The Australian Women's Weekly

My story What a near-fatal fall taught me about life

I wasn’t ready to die at 35. Wholly unprepared for that, in fact. I had just turned the page on a new chapter in my life – moving from London to North America, transporting myself out of the isolated confines of my head and into the great open wilderness – specifically because I needed to find a way to live, rather than merely exist. Instead, I had stumbled towards oblivion.

Not quite three months into my travels, I was out on a hike in California’s Joshua Tree National Park (something I’d been doing plenty of) when I slipped off a high boulder, smashing my pelvis to pieces. I couldn’t so much as sit up, there was no phone signal, and I hadn’t told anyone where I was

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