The day that changed Dr Alison Thompson’s life – as it did so many – was September 11, 2001. A blonde-haired, blue-eyed surfer girl, maths teacher and nurse from the Sutherland Shire in Sydney, she was living in New York City when the World Trade Centre buildings were attacked. As dust and smoke billowed through Manhattan streets, Alison rollerbladed into ground zero with a backpack full of medical supplies and began pulling survivors from the rubble.
There was a moment that day when she realised this was her true calling – that she would spend the rest of her life offering what help she could in disaster zones around the world.
“At that moment I realised that everybody is needed,” she tells The Weekly, “and I understood the importance of being in the wrong place at the right time.”
Since then, Alison has helped construct the first Community
