Hi, it's Nicola Cochlin. Young people have been making history for years, but we don't often hear about them. My brand new series on BBC Sounds sets out to put this right. In history's youngest heroes, I'll be revealing the fascinating stories of 12 young people who've played a major role in history and who've helped shape our world. Like Audrey Hepburn, Nelson Mandela, Louis Braille and Lady Jane Grey,

History's Youngest Heroes, with me, Nicola Cochlin.

Listen on BBC Sounds.

Hello, I'm Krista Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive.

For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.

The program was originally broadcast in 2009.

My My castaway this week is Professor Hugh Pennington. In his youth, he was drawn to pathology. This was long before Quincy and CSI lent the profession an air of sombre glamour. Back then, he was influenced by the work of his uncle, an undertaker.

He has spent his professional life trying to understand diseases and how they spread.

He's chaired two major inquiries into e. coli,

and his influences felt everywhere, from school kitchens to hospital wards.

These days, his calm expertise is sought on public health matters, including MRSA, C. Deficile, Salmonella, and now, of course, swine flu. I suppose, Professor Pennington, what seems to be a matter of life and death to most of us is just bread and butter to you?

Yes, I suppose I could say that all these diseases are good for my business, in a sense.

I wish they weren't, but they are.

And new ones come along all the time, which keep my business flourishing, as it were.

Probably more contagious than any infection is public fear itself.

How much sympathy do you have for all of us,

headless chickens who run around worrying if something's going to get the better of us? Well, a lot of sympathy because a lot of the fear is unjustified, but on the other hand,

one does see tragedies as well. So one has to put it into a perspective, into balance, and that's

often a good way of making people wash their hands, for example. And then, you know, you have to live your life anyway and you have to take risks.

Do you wash your hands a lot?

No more than the average person.

Really? You don't?

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