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.
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.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 September 2022 source ↗
I was diagnosed with breast cancer a few years ago, but so early that I knew it wasn’t a death sentence. Until we get a cure for cancer, early detection is our best hope.
I had some gynaecological issues that were very sudden, about 18 months ago, and felt that I might be dying. I wasn’t but it was quite serious.
When I was five and the doctors walked in and said to my mum: “I am not sure if you will be taking him home.”
Travelling Europe with a friend, when I was 29. She was driving and the brakes went, on one of those vertiginous Italian mountains. It was terrifying for the 20 minutes it took to coast down the mountain.
When I realised that I could be a musician. I was 16.
I would have spent more time practising and got a proper lawyer to sort out my first album contract.
A saxophone for £8,000.
I am not studious enough. I get easily distracted.
When my new-born daughter Cleopatra died and I wasn’t there. I was doing a US tour and I remember sitting down in an airport and losing it.
Shaun Ryder, Alison Moyet, Emma Bunton, Bryn Terfel, Martin Kemp, Sue Perkins
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