Anna Friel: How close have you come to death?

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.

Recorded Anna Friel said elsewhere, not written here

I nearly died by burst ovarian cyst in 2001. I was doing the front cover of a magazine and someone said, “Can you not pull your tummy in?” It turned out that I had been carrying two litres of blood in my stomach. I was rushed to hospital the next morning and nearly died of septicaemia. They had to give me two blood transfusions. Had it been an hour later it would have been bye bye.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 August 2019 source ↗

Others on this question

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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 ↗

Joanne Froggatt English actress

I was in a car crash when I was 16, and I have a little scar on my face from smashing the passenger window with my head. If the car had rolled, I would have been dead.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 February 2019 source ↗

Ronnie Wood English rock musician

I can dodge the bullets – I’m lucky.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 16 September 2017 source ↗

Courtney Pine British jazz musician

We were doing a tour in Japan and as our plane landed, it rose again, out of the blue. About 10 years later there was this programme about 10 of the nearest misses, and it was my flight. There was another plane on the runway and we nearly landed on top of it. I didn’t know until 10 years later.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 September 2022 source ↗