a lasting impact on the lives of all those it captured. Reporter Gavin Fischer follows the incredible stories of the people affected by the photo – both in front of and behind the camera.

Producer: Maryam Maruf

Image: Hector Pieterson Memorial in Soweto

Credit: Alamy

The pioneering African-American ballet dancer, Arthur Mitchell, has died in New York City at the age of 84. Earlier this year, Matthew Bannister spoke to him about his incredible legacy.

Image: Arthur Mitchell at the White House in 2006 with some of his dancers from the Dance Theatre of Harlem

Credit: Ron Sachs/Getty Images

Eleven years ago Charity Lee's four-year-old daughter was murdered by her teenage son Paris, who was later described by doctors as a sociopath. Paris won't leave prison until he's in his 50s, but Charity has stayed in contact, balancing her fear of him with an unconditional love.

(Photo: Paris with his arm around his sister Ella looking at the sea. Credit: Charity Lee)

British woman Tasha Bishop was born without a womb meaning she would never have a period, would never be able to carry her own children and having sex would be difficult. She was diagnosed with Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome and struggled to come to terms with her condition. However, she decided to turn her experiences into something positive by launching a business called ‘The Pants Project’ that uses underwear to empower women.

Image: Tasha Bishop

Credit: Natassja Thomson

Lek Chailert spent her childhood in a small hill village in northern Thailand, where she lived surrounded by animals. She's since become an activist working to improve the welfare of working elephants, some of which are trained using cruel methods. She's raising the profile of her work with a new documentary, made with the help of Hollywood star Ashley Bell.

Being a fisherman can be a very dangerous profession. If you’re lucky, you live somewhere that has organisations who will help if you get into trouble on the water, like lifeboat charities or well-equipped coastguards. But Tanzania didn’t have such an organisation, until Shukuru Lugawa came along and realised how urgently it was needed. He lives in the coastal town of Dar es Salaam, and had always been drawn to the sea, even though he grew up very far away from it.

One morning Naomi Jacobs woke up with a rare form of amnesia - she had lost all her adult memories, and although she was 32 - she thought she was a teenager again, utterly bewildered by how she had ended up in the future. Naomi had to rediscover the person she grew up to be, and what she found out wasn't promising.

Image: An elephant puts its trunk on Lek Chailert's ear.

Credit: Palani Mohan/Getty Images