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The question

How close have you come to dying?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

A recurring Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.

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Others on this question

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Christopher Hitchens Essayist, critic and journalist
I have more than once in my time woken up feeling like death. But nothing prepared me for the early morning last June when I came to consciousness feeling as if I were actually shackled to my own corpse. The whole cave of my chest and thorax seemed to have been hollowed out and then refilled with slow-drying cement. I could faintly hear myself breathe but could not manage to inflate my lungs. My heart was beating either much too much or much too little. Any movement, however slight, required forethought and planning.
Recorded Vanity Fair, 4 August 2010 source ↗
Bradley Wiggins British former professional road and track racing cyclist
I had quite a chequered childhood. I had a knife put to my throat once when I was a kid, which was very scary.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 21 September 2019 source ↗
Kim Gordon American musician and artist
When I was little, I took a bunch of pills out of the cabinet because I was bored, when I was supposed to be taking a nap. I had to have my stomach pumped.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 21 March 2020 source ↗

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