大象传媒

Waneek Horn-Miller is famous for co-captaining Canada's waterpolo team during the 2000 Olympic Games. But her life could have been very different. Waneek comes from the First Nation Mohawk people and as a teenager she was stabbed by a soldier during a land rights protest that turned violent.

Wellington Jighere from Nigeria has just become the first African to win the English-language World Scrabble Championship, beating 129 players to get the title.

Dr Anne Merriman is a palliative care specialist who has spent decades helping patients who are already dying to be as comfortable as possible. In 1990 she started the first service of its kind in Africa, and still works in Uganda today.

Katarzyna Bonda is known as "the Queen of Polish Crime Writing". Her books are best-sellers and feature a character called Sasha Za艂uska who is an ingenious police profiler. But Katarzyna's own life was marred by tragedy. She found herself on the wrong side of the law when she was working as a newspaper crime journalist.

(Photo: Waneek Horn-Miller. Credit: Waneek Horn-Miller)