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Outlook: Mountains took my family - but I love them

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Kate Ballard stands in front of mountains

15/03/2022 GMT

Mountains took my family - but I love them

BBC World Service - Outlook, Mountains took my family - but I love them

Kate Ballard lost her mum and brother to the Himalayas but finds joy on the slopes

Scot Kate Ballard lost her mum and her brother on mountaineering expeditions to the Himalayas. But Kate still loves mountains - being on the slopes helps her deal with her grief.

Scot Kate Ballard is the daughter of world-famous mountaineer Alison Hargreaves. In 1995, when Kate was just four, Alison was caught in a storm on K2 in the Himalayas and died. Despite the tragedy, Kate and her brother Tom were raised by their dad to love the slopes and it soon became clear that Tom shared his mother's climbing talent. But sadly he would also share her fate. Kate speaks to Jo Fidgen about travel to the Himalayas and how, despite her personal losses, her love of the mountains is undiminished. A film about the family is called The Last Mountain. It's by director Chris Terrill and is available to watch on BBC iPlayer and via online streaming services. 

In the early 1990s, Donna Greenwald was a semi-professional singer and young mum. Then her husband had a great idea; to send off a demo tape of her singing the national anthem to a professional baseball team. What followed was a tour of every major league baseball stadium in the country. It took seven years, and earned her the nickname, 'Anthem Annie'. She spoke to her proud son, Outlook reporter Danny Greenwald, about her mission.

Master Aslam had always wanted to be a musician, but life didn't turn out that way and at 55, he was working as a rickshaw driver in Karachi, Pakistan. One day, someone stopped on the street to film him singing and the clip went viral - with almost one million hits. He spoke to Outlook in April 2016 about his unexpected rise to fame.  

Get in touch: outlook@bbc.com

Presenter: Jo Fidgen

(Photo: Kate Ballard. Credit: Ballard Images)

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