It wasn’t all bad

A Muslim blogger who posed as a homeless man in order to test people’s reactions says he was overwhelmed by the public’s kindness. Hassan Saleemi, 23, dressed in a traditional Muslim outfit, then sat down in Leicester Square with a sign reading “I’m homeless”. Within an hour, 15 to 20 people had come up to ask if he was all right, or offer him food or money. At one point, a young woman stopped to give him a £50 note – which he briefly broke cover to decline.

A five-year mission to raise Roald Amundsen’s boat Maud from the bottom of the sea has finally born fruit. In 1917 – six years after beating Captain Scott to the South Pole – the great Norwegian explorer set off from Oslo for an expedition through the Northeast Passage to Alaska. Gone for six years, he eventually had to sell the boat to pay debts, and in 1930, she was sunk in Cambridge Bay, Canada. But submerged in freezing waters, her hull remained intact – and for the past five summers, a Norwegian team has been working on easing the wreck from its icy grave and lifting it onto a barge. They now hope to sail Maud home to Oslo.

A man who took up running to help him shake off depression has raised £250,000 for charity by running the equivalent of 401 marathons in 401 days. Ben Smith endured eight years of bullying at school, and attempted suicide aged 18. He then came out as gay, but at 29, he weighed 17 stone and suffered a mini stroke. At that point, he started running – and found it changed his life. He has now run 10,506 miles around the UK (the distance from London to Sydney), raising funds for the anti-bullying charity Kidscape, and Stonewall.