Experience
You share your unique experiences
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Experience: I accidentally bought a giant pigI was told she was six months old, had come from a breeder and wouldn’t grow any bigger than a very large cat
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Experience: I regret transitioningI saw that it wasn’t being female that was stopping me from being myself; it was society’s perpetual oppression of women
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Experience: I talk with my eyesMy cerebral palsy meant I was stuck in a perpetual reception class at school – but a spelling board helped me find my voice
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Experience: I was bitten by a sharkThe water was murky, so I couldn’t see anything. It just came out of nowhere and then it was gone in a flash
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Experience: I had a stroke while I was pregnant‘I tried to sit up, but the nurse told me that I would fall out of bed, because I had no sitting balance. I thought, “Are you on crack? Of course I can sit up!” But she was right: I was paralysed down my left-hand side’
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Experience: I was painted by Andy WarholHe wanted to paint my portrait every year for 10 years. I was so young, I didn’t realise what an awesome opportunity this was
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Experience: I survived a power cut in AntarcticaIt was -55C outside. The whole base dropped to almost -20C inside, and we had no heating or lights and no link to the outside world
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Experience: We found a baby in a mangerI followed his gaze to the nativity scene, and that’s when I saw him huddled inside – the youngest baby I’ve ever seen
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Experience: I was abandoned by my cultThere are parts of that day I was left on the roadside that I cannot recall
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Experience: I saved my school bus from crashingThere was a loud thud. I looked towards the front of the bus. Our driver wasn’t at the wheel
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Experience: I fell down a canyonI tried to stay positive. But there was nobody around – it was the middle of December, in the middle of nowhere
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Experience: I didn’t speak for 17 yearsI liked not speaking. It gave me peace. People ask if I spoke to myself, but why would I? I’d just have complained when I had no one to blame but myself
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Experience: my family’s hypochondria saved my life‘I hadn’t even put the antibiotic in my mouth when I started sneezing, scratching everywhere, and my scalp felt like it was on fire’
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Experience: I broke my neck on a night outI remember lying face down in the water thinking, ‘OK, time to get out now,’ but my legs wouldn’t work
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I donate 10 litres of breast milk a weekBreast milk is often the only thing a very sick or premature baby can tolerate. The thought of helping other tiny babies and their worried mums meant a lot to me
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Experience: I survived a midair collisionWe later learned that we had collided head-on with a Boeing 737. People don’t just walk away from that
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I spent 28 years on death rowEvery night, I go outside and look up to the stars and the moon because for years, I could not see them
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Experience: I broke my back twiceUntil now, I haven’t been able to recount the story without feeling horror and a shudder through my spine
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Experience: I have 58 tarantulas in my living roomI used to be terrified of spiders. I thought if I got one and always knew where it was, it couldn’t frighten me
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Experience: my dad set me on fireHe was struggling to light the barbecue, and used an accelerant – white spirit, perhaps. It caused a small fireball and the breeze switched in my direction
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Experience: I didn’t know I was pregnant until I went into labourI had aches and pains and felt tired all the time. Drinking made me sick. But the doctors couldn’t find anything wrong
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Experience: I flew solo around the world in a hot-air balloonI was on standby 24 hours a day, freezing cold, sleep deprived and lonely, but I never questioned why I was doing this
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Experience: I didn’t know I was being dopedWhen I was 16 I told an official that I wanted to quit skating for East Germany. He was really angry and called me a traitor to the fatherland. That broke me
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Experience: my face is held together by 52 screwsWe were both doing around 30mph on our motorbikes when we met on a corner. Our heads collided and my helmet disintegrated
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Experience: I was bitten by a rabid batI had become the first known person ever to survive rabies without a vaccination, and the treatment became known as the Milwaukee protocol
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Experience: I see words as coloursI see every letter and number in its own unique hue. I can tell someone the colour of their name instantly
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Experience: I was stranded in the wilderness for nine daysI had lost so much weight that I looked like walking skeleton. I was ready to give up
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I crashed my car playing Pokémon GoI saw this Lapras was close. As it’s a water-type creature I assumed it must be down by the nearby lake. I jumped into my younger brother’s car
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Experience: I was stung by one of the deadliest creatures on EarthMy first thought was that a shark had taken my right leg. I knew I was in danger. I expected to see my blood billowing around
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Experience: I was swept over a waterfallI found a big rock and latched on to it like a limpet, blinded by panic but clinging on even as the water rose up to my shoulders, then chin
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Experience: my cat saved me from a fire‘A firefighter emerged with Tink draped over his arm. I assumed she was dead. He put an oxygen mask on her and incredibly, she took a breath and coughed’
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Experience: I was accused of carrying out the Paris attacksMy Twitter account was flooded with notifications about a Photoshopped picture that made me look like a terrorist, and it had gone viral
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Experience: I inject myself with snake venomFor me, it’s like drinking coffee: it’s an energy boost
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Experience: writing help in the sand saved my lifeKnowing I was unlikely to get back to camp before nightfall, I climbed on to the bank, but there was no sign of the path back
Experience: I rescued a man dangling from a chairlift