Bonus: Lives Less Ordinary - Love Stories

Throughout August, the Lives Less Ordinary podcast is sharing extraordinary love stories from around the world. To listen to the season, search ‘Lives Less Ordinary’ wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

In this episode: in the 1970s, Mark arrived in the UK from the Bahamas and fell in love with a woman called Penny. For Penny, it felt like the beginning of everything- until, without warning, Mark broke things off and disappeared from her life.

Devastated and searching for answers, Penny spent decades believing she was to blame, carrying that loss into the rest of her life and never quite finding the happiness she once imagined. Nearly forty years later, a message out of the blue from Mark brought them back into contact, and with it, revealed the sad truth about what drove them apart.

This programme contains references to suicide. If you’ve been affected by any of the issues raised in this episode, you can find support at befrienders.org Lives Less Ordinary is a podcast from the BBC World Service that brings you the most incredible true stories from around the world. Each episode a guest shares their most dramatic, moving, personal story. Listen for unbelievable twists, mysteries uncovered, and inspiring journeys - spanning the entire human experience. Step into someone else’s life and expect the unexpected.