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The stories we love from Outlook, sent in by our listeners.

In 2016, when Jenny Söderqvist and Helene Åberg’s car exploded in the middle of the vast Kalahari desert, their supplies and only lifeline to the outside world went up in flames. No rescue would come. The two friends from Sweden would spend the next five harrowing days lost in the wilderness and stalked by lions, until their salvation appeared to them in the most unlikely of forms: a tin of Spam.

Michelle Vargas Lao is a singer from the Philippines, now based in Canada. In 2013 she won a nationwide talent contest for Filippino singers called the Global Pinoy Singing Idol and she went on to win a trip back home to Manila. But Michelle's introduction to singing was an unusual one: she grew up within a prison compound, where her mother worked, and it was the female prisoners who first taught her how to sing to express her emotions. This was to become a lifeline for Michelle in times of turbulence.

Tom Cridland discovered Elton John's music for the first time when he went to university and he loved it instantly. He became obsessed and knew every Elton song – but by the time he left Tom was struggling with an alcohol addiction. Years later, inspired by Elton John's sobriety, he managed to quit. When Tom nearly relapsed during the Covid-19 pandemic, it was learning the piano and all of Elton's songs that kept him sober and lead to a successful new career as a tribute act.

Presenter: Jo Fidgen
Producer: Zoe Gelber

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(Photo: Cassette tape. Credit: Getty Images)