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Anne and I were, had a 38-week appointment
with the gynecologist up in Cork.
We probably realized there was an issue
when he had taken about 25 scans,
and he had called for a backup.
Obviously I remember, I'm getting
very upset about it, you know, sorry.
So like, it's obviously,
I suppose you start to think the worst,
you know what I mean?
A couple of days later, we went to Dublin
and we met the senior lady up there who did the scans.
So then we discovered, we heard of cystic hygroma
for the first time, you know?
Finally the day of the birth, of the delivery came,
and Daniel was delivered around 11:00.
Now Anne was obviously still, you know,
in the recovery ward, and I went in to see Daniel,
and obviously it was, it was fairly traumatic.
So and he was born, like obviously there was,
he was christened because they had asked us, you know,
when he'd be born and what did we want to call him.
So one of the nurses christened him.
We met a professor there who would be
the head of the department there,
and he felt there was nothing he could do
for Daniel by way of surgery.
But the good news he had for us
is that there was another doctor
who happened to be on holidays that week, Mr. Russell,
and he was due back a week later,
and he had been in America, and he may have seen this.
We had to pray that Daniel would survive for the week.
The cyst started to bleed internally.
It's not just a piece of tissue, it's also like fibres
that are wrapped around all the organs.
It's a really extensive surgery,
and we had no idea whatsoever what was before us.
When we finally met Mr. Russell and he said to us
that he was prepared to do surgery on him,
and he'd be quite optimistic
that he'd be able to reduce it at least,
and have him in such a way that he could live a normal life.
If you were told this was going to happen
before the 38 weeks, if we were told that,
you'd just say, "I can't cope," or whatever.
But like it happens, and you have to keep going,
because you've no choice.
Like at the end of the day, we have two other children
and they wanted to see him,
and obviously all his aunt and uncles wanted to see him,
you know what I mean?
So we got fantastic support from everybody,
like all, like Anne's family were amazing.
I was brought up in Puglia,
which is a town in southern Italy.
All through my teens I was dreaming
of wanting to expand my horizons,
and one day I had an opportunity of traveling.
I came to London, and London has been my home
for the past 40 years.
I experienced isolation to the point
that I began to feel excluded throughout my teens.
I'm thankful that I discovered some incredible books
that allowed me to mature in a way,
because I was able to explore other people's identities
and compare these identities to mine.
I learned to appreciate the importance
of human connection, support, and acceptance.
I did not find the support I was looking for growing up,
to the point that one day when the opportunity arose
that I could leave my hometown, I did.
I often think, why did I come to London?
Why couldn't I go to Paris or another European city?
I chose England because England is an island,
and it is here that I came looking
for stability, for friends, a new beginning,
and then realized how important good support was,
for me or anybody, to be able to express themselves
with their full potential.
And so I really appreciate what it means to be loved,
to be supported, to be valued.
You can have cystic hygroma anywhere on your body.
It's more of an external condition rather than internal.
Where Daniel had it, all his organs
in his neck and everywhere were affected by it.
The thing with Daniel is,
Daniel has had this cyst from day one.
Daniel was just one of the kids,
and he did everything the same as like, he played hurling,
he played sports, he was on the trampoline,
he did bouncy castles, he did everything the same.
He has had times when people weren't very nice to him,
but he has a really go-ahead attitude anyway,
you know what I mean?
He's one of those kids who, "If it bothers you,
it's your problem, it doesn't bother me,"
and he can cope with it that way.
Now, like there's been several occasions
that people looked at him and pointed at him,
which he didn't appreciate.
But a few times it has annoyed me,
especially with older kids, like talking about him.
There'll be always one who will be leading the charge.
Daniel and I would walk over to him and I'd say,
"Well this is Daniel, what's your name?"
And that puts him on the back foot.
Nobody wants to be spoken about unkindly,
you know what I mean?
But to be fair to Daniel,
he has a really, really good attitude to it.
I have great memories from the time I moved to London,
and these are beautiful memories that give me
the courage really to do the work that I do.
The love that I received
from total strangers when I came here.
For a week or two weeks, I was walking
through South Kensington,
thinking that South Kensington was London,
which no doubt was much bigger than this small little town
I came from in southern Italy.
It is in South Kensington that I met this couple
that gave me so much love, gave me a roof over my head,
made me feel appreciated.
Never did they make me feel that I was an outsider,
but, so their memory is with me.
It does give me the strength to continue.
It has given me strength all along.
All these years have gone by.
Honestly, what a contrast between the place I was brought up
and the home I found in London, in this huge city.
It is through this experience that I set up Youmanity.
You feel so helpless, you know what I mean?
You're putting your trust in the hands of the surgeon,
you know what I mean?
And while they're all trying to reassure you,
but like inevitably, you know,
you're going in for major surgery.
He was in ICU, and with line with the cross
with no heartbeat.
There was trolleys flying and falling over,
and nurses running in red all over the place to give him CPR
to get him back on track, you know what I mean?
And like obviously, we were put out of the room immediately.
That's a scary situation, now when you see that,
and it's just a bit mental for a couple of minutes,
you know what I mean?
But thankfully, you know, he always came good.
And again, a second or third surgery,
he got an infection in where the surgery was,
he got an infection, and when the doctor left him,
he was stable, but he deteriorated fairly rapidly.
Subsequently, Mr. Russell too, he was going down
to the south of Ireland, and they ended up
having to call the police to stop him,
and to get him to come back, which he did.
And so he had to come back and do some further surgery,
and kind of, there was something had got poisoned in his,
in the area where the surgery was,
and I'd been told to go down to,
to go down to Cork to get his,
bring up his grandparents and the kids, yes.
But it didn't look good, you know.
And then anyway, I went down to Cork to collect the kids.
And Mr. Russell, he did surgery on him,
and I didn't get back then,
so that was maybe in the late evening,
maybe 7:00 or 8:00, and I didn't get back from Cork
into the room, be 12:00 or 1:00.
And when we came back to the room,
he was sitting up eating yogurt, after I'd been told
that he could be dead, you know what I mean, so.
I met Daniel Moloney last August,
at a time when unfortunately I was going through
a rather difficult period, when suicide ideation
was much present in my life.
There are times when you don't even know
why you get into a dark corner.
But I was once again questioning the value of life.
I felt despite all of the projects and the work
that I'd done for Youmanity, I questioned myself
as to whether all of this was worth anything.
When you do come from a background
where you've experienced some hardships,
it doesn't take much for people
to say the wrong thing to you and desimilize you.
And then I bumped into Daniel Moloney
and I had to really do a double take,
because Daniel had a facial disfigurement,
a cyst is protruding out of his face and neck.
This is a young man that is working on a building site,
zooming between places as if really there's no issue.
So when I saw Daniel walking around with a confident,
the dignity that everyone should have, must have,
gave me some food for thought.
I realized that, hold on a moment,
what I am experiencing is nothing in comparison
to what this young guy must have gone through.
So I wanted to meet him.
And I approached Daniel, I told him about the charity,
and through speaking to him
and through meeting his father William Moloney afterwards
I realized that Friendship
had to be the name of my next project.
It made me realize the power of love and support,
because William is the driving force.
William is a doting, devoted father,
that will do anything for his son.
And that's what really is important in all of us,
to be able to feel nurtured, to feel loved.
We need somebody to tell us, "Don't worry darling,
you know, you'll be all right.
Never mind about the fact that you know,
your hair doesn't look right today
or you have a protruding mass, this is how you are."
And so who's got the problem is not the person
with a facial disfigurement, but society.
Let them exist as they are.
Look, I don't have to go any further
than Angelo, like, you know what I mean?
He met him once on the street down in Basewater,
and like, he did make an impression on him,
and hence, we are here basically, you know what I mean?
I don't know how William Moloney felt when he learned
that his son was going to be born with the cystic hygroma,
but looking at William with his son gives me the certainty
that something wonderful must have developed
as love between father and son.
And this is what I want to find out
with this work that we're doing.
All I can say is that look, we get on really, really well,
and I admire him so much for all he's been through.
And to be fair to him, he never complains,
you know what I mean?
Like look, we've met just lots of people
who've been really kind to us,
and I feel so grateful to Daniel for that,
because he makes such an impression on so many people.
Like, you know, we've met people on just once,
and like, I've got complimented,
"Oh, he's such a wonderful young man."
So tell me Daniel, do you see yourself
as being inspirational to others?
Well, I really, really want to be a young,
if I can gain from the way I was,
maybe I can inspire other people to do anything,
and just if maybe someone was like me,
maybe I could inspire them to change the way they are,
and for the better.
But you do know that you have been
truly inspirational to me personally,
and you have helped me more than you think.
And if I can do more, then that's all I really want to do.
To me, you truly are unique.
But I do know that you would like the cystic hygroma
- removed at some point. - Yeah.
And I understand the medical reasons
as to why you must have this removed
because it is pressing on your windpipe.
It makes it difficult for you to breathe.
You want the tracheostomy out.
Yeah, there is that, but maybe not necessarily,
like I mean, you breathe with it just fine.
Like if I take it off right now,
like I breathe with no problem.
Like, I worked with it for like 22 years, and so yeah,
obviously like adjusting the way
I can breathe easier whenever, but once you actually do
just get accustomed to the way of doing it,
it gets a lot easier.
When you go out, people look at you,
and your face is speaking
before you can actually say anything.
Yeah, but occasionally when, usually when that happens,
I'll immediately try and just,
maybe wave to the person, and just say that like,
"Hey, I'm not like that different.
Like, you don't have to look at me
or treat me any differently than anyone else.
And like I would just, I still act like a normal person,
so you don't have to look at me like I'm that different."
You know that another hero here
is your father, your dad.
Your father has been incredibly supportive
from the day you were born,
like any good father would be.
Yeah, yeah, oh yeah.
But how do you feel about him?
I've always viewed him as the biggest person in the world
that I can always rely on and always,
he's never let me down.
He's always been, like in full support of me,
and he is always there when I need someone to talk to,
or if I am feeling threatened about something.
He's always the number one person I turn to
to talk to about these things.
And yeah, I just feel like he's just the biggest,
or the number one person in the world, I think probably.
Would you say that Dad is your best friend then?
Well.
You have to think about it?
Well, I don't know if I'd go that far, but.
But yeah, but we do, but we go on really well,
and yeah, one of my best friends ever.
But yeah, I'm glad to always have him on my side,
and I would never want that to change.
When I met Daniel for the first time
and I spoke to him, I realized how
each and every one of us is like Daniel,
because all of us have something inside us,
or outside us that needs attention.
And it is a matter of having a conscience
and becoming acquainted with what your disfigurement is.
Whether it is a protruding cystic hygroma,
or a cancer, or it is a mental disability,
whatever it is, we all have one.
But then you have a young man,
he's able to get out there on a building site,
earning his money to be able to pay for university.
This is what gave me the strength to go on.
And there are parallels between Daniel Moloney's story
and mine, I suppose.
I can only imagine the level of bullying and unkindness
Daniel must have experienced growing up,
much in the same way I was bullied.
What is paradoxical, is that we all
want to be different, don't we?
So we choose some different clothes, different hairstyles,
but yet the moment you become a bit more different,
people say, "Hah, no, you don't fit in.
You've got to go under the knife for an operation
so that your face can be exactly the same
as the person next door."
I am in two minds as to whether
this is what Daniel should do.
Should he go under the knife
to fit society's expectations?
I know for a fact that in my case,
I was asked once to change my voice.
I was asked to walk in a different way,
couldn't wear certain clothes.
So I mean, what about being your real self?
Be a short fight, you fight clean,
and remember, behave yourselves at all times, shake hands.
, and the new.
IPA heavyweight champion,.
To present the bill tonight,
we have this absolutely amazing young man, Daniel Moloney,
who has had over 30 operations
to remove the cyst from his face.
As a young boy, Daniel has faced bullying,
and he's been judged throughout his life
on the way he looks.
Saying he's a true warrior,
let's give him a massive service now,
round of applause, and give him a huge assist
for his operation.
Ladies and gentlemen, Daniel Moloney.
,
one more time, Daniel Moloney.
It's not a question that they're going to be able to,
call it fix him for the want of a better word,
and that he is like that he never had it,
he never had cystic hygroma.
That's not going to happen.
But what Daniel would like to do,
what I want to do because he wants it,
is to try and reduce the what's remaining
as much as possible.
And in time, if it was possible,
then we would remove the tracheostomy.
But the tracheostomy is no guarantee about that,
that's not a definite that that's going to go.
He has the cyst in the back of his throat area,
and as Mr. Russell and several people have said,
that's his insurance policy,
because if he gets a throat infection,
his throat could swell up and he would choke, basically.
Daniel wants to have his own voice,
and the problem that he's been having all of these years
is that his face has been speaking for him.
All of this time is a face that has been shouting at people.
The removal of the tracheostomy is a very big decision.
That's ultimately his decision,
but it's a very big decision,
and at the moment it's not on the menu.
The removal of the remainder of the cyst is possible,
but as I said, it's not a guarantee that it's,
he's not going to look as if he never had it.
And I made all the decisions for Daniel
up to up this particular one,
but this one is Daniel's decision.
And we were told that the day we went,
we met the two surgeons in Dublin, is that Daniel is now 21,
Daniel is the patient, and they're taking advice from him.
I'm traveling to Cork so I can finally
get to meet Daniel and William's family.
It'd be very interesting for me to get to know everyone,
but also to learn about Daniel's background,
and where he was brought up, his school, his friends.
It'll be interesting to see the parallels
between Daniel's life and mine.
We've obviously brightened well,
because it is again to such a contrast from London,
we are from a more rural background, you know,
obviously out Knockanore, and in the real
heart of the country, you know what I mean?
It was wonderful driving to William's house,
and meeting his mother and brother and sisters.
It was an incredible welcome.
And for someone who comes from southern Italy,
it reminded me of oh, I just enjoyed being with a family.
Taking a walk from the farm,
I found myself in this beautiful, idyllic spot.
I could not possibly imagine a place as tranquil,
just as in fact Daniel is,
and this is where Daniel was born, and this is his land,
and it is incredibly evocative of Daniel's own personality.
The family has been incredibly welcoming.
This is the kind of welcome
that I was hoping I would receive.
I feel totally chuffed that I've been accepted.
Well, I'd like to give a little gift to William's mom.
- Oh, lovely. - And Daniel's grandmother.
- Yes. - This is for you.
- Oh, what is it? - It's a small gift,
from my region in southern Italy, and-
But you're very kind.
For heaven sake, there was no need to bring me anything.
I got you a little Puglia in a box.
Yes, well we'll see what that is.
That's a nice thing, isn't it?
That really is now... It's real pottery, is it?
Yes, and it's all hand-decorated.
Hand-painted, yeah.
Oh lovely, oh my dear, that's a very nice thing.
Thank you.
I find this city very similar
to the one I was born in,
yet they are incredibly different cities,
but the sense of history
and all the monuments that I've visited so far,
they do remind me of my place back home.
It's quite remarkable, I can't explain it.
It is a nice feeling about it.
I feel incredibly at peace here.
This house holds a special place in your heart
because this is the house where Daniel
came home from the hospital the very first time, was born.
And this is the house where the several operations
took place in the course of a number of years.
And was this a happy home?
Oh yeah, yeah, actually we had great times,
because like Daniel, he became a bit of a celebrity,
you know what I mean, in his own right.
It's amazing how people that you don't know would just,
you know, initially he was in the buggy,
and then he was in a walker,
and suddenly he was walking along with me,
or I was carrying him on a lot of occasions,
you know what I mean?
We had some great times,
and we had a lovely garden out the back there,
and you know, every birthday was always marked
with all his cousins came in to it to see him.
And so that was, it was always,
that was always good fun, you know what I mean?
So we were fortunate that we had some brilliant times here,
you know what I mean, over the years, you know?
So this is the house,
the street where you were brought up?
- Yeah. - Any happy memories?
Yeah, just when family memories,
where all five of us were together here,
or just yeah, like obviously I spent Christmas here,
and spent holidays, and just every occasion like that,
that were really nice,
and just having that brought back,
you know what I mean,
that I'm happy to think about, and all that.
So now that you live in London
and you come to visit here,
don't you miss this beautiful place?
Yeah, yeah, like in London there's more to do,
like there's just more places to go to,
because like obviously it's bigger.
But I don't think it's as good as here.
Daniel and William wanted to tell me
more about the family history.
I was taken on a beautiful walk down to a river,
and it was here that a tragedy occurred
with the drowning of a young family member,
eight-year-old Margaret Moloney.
This affected everyone badly.
The family marks the anniversary
with a ceremony of remembrance every year.
She was just only eight years of age,
and she was just sitting here,
and there was a pier here at the time,
and she was sitting on it.
And look, you know, I believe that one of the stories
is that they were having an apple to eat,
and the apple fell in the water
and she reached out to get it and fell over.
And because she was wearing a dress with her,
I can't think of the, a flannel dress I think it's called.
And there was a lot of layers in it,
and the air in it held her up in the water initially.
Tide was falling at the time,
and it had dragged her out into the middle of the water,
but unfortunately the weight of the dress,
it sucked her down.
Like, my grandfather was never the same after it,
as nobody would be, you know?
And my dad, if he heard you were going down to the river,
he used to be afraid of his life.
He said, "You know what?"
He was so nervous of it,
because he was obviously present when this happened,
and that's not something you'd forget in a hurry, you know?
We all, you know, just got this put up, to as a little,
just to mark the occasion, you know?
The one thing you'd be guaranteed of happening
when you'd arrive at the beach,
is that everything you'd have,
including clothes, hair, heels,
tracheostomies, ever would be full of sand.
There is a story, the kids were playing with a canoe,
and he fell off into the water.
There was some skirmish to rescue Daniel then,
because obviously of the tracheostomy,
there was some panic for a second
to pull him out of the water, but anyway,
he lived to fight another day anyway, you know?
Look, there's some lovely memories
of us all being here, and you know, playing football,
and playing hurling and stuff on the beach.
And of course I'm making sandcastles, you know?
And they used try to bury me, et cetera,
you know what I mean, in the sand,
which was always a bit of an experience.
It was a practice trial.
It's a,.
No, there was times it was challenging,
because there was a lot of uncertainty, I suppose really.
And also we didn't understand the condition, you know?
But now look, just 23 years later almost,
and I can see how well he's getting on with his own life,
and you know, that he's gone starting work and all this now,
and look, we don't often get this kind of opportunity
to spend a bit of time together.
Daniel, did you make any friends at this school?
I really did not love that place.
During my last year here, basically my teacher
did not work for me the best.
And so I actually do remember the day
all that started happening.
My mam came to collect me like she always did,
and when we came out, as we were walking out the car,
I just told her about the day I had,
and just about something that happened
with me and my teacher.
And when that happened, she got like really annoyed
and angry about that, so she actually came in
to talk to my teacher, and we all just kind of,
my mam just came to a consensus
that she thought my teacher just wasn't being
very nice and all that.
So around November we just decided
that I just wasn't going to go here anymore.
I find this location remarkably similar to Puglia,
because of the many farms dotted around the region,
and this is exactly how you would see Puglia when you visit.
The only difference, the vegetation here is incredibly lush,
whereas in Puglia is, the climate is very sunny.
We are in the middle of summer now.
The landscape will look dramatically different to this.
The people of County Cork, the Irish people,
are incredibly hospitable, as the people from Puglia.
And I'm sure I'll be able to reciprocate
the kindness that I've received here.
My dad wanted us to go to Aberdeen
where they're playing against Watts.
He's been a sports fan his whole life.
My dad just like having me accompany.
So long that it makes him happy I'm okay with going,
even if I don't really care.
Look, we don't get that many opportunities
to do stuff together, and he'd be as happy at home,
but look, it just gets him out.
And we've met some really nice people,
when you're out there as well.
And the funny thing is, when when stuff happens,
like at scores and stuff, he does, he-
He lies, he lies, he lies.
No, I've seen him in action.
Yeah, he gets excited, you know?
- But he is very vocal. - You'd be surprised.
Yeah!
You know that eventually
you will be looking for a place of your own.
How would you feel about moving out here?
Now I'm nervous because, nervous,
but also kind of like, for my whole life
I've sort of had a sense of insecurity
and like, over the past few years
I've really been trying my best
to know that security in myself,
and making myself feel like I could handle
things in my life all by myself.
So at the moment, maybe not 100%,
but again, when it does happen,
I feel like I will be ready
to be able to do it properly.
Well, you are a great young man.
What do you think are your strengths and weaknesses?
Strengths and weaknesses.
I always try to be creative.
I always try to be as friendly and kind as I can be.
Like, sometimes maybe that might not always be the case,
but more often than not,
I always try my best to do that really.
And as for my weaknesses, I would say.
I'm not really the brightest person around,
like there are a lot of things
that I'm very unsure of about myself,
that I feel like I have a bit of a naivety side to myself,
where maybe I'm not entirely sure
of the world around me, 100%,
Do you have a message for people
that are going through a challenging time,
that could inspire them?
Always look to the future,
and always remind yourself that you always,
that you do have people in your life
who will want to be your friend,
who will want to support you.
And just that, that yes, even though there will always
be hard times in our lives,
that we should just look to the future,
and just be aware of everyone in your life.
They will be there for you.
We are in Puglia, southeast of Italy,
and this is my new home.
I moved here after 40 years in London.
Just needed a bit of space, which I got here.
I very much enjoy looking after the garden and vegetables,
something I was never able to do in London
because I lived in a flat.
So now I live in a house, and I have a small dog
that came with me from London.
And I find being here highly therapeutic.
I'm detoxing myself by looking after the veg garden.
There are artichoke there, lovely chickens,
fresh eggs in the morning, fresh fruit.
I mean, what else would I want?
I even have a well for the dry season coming up in August.
I'm grateful that I've been able to come back to Puglia,
to the things that really I loved the most.
These are the plants and trees that represent my childhood.
My father had similar trees and plants,
but I was never able to enjoy them,
because I left in a hurry sort of thing,
and went to London where I stayed for 40 years.
So now I've come back, I want to make up for lost times.
Been very keen to take Daniel to Puglia
to show him the places where I grew up.
So I look forward to taking around places
that I may have not been to visit
for a very long time myself.
I've heard about Italy for a long time,
like it's a very, very famous place in the world,
so it will be nice to just be able to explore.
We're looking forward to seeing all the places
that meant so much to him during his childhood.
- Hello, welcome. - 'Cause I have
done a bit of research before we came over,
and I'm really looking forward to seeing some of the sites
that he has promised to take us to.
I love William, he truly is the unsung hero of the story.
To see a father look after Daniel the way he does,
unconditionally, from such a young age,
is so beautiful, inspiring.
I am grateful that he came to Puglia to my house,
because I was able to deliver a little speech
to remind everybody what love is, paternal love is.
My charity handed over a little plaque to William,
as a memento of his courage and generosity.
This is from humanity to you.
Oh my goodness.
And it's for your courage,
and I'm not going to cry because otherwise
I'm going to spoil my makeup.
Thank you, I appreciate that. Thank you yes, thank you.
One, two, three.
I was a quiet boy here, hated churches.
I hated dogmas even as a young child.
Nothing made sense to me about the martyrs, especially.
A lot of blood in churches, paintings and sculptures
depicting women with their breasts amputated,
women with their eyes gouged out.
My parents never forced me to go to church,
but my peers and their families kind of put pressure on me
to go to church, because all the other kids did.
Six years old when I first came to this school,
I left by the time I was 11.
This is exactly how it was back then.
I have very fond memories of the school.
I met some wonderful kids.
There was a sense of fraternity amongst us children,
and the first year was just wonderful.
We had a lovely teacher, incredibly motherly,
really like a teacher should be, you know?
And, but then in the second year I was seven years old,
a new teacher came, and he was an older gentleman,
incredibly strict, and he used this stick,
right on his desk in full view of the class.
And that was a kind of a sign
that we had to stick to what the rules were,
and the rules were that we had to be doing our homework,
and if we failed he would punish us.
So we had ah, to show the palm of our hand
and clap, he would use the stick to hit us with.
I could not comprehend how this teacher
could be allowed to hit children the way that he did.
So I told my father, and he said exactly
what the teacher had said, that it was for my good,
my own good, that the teacher
would teach me to be respectful,
to be doing my homework on time,
because that's what life is about.
I was so scared of this teacher
that every time I saw him in the street
after I'd left school, that I wanted to approach him
to say how his teaching method had not worked on me.
Whenever he punished us, he really hit us.
He said, "I'm doing this for your own good,
because one day you're going to come to me
and you're going to thank me for me hitting you."
I could not comprehend this,
because I was so unwell every day that my father
had to take me to the local cafe or the pastry shop
to give me treats before taking me to school.
And that's something I couldn't comprehend either,
that my father would abandon me
and leave me with this monster of a teacher,
because to me that's exactly what he was.
Daniel, if you saw the teacher who hadn't been
particularly nice to you in your old school,
what would you say to her?
It's okay, Daniel.
Oh, I've been very impressed
with the whole place.
I mean, so lucky with the weather here.
It's beautifully sunny and warm without being too hot.
It's just like going around
with the local president of a city,
because everybody seems to know him,
and you can feel the warmth
everybody has towards him, you know?
We're so lucky to have met him.
He's such a kind and generous person.
We are from a more rural background, you know,
obviously out Knockanore,
in the real heart of the country, you know what I mean?
And I'm really looking forward to seeing
some of the sites that he's promised to take us to.
Alberobello is a bit of a departure
from the beautiful fields that we saw in Ireland,
don't you think?
Yeah, I guess it's more uniquely shaped,
and more uniquely designed,
like in terms of how everything is shaped.
And I guess the material that's used
for the building as well, and it seems like it's also
a departure from Ireland, and things like that.
I wanted to show Daniel the culture of Puglia,
and I think Alberobello has this unique site,
which is UNESCO protected,
these beautiful cone-shaped houses,
that were built quite a long time ago.
And I think it's quite a bit of departure
from the fields that we saw together in Ireland.
It's cementing our friendship, and it is also nice
to share the heritage where we come from.
Proper houses we saw today,
the cone-shaped roofs and stuff,
it's so different to anything we have in Ireland.
Until this trip I never even knew about this,
that UNESCO site.
So it was absolutely brilliant to see it,
because being from a construction background myself,
I'm very interested in all that type of architecture,
and how people even did that.
Whereas even now, that those types of buildings
would be difficult, never mind when they were built.
Meeting Daniel allowed me to understand
how important it is to seize that moment,
because I was going through a terrible time,
and I don't know what would've happened to me
had I not met Daniel, had I not had the courage to say,
"Excuse me, what's your name?"
When I first met him, I never even thought
that I'd hear from him again.
Started off in a very unusual kind of way,
how he was looking out his window at work one day,
and he saw Daniel just working across the street.
He obviously observed him for a little while,
and he could see the kind of a person he is,
that he was trying to get on with life.
We do need to learn about others,
we must not stop learning.
This is what had happened to me until I'd met Daniel.
I had got into this tunnel depression,
and I could not find a way out, and Daniel was that light.
He allowed me to look at courage and strength
right in the face.
He's such a kind and generous person.
Obviously had his own, you know, his own issues
when he was a child himself.
You know, he felt, you know, as if he had
a kind of difficult enough kind of upbringing.
I don't have the best of luck when it comes
to finding people who have common interests to me.
And even if Angelo and I don't necessarily have a lot,
have that many things in common,
we still just get along really well.
I guess technically like, from when we first met,
and my dad and I got the impression
that he was really a really nice, lovely man,
and yeah, like he proved that so many times,
ever since we first met.
He's also been so supportive about my tracheotomy,
well, about my face and all that.
Since we met him, he's been just such a great influence
on us all, and including myself,
he's made me think about life, and about doing things,
and doing things differently, you know?
I often ask myself whether I have changed at all
in the 40 years I spent in London.
I know that I've come here
with quite a bit of experience, life experience.
I would like to think that I've become more open-minded,
and more accepting and forgiving of myself.
I'm hoping that some, my experiences,
and whatever I take back with me from London
may benefit somebody, and also that I may benefit
from the experience of the locals
that have also matured here for the past 40 years.
He just gives out this aura of like,
"Let's help people if we can,"
and not being judgmental, and just being so understanding
of difference and diversity and the whole thing.
These are things that only a few years ago
I didn't even understand.
We've seen kind of the environment that he ever had,
we ever had to grow up in, and yeah,
we both also explained what it was like growing up,
and with our childhood, you know.
I do not know about my journey,
where the journey will take me next,
or where the journey will end.
All I know is, this is my contribution,
something that I hope is important for somebody.
Hope that the stories that we will be sharing with others
may help others in some way,
that may provide some encouragement, some courage,
but certainly give a sense of dignity to people.