Editing That's Life! (section)

=== Significant campaigns ===
==== Ben Hardwick ====
{{Main |Ben Hardwick}}
Ben Hardwick was a two-year-old toddler dying of [[biliary atresia]], with only a few weeks to live.  He was being treated by Professor [[Roy Yorke Calne|Sir Roy Calne]] in [[Addenbrooke's Hospital|Addenbrooks Hospital]] who told his mother Debbie that Ben's only hope would be a [[Liver transplantation|liver transplant]], but transplantation had virtually ceased in the UK due to a ''[[Panorama (British TV programme)|Panorama]]'' documentary which implied that organs were being taken from patients who were still alive. Professor Calne suggested the only way to encourage [[organ donation]] would be to tell Ben's story on TV, Debbie therefore contacted ''That's Life!''

The film of Ben captured the nation's imagination, a donor (Matthew Fewkes) was found and Ben lived for another year. On his death, [[Marti Webb]]  recorded his favourite song, "[[Ben (song)|Ben]]" to raise money for a charity founded in his name, and [[Shaun Woodward]] and Esther Rantzen wrote a book ''Story of Ben Hardwick by Shaun Woodward and Esther Rantzen''<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.abebooks.co.uk/Ben-Story-Hardwick-Esther-Rantzen-Shaun/22673830813/bd | title=Ben: Story of Ben Hardwick by Esther Rantzen, Shaun Woodward: Good Paperback (1985) &#124; Goldstone Books }}</ref> which also raised money for the Ben Hardwick Fund which still exists. The impact of Ben's story doubled the number of transplants "<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/10566984/After-Ben-Hardwick-a-bittersweet-legacy-living-with-a-new-liver.html | title=After Ben Hardwick, a bittersweet legacy: Living with a new liver | date=12 January 2014 }}</ref>

==== ''The Scandal of Crookham Court'' ====
A letter to Esther Rantzen which was forwarded to her by [[Childline]] came from a boy at the boarding school, Crookham Court School in Newbury,<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.getreading.co.uk/news/local-news/child-abuse-victim-felt-sick-4202903 | title=Child abuse victim felt sick, scared and ashamed |first=Paul|last=Cassell|website=Berkshire Live| date=March 2012 }}</ref> who had been sexually abused by the owner of the school and had discovered that his brother was also sexually abused by another teacher. A three-month investigation uncovered widespread abuse of the boys in the school; Rantzen, Woolfe and Hereward Harrison (a Childline executive) visited the school to speak to pupils. Paedophile Philip Cadman<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/article/one-in-7-people-aware-of-sex-abuse-at-school-jwt6cjsdsd0 | title=One in 7 people aware of sex abuse at school }}</ref> was the millionaire owner of the school who was later tried and convicted of abuse, as were teachers Bill Printer and Philip Edmonds.

A special programme, ''The Scandal of Crookham Court'', reconstructed the court case at which the children gave evidence.  Author Ian Mucklejohn assisted the investigation and has written a book based on his experience teaching at the school and the evidence of pupils who suffered abuse there.<ref>{{cite book |author=Ian Mucklejohn |title=Had:The Tragedy of Crookham Court School |isbn= 9781782204008 |publisher=Karnac Books |date= 2016 |location=United Kingdom}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Nest Of Paedophiles Uncovered In The Wake Of That's Life Investigation |url=https://www.pressreader.com/uk/sunday-mirror/20150503/281874411963206 |work=[[Sunday Mirror]] |access-date=5 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220219211717/https://www.pressreader.com/uk/sunday-mirror/20150503/281874411963206 |archive-date=19 February 2022 |language=en |date=3 May 2015 |url-status=live |via=[[PressReader]]}}</ref>

==== Sir Nicholas Winton, the British Schindler ====
[[Nicholas Winton|Sir Nicholas Winton]] was revealed for the first time on ''That's Life!'' as having rescued a generation of [[Czechoslovakia|Czech]] children from [[the Holocaust]]. Unknown to him, or them, Sir Nicholas was placed in the audience next to three people and about twenty others around him who had been on the trains he organised and owed their life to him. [[Piers Morgan]] described it as the "best moment of television he had ever seen".<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/piers-morgan-claims-moving-holocaust-21370293 | title=Piers Morgan claims moving Holocaust clip is 'greatest moment in TV history' | website=[[Daily Mirror]] | date=27 January 2020 }}</ref> It has been viewed on [[Facebook]] and [[YouTube]] more than forty million times.<ref name="historyextra1">{{cite web|url=https://www.historyextra.com/period/second-world-war/nicholas-winton-british-schindler-kindertransport-ww2-nazis/ |title=The 'British Schindler' Who Saved 669 Children From The Nazis |first=Gavin |last=Mortimer|work=BBC History Revealed|publisher=HistoryExtra |date=November 2019 |access-date=8 September 2022}}</ref> For his actions, Winton has been compared by the British press to [[Oskar Schindler]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/27/children-saved-from-nazis-british-schindler-memorial-kindertransport-nicholas-winton|title=Children saved from Nazis by 'British Schindler' plan memorial to parents|first=Robert|last=Tait|newspaper=The Guardian|date=27 January 2017}}</ref>

A biography of Winton was written by his daughter, ''The Life of Sir Nicholas Winton'' by Barbara Winton,<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jun/19/if-its-not-possible-life-sir-nicholas-winton-barbara-winton-review | title=If It's Not Impossible ... the Life of Sir Nicholas Winton – review |first=Emma|last=Howard| website=[[TheGuardian.com]] | date=19 June 2014 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=If It's Not Impossible...: The Life of Sir Nicholas Winton|first=Barbara|last=Winton|date=25 April 2014|publisher=Troubador Publishing Ltd|id={{ASIN|1783065206|country=uk}} }}</ref> and documentaries were later made about his achievements.<ref name="historyextra1"/> Other members of his team included [[Trevor Chadwick]] and [[Doreen Warriner]].

==== Bullying ====
An anti-bullying campaign was inspired by the suicide of teenager Katharine Bamber,<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/charter-plans-to-combat-bullying-among-pupils-1550412.html | title=Charter plans to combat bullying among pupils | website=[[Independent.co.uk]] | date=9 September 1992 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1992/may/21/bullying-in-schools | title=Bullying in Schools (Hansard, 21 May 1992) }}</ref> after a phone call to the programme from her mother Susan. It resulted in schools adopting anti-bullying policies.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Bullies+face+a+life+of+crime%3B+School+bullies+can+shatter+the+lives+of...-a0160079635 |title=Bullies face a life of crime; School bullies can shatter the lives of their victims - and ruin their own, too. In week three of our Stop Bullying campaign, Lifestyle Editor Zoe Chamberlain examines shocking new research about the long-term effects of the problem. - Free Online Library |publisher=Thefreelibrary.com |date= |access-date=8 September 2022}}</ref>