"Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it" - Helen Keller.
These are our top ten features about people who've done just that.
Mia Walsch - a memoir of sex work, drugs, mental illness and friendship
Mia Walsch was 19 when she began work in the sex industry. Over the next few years, she worked her way through many of Sydney's parlours, while battling serious drug use and chronic mental illness.
Mia Walsch Photo: Supplied
The Widows of Shuhada
Four women whose husbands were made martyrs (shuhada) in the Christchurch mosque attacks allowed us into their lives this year.
Photo: Janneth Gil
Waco survivor Grace Adams: 'This is where I am now'
New Zealander Grace Adams escaped the infamous Branch Davidian cult in Waco, Texas, but her sister Rebecca was among the 76 people who died there in 1993.
Grace Adams Photo: Screengrab / CBS This Morning
Stan Walker on abuse, addiction, love and forgiveness
Singer-songwriter Stan Walker opens up for the first time about the horrific abuse and neglect he suffered as a child and young man.
Stan Walker Photo: Supplied
Nikki Kaye: 'I've been through a hell of a lot with breast cancer'
Auckland Central MP Nikki Kaye quit politics this year and is looking forward to "being a hippie on Great Barrier".
Nikki Kaye Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King
The Unthinkable: Kate Gudsell and Sam Arcus
Wellington couple Kate Gudsell and Sam Arcus had a trouble-free pregnancy, but a thunderstorm was brewing as Kate went into labour. This is a very personal story of grief and loss, but most importantly, love.
Kate Gudsell and Sam Arcus Photo: RNZ/Samuel Rillstone
Terry Waite: how to survive isolation and confinement
In 1987, Englishman Terry Waite was kidnapped by Hezbollah militants and spent 1,736 days (almost five years) chained to the wall in a dark cell in Beirut.
Terry Waite Photo: Supplied
Escaping an Al Queda husband and radical Islam
As a teenager, Canadian human rights advocate Yasmine Mohammed was forced into a violent marriage with a man who turned out to be an al-Qaeda operative. Two decades on, she is the founder of the Free Hearts, Free Minds Foundation.
Yasmine Mohammed Photo: supplied
Jail saved me from being a 'drop-out no-hoper'
Recently-retired criminology professor Dr Greg Newbold says spending time in prison was one of the best things that ever happened to him.
Greg Newbold. Photo: University of Canterbury
The Girl on The Bridge: a documentary about survival
Suicide survivor Jazz Thornton confronts New Zealand's youth mental health crisis head-on in a new documentary directed by Leanne Pooley.
Jazz Thornton Photo: NZ Film Commision
