Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Nurse and humanitarian who, during the Ethiopian famine, was forced to choose which starving people to feed, as seen in Michael Buerk's reports.
On the island
Eight records
Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini
memories of childhood summers on the beach in France with her family, camping under the stars
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (read by Peter Yearsley)
I used to carry this in a little booklet around with me. ... It brings back to me all what my life was about as a child. It's about calmness and happiness.
given to me by my mother when I came back from my first mission with the Red Cross in Lebanon in the eighties. ... when I hear that, I can feel myself back in the battlefield.
The Green Eye of the Little Yellow God
J. Milton Hayes (read by Bransby Williams)
we used to sit round the camp fire at night ... and sometimes read a monologue. This particular monologue was said by one of the Royal Engineers
The Flying Theme (from Out of Africa)
when I was with the Red Cross, particularly in Ethiopia and Kenya, we flew at 500 feet above the grounds and snuck up on the animals. ... Africa is such a beautiful country.
Rudyard Kipling (read by Michael Caine)
It just means something very special. And when I was in Afghanistan I had it translated into Dari
Soka Gakkai Choir (conducted by Peter Osborne)
It's saying that we all can stand up and make a difference. Just dare to believe you can do it.
Call Me AlFavourite
I play it on the first day of the course. I have it at top blast as all the students come in
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:03Why is [the Geneva Convention] important to you?
It's the one flash of humanity in all wars. ... humanity and the Red Cross and the Geneva Conventions is just as important now as it ever was.
Presenter asks
8:13You're dyslexic. When you were at school, how did you get on?
I was [put] in a class a year younger than me, and I was still pretty near the bottom of that one, and when I looked back at it, the words didn't really make sense at all. ... I got enough exams to get into nursing.
Presenter asks
9:46Tell me what it was like when you met [the fighters in Lebanon who called themselves freedom fighters].
I can remember getting out of the Red Cross vehicle and going up to them just to talk to them. And they're covered in Kalashnikovs and grenades and bullets. ... I suddenly realised that these weren't killers, ... these were human beings, and they wanted peace.
Presenter asks
The keepsakes
The book
The luxury
On a selection day [in the Ethiopian famine], can you explain to me what would happen?
I would go up and down the lines and look at every child and then just put a little mark on them if I chose them. ... I choose the ones which sort of have a spark of life in their eyes. ... Knowing the ones you didn't choose wouldn't survive because there was no food at all.
Presenter asks
19:22What did you think when [Michael Buerk and a cameraman] arrived?
I was told they were coming, and they came in the door and they said, Right, um, let's get some filming, stand over there, um, let's get some really sick children, Claire, would you like to hold that one? ... I just thought this is ridiculous.
Presenter asks
28:13You contracted malaria which meant you had to give up travelling to malarial areas. How much did that affect you?
I thought, this is awful. ... I just didn't feel I belonged there at all. ... Now, all of a sudden, I couldn't go and do the work which I thought I was good at.
“I don't just live to eat and sleep and get money to have a nice house. I have to create value. I have to do something in life.”
“I suddenly realised that these weren't killers, as the title so called we called them, these were human beings, and they wanted peace.”
“I can remember actually one person ... during the coup d'etat in Sierra Leone. ... He said, 'Oh, no, look, what's happened? Am I going to die?' And I remember saying, 'It's all right, don't mind, we'll be all right ...' and it's an awful feeling knowing someone was going to die and still having to reassure them.”
“I thought, how on earth am I going to do this? ... I choose the ones which sort of have a spark of life in their eyes.”
“I felt responsible for those I wasn't able to help, and I thought I'd be vilified when I went back.”