Andi Oliver: How close have you come to dying?

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.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Andi Oliver

British cook, television and radio broadcaster, singer

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

I broke both my legs in a hit-and run accident when I was 26.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 11 December 2021 source ↗

Others on this question

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Marcus Mumford

Rolling a quad bike.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 21 February 2026 source ↗

Shakin' Stevens Welsh rock and roll singer and songwriter

I had a cardiac arrest in 2010. I also had a close call in the early days in Cardiff when I was in a band called the Denims. We were in a van driving along a narrow mountain road. Somebody wanted to go to the toilet, so we stopped, and afterwards the driver took a wrong turn and we went careering down the mountain. Everyone was screaming, it was like a nightmare. At the bottom was the railway line, but the van stopped just in time. We were very lucky.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 18 February 2023 source ↗

Christopher Eccleston English actor

During my severe clinical depression in 2016. I was at Piccadilly station in Manchester and a train was coming.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 5 October 2019 source ↗

Mathew Horne English actor

Last Christmas I was clipped by a train. Mum was dying so my head was elsewhere. I was walking home and had to cross one of those crossings that say, “Stop, look and listen.” I didn’t do any of those things, and I had my headphones in so I couldn’t even hear the train. It clipped my left elbow.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 21 December 2019 source ↗