Dr Waheed Arian

Presenter0:01

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio Podcasts. Hello, I'm Lauren Laverne and this is the Desert Island Discs Podcast. Every week I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take with them if they were cast away to a desert island. And for rights reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast. I hope you enjoy listening.

Presenter0:44

My castaway this week is the radiologist and humanitarian Dr. Waheed Aryan. He's a pioneer in telemedicine, where volunteer medics around the world use everyday mobile phone technology to advise doctors working on the ground thousands of miles away. It saved many lives in war zones and remote communities in countries including Syria, Uganda and Afghanistan, where Waheed was born.

Presenter1:09

He founded the charity Arion Teleheel in twenty fifteen and won a UN Global Hero Award two years later.

Presenter1:17

All of which is remarkable, though given his back story, it's nothing short of miraculous. When he was just five, his family was forced to flee their home in Kabul during the Soviet-Afghan conflict, narrowly escaping the bombing raids that followed them to Pakistan. Arriving as refugees, they were struck by malaria and malnutrition, and he almost died of tuberculosis. The doctor who saved his life was impressed by his curiosity and, giving him a stethoscope and a textbook, also planted a dream.

Presenter1:47

Six-year-old Waheed decided that he too would become a doctor. The ambition took him from a refugee camp in Peshawar to Cambridge University and beyond. He says, In the UK the opportunities to achieve my potential and to give back to my family, my adopted country and my homeland were within my grasp and I was determined to seize them with both hands. Dr. Waheed Arian, welcome to Desert Island Discs.

Dr Waheed Arian2:13

Thank you so much for having me. It's such a privilege to be you here today.

Presenter2:17

Let's start with your dream. Actually, you had two dreams growing up, didn't you? To become a doctor, but also to live a normal, peaceful family life, and you've happily achieved them both. You live in Chester with your wife, Davina, and your two young children. I'm imagining that you never take that normality for granted.

Dr Waheed Arian2:35

Oh, I never take that normality for granted. In a way, I am reliving my childhood, the lost childhood, through my children now. I'm managing to go home, sit there, watch my children play a play that I never had the opportunity. So those are the small things that I don't take for granted.

Presenter2:42

Um

Dr Waheed Arian2:54

You once said the straight road doesn't work for

Presenter2:56

For me. Why not?

Dr Waheed Arian2:57

I think it's my experience going through conflict, through displacement, that making any decision could be life and death, and sitting around with parents to decide what we have to do the next day at the age of seven or eight. Even at the age of five, my father said one thing to me that if anything had happened to him, that I would be looking after the family.

Speaker 33:14

Cool.

Dr Waheed Arian3:22

That's age five and and from then onwards I lost my childhood in a way that I became an adult and I had to think on my feet.

Presenter3:30

Well Waheed, we've got a lot to talk about. We've also got your discs to share. Tell me about your first.

Dr Waheed Arian3:37

Well the first desk I'd like to share is Lose Yourself by MM. I got introduced to MM when I arrived in the UK. I had no clue about music, Western music, and I didn't know MM. So I was studying at A-levels at Maiderville College in London and I used to see these teenagers walking with their airphones on and they were doing all these dancing and rapping and all that. I was like, what on earth is that? And when I listened to the track and it really resonated with me, you only get one shot, don't mess your chance. And I thought that was something for me.

Speaker 24:05

Molder.

Speaker 24:07

On earth is

Speaker 34:18

He knows that but he's pro. He's so sad that he knows when he goes back to this mobile home. That's when it's back to the lap again, yo. This old rhapsody better go capture this moment and hope it don't kill it. Lose his counterfeit music the moment you hold it, you better never let it go. You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow. Cause opportunity comes once in a lifetime, current up. Lose its counterfeit music. The moment you hold it, you better never let it go. You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow. Cause opportunity comes once in a lifetime, current.

Speaker 24:45

I don't know how you only get one

Presenter4:53

M and M and lose yourself. So Waheed Aryan, you were born in Kabul in nineteen eighty three. It was the height of the Soviet Afghan war, and you are one of eleven surviving children to your parents, Taj Mohammed and Bibi Amina. What do you remember when you think back to that time?

Dr Waheed Arian5:09

being taken by my mother to a local park to have an ice cream.

Presenter5:14

So good memory.

Dr Waheed Arian5:14

It was a good memory. And in that park, there was a slide. It was a concrete Soviet-built slide. But it was absolutely amazing for me to be able to let loose with my cousins. We wouldn't get that opportunity very often. A lot of the time, we had to hide in cellars or inside the house because my father was in hiding.

Presenter5:15

Memory

Presenter5:22

Mm.

Speaker 25:23

Uh

Presenter5:36

So your father, we should say, you know, was was in hiding because all all men were were conscripted at that point, expected to fight, and and he was a a conscientious objector. I I want to ask about him um in a moment, but but I do want to know a little bit more about your mum. You've described her as a superwoman. Why?

Dr Waheed Arian5:54

She is, and I still remember our hearts beating against each other in cellars when the rockets would come and rain on us. Late at night she would be tying her head tight because she would be having such a bad headache, and I knew that she hadn't slept for days, but she couldn't afford to sleep.

Speaker 36:10

Hmm.

Dr Waheed Arian6:13

because she wanted to know how the children are doing, if anyone has temperature, if they are fed well, and then be alert to what's going on from the outside as well. Do we have to pack again? Do we have to move?

Presenter6:25

So Wahid, you you've said that your mum was the pragmatist, your dad was the idealist. Tell me a little bit more about him. He was he had quite a successful job, you know, before the the conflict really took over Kabul. He had a he was selling currency at Afghanistan's largest money exchange market, I think.

Dr Waheed Arian6:43

Growing up, he didn't go to school, so he lost his mom aged four. So he had a very tough childhood himself, but he also had this side to him, this side that he was teaching us how to be resilient. Late at night, he would be telling me these stories of how Muhammad Ali was fighting Joe Fraser and he would be going round after round, but he would always get up and he wouldn't lose. And for me, that would give me a buzz. Now I'm reflecting on it now: that wow, he was actually telling us that in life you can't give up.

Speaker 27:08

For me that would

Presenter7:17

Waheed, it's time to go to the music. Your second choice today. What is it, and why are you taking it with you to the desert island?

Dr Waheed Arian7:23

The second choice is a song by one of the most famous Afghan singers Farhad Daria. It's called Ghuli Suri. Khodahaf is Ghuli Suri, which means goodbye, my flower. It was recorded in 2000, but it reflects the time we went through in the 90s, mainly during the Civil War, the losses, the traumas, saying goodbyes to each other. And when I came to the UK, I used to listen to this song and reflect on what had happened.

Speaker 27:53

Kabuta Rhoy Sabz Jangale Dardu dastasman Surud Sabst Mechon Kabutarhoy Sabz Jangale Dardu

Speaker 28:19

Urdust has men so

Presenter8:23

Gulay Sari by Farhad Daria

Presenter8:27

Waheed Aryan, your parents eventually made the decision to get the whole family out of Afghanistan and head for Pakistan. You were barely five at that point. The border was closed, so you were forced to make a very dangerous journey across the mountains. What do you remember about that crossing?

Dr Waheed Arian8:43

You had to do it at night time.

Dr Waheed Arian8:46

And we had to do it on donkeys and horses. But it was the same route that was used by the Mujahideen, the rebels, to bring in weapons to fight. So anybody that was spotted along this path, the Soviet helicopter gunship and the jets, would attack them, destroy them. One morning we arrived and it was a bit too light and we were visible. My father went with a few men to locate a house for us to sleep. So I came with my father. We were traveling about seven minutes or eight minutes. And then suddenly, out of nowhere, my father just grabbed me and he ran towards the village. We had been spotted by a spy plane that my father knew what was coming next. So he was running and he was trying to open one door, knock on another door, until he found one house that was empty. He found an oven on the floor, which is used for baking in Afghanistan. That's very low.

Speaker 29:29

We have

Presenter9:47

So, this is a very large oven that's in it's sort of in the centre of the house, right? So, it warms the house as well as the food.

Dr Waheed Arian9:52

It does, it does indeed. So it it's in one central place on the ground, level on the ground.

Presenter9:53

Yeah.

Presenter9:55

So

Presenter9:57

Hmm.

Dr Waheed Arian9:57

He uh took me with him.

Presenter10:00

So you're hiding inside this oven?

Dr Waheed Arian10:02

We hiding inside the oven, he towered me completely, covered me. Then the bombing started. Bullets flying, rockets hitting the wall. There was screaming between me and my dad, and after it finished um we went back to to the area where my siblings were and my mother were um because we didn't know whether they would be alive.

Presenter10:28

Excuse me.

Dr Waheed Arian10:31

Um they were alive and and I think this is something that um uh people in conflict zones uh that's how they lose loved ones.

Presenter10:42

Waheed, it took about a week before you all arrived at the Babu refugee camp. What were the conditions that you found there?

Dr Waheed Arian10:51

We were given one tent and we had to find a way to live in that. A few mattresses or something for us just to put on the floor. But we didn't even have access to clean water. I think when people think of refugee camps or when they say they are in safe places, yes, they are safe from bombs, but physically, mentally, and socially, they're not safe. These are absolutely ripe conditions for diseases like malaria and everything else.

Speaker 311:14

Hmm.

Presenter11:21

And then you contracted TB while you were at the camp. So your father managed to somehow get you to see a specialist in Peshawar and you would go for treatment with him once a month. So this is the man that I referred to in my introduction. So he he managed to save your life against the odds, really. I think he gave you a thirty per cent chance of survival at at the beginning. He saved your life, but he also changed it. Tell me about the the gift that he gave you, that textbook and that stethoscope.

Dr Waheed Arian11:50

I remember the room because he had aircon that we never had. The feeling of it, the white coat he had, the the pens he had, I still remember them vividly. You're lighting up. Absolutely. And then they

Presenter12:01

You're lighting up.

Dr Waheed Arian12:05

white background that he used for seeing X rays as well. And I would ask him, Did he put an X ray there? And he would put my X ray. I said, Do you have another one? He would put another one. And I said, What do you see there? And he would quiz me there. And I would answer his questions. But for me, he was this healing figure.

Presenter12:09

Uh

Presenter12:22

Cool.

Dr Waheed Arian12:22

And I wanted to be like him.

Presenter12:24

It's time for your next disc wahees. What are we gonna hear?

Dr Waheed Arian12:28

I Have the Tiger. It's the soundtrack to Rocky movie. Whenever we used to go and visit this doctor in Heiburt Baza, my treat would be that my father would take me to cinema. And usually I was into action movies. Even the lyrics, The Rising Up, Back on the Streets, Went the Destins, Now Back on My Feet, Just a Man and as well to survive. That is something that kept me going.

Speaker 312:54

Rising up.

Speaker 312:56

The mystery.

Speaker 312:59

Till my time, took my chances.

Speaker 313:03

With the distance, now I'm back on my feet. Just a man and his will to survive.

Speaker 313:11

So many times, it happens too fast.

Speaker 313:16

You change your passion for glory

Speaker 313:20

Don't lose your grip on the dreams of the p

Presenter13:25

Survivor and Eye of the Tiger. So Wahid Arian, you spent three years in the refugee camp. You recovered from TB and you kept the medical textbook by your side all that time. So talk me through the learning process. How did you learn the English that you needed to start to study it properly?

Dr Waheed Arian13:45

The textbook was a precious gift but also a toy for me. I had to flip through the pictures day in and out. Um another way for me to be entertained was my father would uh buy the syringes um from uh pharmacy and he would ask me that if I wanted to play doctor and patient with him.

Presenter14:05

So he knew that you wanted to be a doctor by this point, I'm ass

Dr Waheed Arian14:07

By this point, I'm assuming. Because I was so curious about medicine, and he would allow me to inject boiled water into his arm.

Presenter14:15

Your poor dad

Dr Waheed Arian14:16

My poor dad, and you know, I'm a doctor, and I would not allow my child.

Presenter14:20

Yeah.

Dr Waheed Arian14:22

take that syringe anywhere close to me, but his arm would turn blue and black because of course I didn't know what on earth I was doing. But then after about one and a half years of treatment when I became better I was enrolled in a local school. But it was two muddy rooms next to each other. We had to sit on the floor. So that was the first time I got taste of the proper education.

Presenter14:47

Wahid, in 1991 you were able to return to Kabul but following the rise of the Taliban in the mid-90s your parents decided it was no longer safe for you to stay there. So they decided to send you to another refugee camp in Pakistan. Now this camp had set up their own university and I think it was there that you enrolled to study medicine. You were just 12. How did you hold your own with your fellow students? They must have been much older.

Dr Waheed Arian15:13

I would try to make my voice really hoarse and I I would pretend outside that I'm a grown-up.

Dr Waheed Arian15:19

That was another important point that as a child navigating the camp I used to think, I used to talk like an adult.

Presenter15:27

I mean this is a big battle

Dr Waheed Arian15:28

To behave like an adult as well, to survive. But that's how childhood, not for myself alone, for so many children, is lost.

Presenter15:38

Waheed, we've got to take some time for the music. It's number four today. What are we going to hear next and why have you chosen it?

Dr Waheed Arian15:44

Never Enough by Lauren M. Alritt from The Greatest Showman.

Dr Waheed Arian15:49

This is a song that resonated with me in year 2017.

Dr Waheed Arian15:55

I got to a point that I had a loving family and in a way, if you can call it achievement, that I had done enough to prove to myself that I was worthy of a life, that I could just relax, work in the NHS, see my child grow and have a happy life. But it wasn't enough for me. I reflected back on a journey when I was in a refugee camp and I saw this young girl in 2015. When I looked into her eyes, my own childhood reflected back to me. And that's the moment I realized that I could actually reach out to so many children across the globe. And that became my purpose.

Speaker 316:35

All the shine of a thousand spotlights, All the stars we steal from the night sky, Will never be enough

Speaker 316:46

Never be enough Towers of gold are still too little These hands could hold the world But it'll never be enough

Dr Waheed Arian16:54

These lands could

Dr Waheed Arian16:59

Been

Speaker 317:01

Never be enough.

Presenter17:09

Never enough. Lauren Ulred from The Greatest Showman. So Wahid Aryan, during the next few years, the healthcare system in Afghanistan had collapsed as more and more people left the country and you started to feel that your only option was to leave to go to the West and build a career and support your family there. So you were hooked up with someone who described themselves as a travel agent. He said, oh yes, I can help you get refugee status and you'll be welcomed in the UK. That was what you were told.

Dr Waheed Arian17:41

He told me that yes, we would get you a refugee visa, but it will cost you $10,000 and you have to provide all that amount upfront. I was tagged with another two Afghan refugees as well. Two of us were similar age, another one was older. When we talk about routes of leaving conflict zones, you know, legal versus illegal, the reality is very different.

Dr Waheed Arian18:05

There are no embassies in conflict zones. You don't have an online system. So my parents had to make that decision aged 15 in 1999 and they made that decision and they agreed finally that they would let go of me. And I had a good reason as well that my life was coming to risk. I was coming to an age when I was becoming available to serve the Taliban as one of the soldiers. And I knew that that time wouldn't be too distant when they will ask people of certain age.

Presenter18:31

Mm-hmm.

Presenter18:33

Your parents must have known that as well. They must have been worried.

Dr Waheed Arian18:35

They did. They were worried. But we didn't couldn't find a solution. So those formal routes were not available.

Presenter18:42

But when the plane landed at Heathrow, it became immediately clear that that actually the story you'd been told wasn't was not going to be how it played out. There were police cars waiting for you on the tarmac. Why were they there?

Dr Waheed Arian18:55

The instructions were that as soon as you land in Heathrow, you would get rid of your passports and then you would tell the police that you were Afghan refugees and they would take you in. But what the eldest didn't follow the instruction on the plane. He did something very stupid. He went to the toilet to burn his passport. And then the other one went. He burnt his passport on the plane as well. So I had to go to the toilet, follow the majority. At that point, there was enough smoke from the other two that the alarm went off. And my heart absolutely sank. I didn't know what I was doing. I thought, oh my goodness, I have blown everything now.

Presenter19:36

So that explains the police cars waiting for you on the tarmac. They didn't send you home straightaway. They actually sent you to Feltham Prison for young offenders. You ended up staying there for two weeks. I mean, what was going through your head?

Dr Waheed Arian19:49

I had heard that if my feet touched British soil I wouldn't be sent back. So I was reliefed. I was like, Oh my goodness, I'm not going back on this plane now. I've touched the British soil

Dr Waheed Arian20:03

But then they put me in in in a van. I said, Oh, that's okay. I'm in a van. And then they took me to a police station and the bad news was given to me by one of their solicitors and he told me that most likely they will keep you in prison for a year and a half, and after that you'll be deported because you've committed a crime. And that was an extremely dark time for me because I knew that there was no way for me to get in touch with my mother, to tell her that I'm safe. I couldn't tell her that your son has landed, but he is actually not safe.

Presenter20:33

We'll find out well I've took you after this next disc, Waheed. It's your fifth choice today. What is it?

Dr Waheed Arian20:39

Home by Michael Buble. This was a song that I was listening to when I was at Cambridge University. I saw that other students had family members who would visit. I didn't have anybody, so I would lock myself in that room most of the time. I realized that I was actually a very damaged child. I had to.

Dr Waheed Arian21:02

Grief for thy childhood, and I think this is the song that helped me grieve.

Speaker 321:08

My day has come and gone away I'm Paris and Rome But I wanna go home

Speaker 321:23

Maybe surrounded by a million people I still feel all alone, just wanna call

Presenter21:33

I miss you.

Speaker 321:34

Uh

Presenter21:37

Home by Michael Puble. Wahidarian, you were released from Feltham on bail and eventually the charges against you were dropped. What do you remember about your first night of freedom in the UK?

Dr Waheed Arian21:48

It was magical for me to be out on the streets for the first time, to see clean buildings, to look into the sky. The rain was dropping. I couldn't sleep the entire night. But I was in a hurry and I knew that these opportunities could be taken away from me any moment. I could be sent back.

Presenter22:05

You definitely were in a hurry, Waheed. During the next few years, you worked in a gift shop and a green grocer's, among other jobs. You also studied for your A levels in your spare time. Then as you say, you got into Cambridge, where you studied medicine. How did you adjust to student life there?

Dr Waheed Arian22:21

First of all, I couldn't believe that I was there because I didn't know so much about the reputation at first to start with. And then when I started searching about it, and somebody told me who I'd met through one of the British gas jobs that I was doing, and he said, Oh, have you heard about Cambridge University? I said, Yes, but it's not for me. And he said, Well, you've got the A's, you should apply. So I went to one of my tutors at one of the colleges, and he immediately put me off. He said, You're not white, you're a refugee, we don't even know your school background, so don't waste one of your places, don't apply. I was furious with that, and I came out, I was crying, and but then I was stomping up and down on King's Cross. But I was determined. I said, If Russian bombs didn't kill me, Cambridge is not going to kill me. So I went the opposite way. I really became determined.

Presenter23:12

We became determined.

Dr Waheed Arian23:19

It's Fly By Celine Dion because later on when I came back to London to complete my clinical studies at Imperial College, I was getting closer to my goal to become a doctor, but I was losing touch with my identity. I didn't know whether I was British, I was Afghan, and I was doing so much for the family that I came to a point that I ran out of adrenaline. And that was my breakdown point. And at that point, it was Dr. Shakter, who was my tutor at Imperial College. And for the first time in my life, I opened up. I said, I just can't do this anymore.

Dr Waheed Arian24:02

And I was so um broken deep down that

Dr Waheed Arian24:07

I couldn't keep running any more.

Dr Waheed Arian24:09

And he gave me a hug and he said, Well, he'd listen, you've got a long life in front of you, so you really have to look after yourself. So that's the first time when I started to be kind to myself and to let go.

Speaker 324:23

Fly, fly, do not fear.

Speaker 324:28

Don't waste a breath, don't shed a tear

Speaker 324:32

Your heart is pure, your soul is free.

Speaker 324:36

Be on your way, don't wait for me.

Speaker 324:40

If I'll be you the first you'll climb

Speaker 324:43

On beyond the hands of time.

Speaker 324:48

The moon will rise and the sun will set

Speaker 324:53

Yeah.

Presenter24:55

Fly by Celine Dion

Presenter24:57

Waheed Arian, you graduated from Cambridge in two thousand six, and you started training as a radiologist. Several years later, you set up your charity, Arian Teleheel. But as we've heard, your mental health was suffering. What were you dealing with?

Dr Waheed Arian25:11

I was becoming

Dr Waheed Arian25:13

Quite overreactive, and Davine and my wife noticed it. I was on the edge.

Presenter25:17

Yeah, I was

Dr Waheed Arian25:18

my friends, they were checking on me as well, but I knew I had to seek help. And it's the first time I'm disclosing that, that I had to get go to a clinical psychologist and tell them

Dr Waheed Arian25:30

A later on

Dr Waheed Arian25:32

Working on the front line in the NHS as an A and E doctor and radiologist, I found Mori healing because I knew that my skills were being used.

Dr Waheed Arian25:41

I could see that I could give to patients the smile on their face. Even now, despite being very busy in AE, I pull out a chair, I sit down with my patient and I have a good chat for five minutes. I hold their hands and ask them how they're feeling, how the family members, because I can see the worry on their faces as well. But that's the magical moment for me that reminds me of why I picked up a stethoscope.

Presenter26:07

Wahid, the idea behind teleheal is that volunteer medics in the West can be on the line advising doctors in war zones and in countries with poor resources using smartphones. One of the charity's first patients outside Afghanistan was a two-year-old girl in Syria. How were you able to help her?

Dr Waheed Arian26:25

She was diabetic, this young girl who was comatosed, and I knew immediately that this is an emergency case. So they didn't know what to do next. I connected them to one of our pediatric specialists.

Dr Waheed Arian26:40

And he responded within minutes. He knew it was an emergency as well. He gave step-by-step instructions of how to manage that emergency, what fluids to give, what medication to give. And the next morning I saw a picture and a video of that girl walking. That was something very special for me. Immediate motivation, a proof of concept that this thing is working. Thousands of miles away, a life has been saved.

Presenter27:09

It's time for your seventh choice, Waheed. What are we going to hear next?

Dr Waheed Arian27:14

This is a song by Sir El Tanjohn, Are You Ready for Love? A song when finally after my breakdown in 2009 and getting out of that and trying to learn to be kind to myself, I was ready to find somebody. I was ready to find a life partner who I could confine and who could help me talk about my life. And I found my wife and that is the song I'm dedicating to Davina.

Speaker 327:43

I'll write a symphony just for you and me. If you let me love you.

Speaker 327:52

I'll play a masterpiece just for you to see If you let me love you

Speaker 328:00

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 328:02

Are you ready?

Speaker 328:04

Are you ready for love?

Speaker 328:06

Yes I am. Are you? Are you ready?

Speaker 328:11

I

Presenter28:13

Elton John, and are you ready for love for your wife, Davina, Dr Waheed Aryan? So Waheed, the politics of the current refugee crisis do divide opinion. What would you say to people who are concerned about the numbers of people trying to come to the West?

Dr Waheed Arian28:29

I would simply ask people to think of people who are fleeing conflict, persecution, or for other reasons, as human beings. Of course, we have to protect borders, we have to also make sure that criminal gangs are not operational as well. But blaming refugees, blaming people who fled conflict

Speaker 328:37

Mm-hmm.

Dr Waheed Arian28:53

and trying to politicise them or weaponize them, I think that's inhumane.

Presenter28:59

I wonder about your feelings and your experience. You've spent a lot of time reflecting on life growing up on home and also talking about Afghanistan now. When you think about the country, what do you miss about it and what do you hope for its future?

Dr Waheed Arian29:19

Afghanistan has sadly been

Dr Waheed Arian29:22

forgotten now. It's extremely heartbreaking for me to see the people suffer. We can do better as humanity that if we can only manage to reach out to those people and I miss it dearly. I would love to go back and sit with my relatives on a carpet to be able to eat with them together, to be able to smile with them together, to have tea. Chai, I want to explore, I want to just go and sit near a river and let the water just touch my feet. But now they need help and for the world to come together, put the politics to one side and to reach out to the people.

Speaker 229:36

But I would love

Presenter30:02

Waheed, it's almost time. I'm I'm going to cast you away.

Presenter30:06

You've shown yourself, of course, to be incredibly resourceful, resilient, strong, someone who can build a new life from scratch. Do you have any concerns about being on the desert island? How do you picture it in your mind's eye when you think about it?

Dr Waheed Arian30:22

I was thinking about this. I thought I was a castaway all my life, actually.

Dr Waheed Arian30:28

And so for me, um you know what, I might go and relax for once actually.

Dr Waheed Arian30:34

I am looking forward to it.

Presenter30:35

I'm looking forward to you having finally a moment to put your feet up. I'm excited for you. One more disc before we send you away, though, Waheed. What's it gonna be?

Dr Waheed Arian30:44

It's Everything I Wanted by Billie Eilish. It's a song that makes me think what's happened. It's my own life is repeating itself in front of me. Although I'm better equipped now, I have loved one around me, I have friends and I have the compassion. And I am getting mental health support myself. But for me still it is a bad dream that I'm waking up from.

Speaker 331:08

And you say, As long as I am here, no one can hurt you.

Speaker 331:17

Don't wanna lie here, but you can learn to.

Speaker 331:25

Never could change the way that you see it so

Speaker 331:32

You wouldn't wonder why

Speaker 331:37

They don't deserve you

Presenter31:42

Billy Eilish and everything I wanted. So, Wahid Aryan, I'm going to send you away to your desert island. I'm giving you the Koran, the complete works of Shakespeare, and you can take one other book. What's that going to be?

Dr Waheed Arian31:55

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. It's a book by a 14-year-old who was in Malawi. He couldn't afford to go to school. He had to drop out. Malawi was going through famine and HIV and they didn't have a severe drought and they didn't have water for the crop. So he had to figure out a way to help.

Presenter32:21

It all starts with one remarkable true story. That book is yours. You can also have a luxury item, Waheed. What are you going to go for? Please tell me you're going to treat yourself. You're supposed to be getting better at this self-care business.

Dr Waheed Arian32:32

I will be taking a pen and paper actually.

Presenter32:34

Ah.

Dr Waheed Arian32:35

When I was a castaway and enduring conflict, I would go into outside a house on my own. I would find a pen and paper and I would draw. I'm not good at drawing, but I would draw an imaginary house, an imaginary school, imaginary friends, and that would give me a moment of solace, whether it was for a few hours. That was finding hope.

Presenter33:03

I'll give you them gladly. And finally, which one track of the eight that you've shared with us to day would you save from the waves, Waheed?

Dr Waheed Arian33:12

It would be fly by, Celine Dion, to comfort the lost myself for the lost childhood, but also to reflect on the good things and what I'm capable of.

Presenter33:23

Dr. Wahid Aryan, thank you very much for sharing your Desert Island Discs with us.

Dr Waheed Arian33:29

Thank you so much, Laurent, for having me.

Presenter33:50

Hello, I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Wahid, and I'm sure he'll put that pen and paper to good use on the island. We've cast away many medics in the past, including David Knott, Professor Dame Elizabeth Neka Anionwu, and Professor Avril Mansfield. You can find these episodes in our Desert Island Discs programme archive and through BBC Sounds. The studio manager for today's programme was Michael Millum, the assistant producer was Christine Pavlovsky, and the producer was Paula McGinley. Next time, my guest will be the rugby player Kevin Sinfield. I do hope you'll join us.

Presenter34:27

Hello, this is Marion Keys. And this is Tara Flynn. And we're here to remind you that our podcast, Now You're Asking, is back for a new series. Each week we take real listeners' questions about life, love, lingerie, cats, dogs, dentists, anything really. And apply our worldly wisdom in a way which we hope will help, but also hopefully entertain. Join us, why don't you? Search up Now You're Asking on BBC Radio 4, now available on BBC Sounds.