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Outlook: Why I thanked the man who shot me

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Wesley Hamilton

28/08/2019 GMT

Why I thanked the man who shot me

BBC World Service - Outlook, Why I thanked the man who shot me

Wesley Hamilton says that getting shot was “the best thing that ever happened to me”

Wesley Hamilton’s injuries left him paralysed but he says that getting shot was “the best thing that ever happened to me.”

When Wesley Hamilton was in his early 20s he was unhappy, overweight, and dealing drugs. Then, just after he turned 24 and got custody of his daughter, he was shot by a stranger. Wesley survived but his injuries left him paralysed. As the years went on, he was able to get fit and healthy, even becoming a bodybuilding champion and starting a charity called Disabled...but not really. And last year he came face to face with his attacker – and thanked him. Wesley tells Emily Webb why getting shot was “the best thing that ever happened to me.”

Freweini Mebrahtu is an Ethiopian businesswoman and period pioneer. She's been on a mission to make sanitary pads available to girls across rural Ethiopia

Hailu Mergia was a famous musician in Ethiopia, but forced to flee the Derg regime, he ended up as a taxi driver in the US. Hailu didn't abandon music - he kept his keyboard in the back of his cab and kept playing and composing. 

Picture: Wesley Hamilton
Credit: Christina Browne

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