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Vian Dakhil is the only female Yazidi MP in the Iraqi parliament. When Islamic State fighter seized the town of Sinjar in Northern Iraq last year, hundreds of Yazidis were killed and thousands were stranded on Mount Sinjar without food or water. Vian Dakhil stood up in parliament and made an impassioned plea on behalf of her people - calling for an intervention. She told Matthew Bannister about that speech and the impact of it around the world.

In 1992, Randy Thomas joined a Christian organisation in the US called Exodus, that claimed to help people who wished to limit their homosexual desires. Randy became what he calls an 'ex-gay poster boy from them - but in 2013, Exodus issued an unreserved apology for the hurt and shame it had caused to gay people over the years and shut down. Then earlier this year, Randy decided to himself came out as gay, for the second time in his life.

Sara Bahayi is believed to be the only woman taxi driver in Afghanistan. Despite receiving death threats, she's now teaching other women in her homeland to drive, hoping they will follow in her footsteps.

Zimbabwean-born Sean Conway is the first and only person to swim the length of Britain - a total of 900 miles from the most southerly point of England to the north eastern tip of Scotland.

Valentin Gruener is originally from Germany and runs a wildlife park in Botswana. Three years ago he rescued an abandoned lion cub. He called her Sirga, and he raised her by hand. Now she's grown up, Valentin and Sirga have become inseparable.

Image: Sara Bahayi; Sirga with Valentin Gruener (credit: Tauana Films); swimmer Sean Conway