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Outlook

Factual: Life Stories

True stories of ordinary people and the extraordinary events that have shaped their lives.

Outlook: My Dream Job Almost Killed Me

Cara Anna

23/09/2014

My Dream Job Almost Killed Me

BBC World Service - Outlook, My Dream Job Almost Killed Me

The foreign correspondent speaking out about mental health after two suicide attempts

American journalist Cara Anna tells Jo Fidgen how surviving two suicide attempts has led her to campaign to support others in her position.

American journalist Cara Anna thought she had landed her dream job when she became a foreign correspondent in China.  But the stress led to mental health problems, and she eventually attempted suicide twice.  She now campaigns to support others in her position.

Clarence Adoo was working as a professional trumpet player in the north of England in 1995, when a car accident left him paralysed from the neck down. He now performs using a tailor-made instrument called Headspace.

Laurens de Groot gave up a career as a policeman in the Netherlands in order to become an anti-whaling activist. He now confronts Japanese whalers at sea. 

Mahsa and Marjan Vahdat are sisters from Iran who found fame singing traditional Persian melodies - despite the restrictions on women singing in public.

(Picture: Cara Anna. Credit: Dese'Rae L. Stage and livethroughthis.org)

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