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Episode details

World Service,05 Apr 2016,49 mins

My Mother Was Killed For Being HIV+

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In 1998 Mandisa Dlamini's mother Gugu was brutally killed by neighbours when she revealed she was HIV positive on the radio. Her murder in Durban had a powerful impact in South Africa, and Gugu's name became synonymous with the fight to reduce the stigma and misunderstandings around HIV/AIDS. Mandisa was just 13 at the time, but over a decade later she started the Gugu Dlamini Foundation in her mother's name and went back to their old community to apologise to her mother's killers and work with the women and children there. Glenn Close is one of Hollywood's most famous actresses but she's currently on stage rather than on set. She's playing the lead in the musical, Sunset Boulevard, in London and has been talking to the BBC's John Wilson about returning to play the show's lead role, Norma Desmond, after twenty years. Vesa Rantanen was part of team of five Finnish divers who travelled to a remote part of Norway to dive in a spectacular underwater cave called Plura Cave. The cave system is over two kilometres long and 130 metres deep. It's an incredibly dangerous dive and, on this occasion, two of the men died. The three divers who survived formed a team with more than 20 others to carry out a secret recovery of their friends' bodies. Another Finnish diver Sami Paakkarinen was part of that second team. Colin Rosie never goes out without a top hat - a tall smart hat traditionally worn by British upper class gentlemen in the 19th century. He runs a stall selling vintage hats called The Last Stop for the Curious in London's famous Spitalfields market, but very few of his customers know how a top hat helped him off the streets when he was homeless. (Photo credit: Mandisa Dlamini)

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