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.
Climbing Scafell Pike in the Lake District when I was about 15. The winds were about 85mph, my legs lifted and I nearly flew off. Thankfully somebody grabbed me.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 July 2021 source ↗
Falling down a mine shaft in New Mexico while filming.
I had heart surgery when I was 17. The other time was when I fell off my piano. My head was an inch away from a metal step.
A horse-riding accident when I was about 15.
I was nearly hit by an enormous gold-fibreglass cherub in a shopping centre. It fell five storeys and smashed into a thousand pieces about 4ft away from me.
I am who I am because of that messed-up childhood.
My dog was quite expensive. She’s a Bedlington whippet, named Rafi after Mohammed Rafi, the famous Indian singer. She’s got a boy’s name, but she doesn’t mind.
The day I passed my driving test, at 17.
Guilt for not being productive enough – ridiculous.
I am a pretty good dog mum.
Hard work, painful.
Edwina Currie, Winston Churchill, Louis Theroux, Clive Myrie, John Lewis, Edmund Hillary
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