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'Make your own positive change' - Sir Terry Waite

Sarah Lilley,BBC News, Suffolkand
Alice Cunningham,BBC News, Suffolk
News imageGetty Images Sir Terry Waite smiles at the camera after receiving a Knighthood at Buckingham Palace in 2023. He has grey hair and a grey beard. He is wearing a dark grey suit with a white shirt and white tie. Getty Images
Sir Terry Waite was held hostage for almost five years between 1987 and 1991

Former Beirut hostage Sir Terry Waite has encouraged others to "act within your own area of influence" to create changes in the world.

Sir Terry, 85, spent nearly five years in captivity after he was taken hostage while working to negotiate the release of several captured Britons in Lebanon.

Sir Terry, of Hartest, near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, was held in solitary confinement for 1,763 days before he was released on 18 November 1991.

He told BBC Radio Suffolk he was often asked how people could make the world a better place, and always urged them to make their own positive change.

"People say to me, 'The world is in a terrible mess, what can we do?'," he said.

"My response always to that is try and act within your own area of influence... try and do something positive.

"That's the way you can make a difference.

"That's what I always try and do. I don't always succeed by any means, and I'm no saint, but I just do my best."

News imageGetty Images Sir Terry is pictured exiting an aircraft after his release in 1991. He is looking away from the camera while smiling and waving his arm. Another man can be seen exiting the aircraft behind him. Getty Images
Sir Terry said he was initially very angry following his capture but was able to calm his mind to help him through the days

In the 1980s, as the Archbishop of Canterbury's special envoy, Sir Terry was asked to negotiate the release of several British prisoners in Lebanon from militia group Hezbollah.

It promised he could visit one of the hostages who was very ill and about to die, but it was a trap and they captured him.

He spent the next few years in "very strict solitary confinement" while chained to a wall, with no natural light and no ability to exercise, and was subject to torture and mock executions.

Sir Terry Waite was finally released after 1,763 days in captivity

Hezbollah has been back in the news recently after Israel went on the offensive against it within Lebanon following almost a year of cross-border fighting sparked by the war in Gaza.

On Tuesday, Israeli strikes on northern Lebanon killed several people, according to officials.

News imageGetty Images Sir Terry pictured outside Buckingham Palace holding his Knighthood in his hands toward the camera. He is smiling. He has grey hair and a grey beard. He is wearing a dark grey suit with a lighter grey waistc oast and a white shirt and white tie. He has a red poppy in his left hand breast for Remembrance Day. Getty Images
Sir Terry was awarded a Knighthood last year, which he said he still could not believe

Sir Terry said his hostage experience led him to pursue life away from a salaried job, and instead he went on to write several books and give lecturers on his experience.

It also led him to set up the charity Hostage International, supporting families of hostages and former hostages themselves.

He also is the president of Emmaus, a homelessness charity, and he was awarded a Knighthood last year for his services to charity.

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