Chris Bath Interviews London Bombing Survivor Gill Hicks — Transcript

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1. 0:00Jill do you ever get sick of talking
2. 0:03about it no because it's a part of my
3. 0:08life and I think also because of the
4. 0:10physical injuries I can't escape it so
5. 0:13there's no recovery I don't get better
6. 0:15my legs aren't going to grow back so
7. 0:17there's a real impetus for me of how do
8. 0:21I not make sense of it or justify it but
9. 0:25how do I serve this this body the
10. 0:28strange new body I have I have to do
11. 0:32something that makes a difference till
12. 0:42Paris where do we start with that I was
13. 0:49absolutely devastated and I felt really
14. 0:58a sense of failure because I'm an
15. 1:01advocate for peace you know what myself
16. 1:04what colleagues are trying to do I work
17. 1:06with some fantastic people throughout
18. 1:09the world many who are former extremists
19. 1:12themselves and this just felt like a
20. 1:17great failure on our part of what else
21. 1:20can we be doing so we go down the Martin
22. 1:22Luther King route and replace hate with
23. 1:24love absolutely because that's the
24. 1:27complete opposite you know but i still
25. 1:30think as a population we have a very
26. 1:34difficult understanding of what we use
27. 1:36the word love because if we talk about
28. 1:38peace love compassion they're things
29. 1:41that feel very soft and very passive and
30. 1:44in situations like violent extremism
31. 1:47people are angry and people have lost
32. 1:49loved ones people like me have lost my
33. 1:52legs I'm angry on one action how did you
34. 1:56resolve those issues yourself Ford 14
35. 1:58have you um I grow in my anger every
36. 2:02year every year and especially now as
37. 2:05mother to a toddler I'm limited and
38. 2:09limitations that's but they're the
39. 2:12moments for me where I'm reminded I
40. 2:15don't have legs and I don't have legs
41. 2:18because of the senseless act of somebody
42. 2:22who decided to detonate a bomb he made a
43. 2:26choice and that angers me because he saw
44. 2:30me as his enemy and yet he didn't ask me
45. 2:36we never had a dialogue so he presumed a
46. 2:40whole lot of things about me a whole lot
47. 2:42of things about the people that I stood
48. 2:45with in that carriage on that morning
49. 2:47when he detonated his bomb that's not
50. 2:49okay but also I was showing the most
51. 2:54incredible unconditional love by
52. 2:57humanity humanity saved my life and that
53. 3:02is what really has wrapped me shielded
54. 3:06me and can let me continue on this path
55. 3:10without any bitterness or hatred and I
56. 3:14think it's one of the greatest gifts
57. 3:16that I could ever have been given apart
58. 3:18from my life being saved was the gift of
59. 3:22love and that's why I never talk about
60. 3:24love in a disposable way it is the most
61. 3:28powerful thing that we have and love
62. 3:31saved my life I realized that when I was
63. 3:36in hospital and I looked at the armband
64. 3:38that was my identifier and it chillingly
65. 3:43red one unknown estimated female and in
66. 3:48those words I absolutely clearly
67. 3:51understood that people had risked their
68. 3:55lives to come and save one unknown
69. 3:58estimation female
70. 4:00and no one ever gave up you approach
71. 4:03what's a very serious subject and I'm
72. 4:06crucially important to the world now
73. 4:08with a big sense of humor because even
74. 4:10when the then Prime Minister John Howard
75. 4:12came to visit you you were cracking gags
76. 4:13with bit him first when he walked in i
77. 4:16just said could we not talk about
78. 4:18politics I think he was very relieved at
79. 4:21that and then there were just yeah the
80. 4:23odd talks about instead of a prawn and
81. 4:26the Barbie let's just stick another leg
82. 4:28on the barbie there's a lot to smile
83. 4:30about there's a lot to laugh about
84. 4:33because I so I came so close to not
85. 4:35being here so right from the beginning i
86. 4:39was high on the idea that I was alive
87. 4:43that I was still jewel that I still
88. 4:46found certain things very funny that a
89. 4:48lot of people didn't when did the idea
90. 4:52for mad the pace come when I'm quite
91. 4:55quite soon after it's a sort of a year
92. 4:58or so for me to really affirm what I
93. 5:01wanted to do so the understanding of how
94. 5:03to devote my life to something to making
95. 5:06a difference happened in the carriage
96. 5:08but I didn't know it was a terrorist
97. 5:10suicide bomber until after i was woken
98. 5:15up in in hospital and so that became
99. 5:19then very clear i need to look at
100. 5:20devoting my life to deterring anyone
101. 5:24from ever doing this again and then mad
102. 5:27became very again a very obvious step
103. 5:31because it was an acronym for making a
104. 5:32difference in motherhood did you think
105. 5:35he'd be able to have a baby wit we'd
106. 5:38lost a baby before Emily and that hit me
107. 5:41very hard she's the perfect baby for me
108. 5:44though because but with the
109. 5:45extraordinary things added to our life
110. 5:47she's the right child and even things
111. 5:50with the legs beautifully she'll go and
112. 5:53get my legs and she'll pop them down and
113. 5:56say
114. 5:57Park so that's that's right we've gotta
115. 6:01go out now legs on Wow so has she just
116. 6:04beautiful how'd she figured out that
117. 6:05mommy's a bit different I apart from the
118. 6:08legs yes hilarious we won't write it um
119. 6:13I don't think I don't think yet she
120. 6:17understands that I'm different to other
121. 6:19bombs and it would be wonderful to see
122. 6:23that unfold as you know she starts to
123. 6:25realize that not everybody's legs comes
124. 6:27up you set yourself ten challenges a
125. 6:29year it's not like you haven't got
126. 6:31enough already this year's special this
127. 6:34is marks 10 years since the London
128. 6:37bombings and I really wanted to explore
129. 6:40how I respond to that as an anniversary
130. 6:44and so I said about looking at how can I
131. 6:48communicate some really big messaging
132. 6:52around fear and each challenge connected
133. 6:55to a charity so I'm there for raising
134. 6:57money for a tour unawareness for a
135. 6:59charity so it's been everything from tap
136. 7:03dancing abseiling arm the climbing the
137. 7:07tallest building in in Australia a
138. 7:10residential building the song so singing
139. 7:13the song live which was a great fear
140. 7:15lots of hand cycling sharks swimming
141. 7:19sharks is coming here um so it's um it's
142. 7:22been a very big year good luck with the
143. 7:25swimming with sharks thank you
144. 7:29you