Dr Gill Hicks @SaxtonSpeakers Australia Speaks — Transcript

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1. 0:14In these precious minutes that I have
2. 0:16with you,
3. 0:17I chose to show you my reality, my new
4. 0:21normal, in all the rawness and all the
5. 0:24reality.
6. 0:26On July the 7th, 2005,
7. 0:30I was in a terrorist bomb attack in
8. 0:32London.
9. 0:33I lost both my legs.
10. 0:36I was a design curator. I had two design
11. 0:39consultancies.
12. 0:41I used to have a breakfast club where we
13. 0:45would smoke cigars at 7:50 a.m. every
14. 0:49morning.
15. 0:52This doesn't happen to people like me.
16. 1:04In the time it takes just to click your
17. 1:07fingers or to draw a breath,
18. 1:10my life
19. 1:12and those around me
20. 1:13changed forever.
21. 1:17In the moments following the bomb blast,
22. 1:20we were there in that carriage for 60
23. 1:22minutes.
24. 1:24And that 60 minutes
25. 1:26proved to be the most insightful time I
26. 1:28could ever be given.
27. 1:31Because that was the beginning of my
28. 1:33understanding
29. 1:35of life.
30. 1:36In facing my own death,
31. 1:38I learned a lot about life.
32. 1:42I guess it's quite hard to put things
33. 1:45into take away bites,
34. 1:48but I will do my best. And the five
35. 1:51greatest insights that I've learned from
36. 1:55that morning
37. 1:57and for the 10 years that have passed
38. 1:59since that day.
39. 2:01Ah,
40. 2:03people.
41. 2:05People are everything. We are
42. 2:09everything. We have the ability to make
43. 2:12or break the world around us.
44. 2:16We also have an enormous responsibility.
45. 2:20An individual responsibility.
46. 2:23There's a a little phrase that I love to
47. 2:26use which is someone somewhere is
48. 2:30feeling the effects of something you
49. 2:32have said or done.
50. 2:36Time.
51. 2:38Time is the most precious gift we have.
52. 2:42We must use it wisely.
53. 2:44I am here by literally 30 seconds. So, I
54. 2:49know that actually every hour,
55. 2:53every minute,
56. 2:55every second matters.
57. 2:58The resuscitation team decided that they
58. 3:01would continue resuscitating me after
59. 3:03I'd been technically gone for 28
60. 3:07minutes.
61. 3:08They made a decision for 3 minutes 30
62. 3:11seconds.
63. 3:12As the clock ticked 3 minutes, my heart
64. 3:16started beating.
65. 3:1730 seconds I'm here by.
66. 3:22Doing.
67. 3:24I've often thought about what it means
68. 3:27to actually just do the things we want
69. 3:30to do. What holds us back?
70. 3:33Are we trapped by fear?
71. 3:35And if so, how do we get rid of that
72. 3:38fear? How do we find that inner
73. 3:40confidence to just do the stuff we want
74. 3:43to do in our lives?
75. 3:46That's what I had to find to walk
76. 3:48because I can't feel the ground, so I
77. 3:51had to believe that I could.
78. 3:55Laughing.
79. 3:57I have to share a story. Um it's
80. 3:59something that at least I can always
81. 4:01make sure I laugh at myself. But the
82. 4:03story is from that morning and told
83. 4:07beautifully by one of my rescuers called
84. 4:09Brian. And Brian had me in the back of
85. 4:11his ambulance, and there I was, as I've
86. 4:13shared with you, gone for 28 minutes.
87. 4:16And Brian was doing CPR frantically, but
88. 4:19there was no output on his monitor.
89. 4:22Brian looked at me, and apparently, I
90. 4:25was dead, but I was
91. 4:27talking.
92. 4:29So, he was yelling at the driver saying,
93. 4:32"Dead but talking! Hurry! Dead but
94. 4:34talking!" And he said he's never had
95. 4:36anything like that happen to him before.
96. 4:39Um so, it's Isn't it fantastic that I've
97. 4:41gone into the field of public speaking?
98. 4:43I think there was a sign there.
99. 4:47Love.
100. 4:48Love is my favorite of all because I
101. 4:53learned about unconditional love
102. 4:57from the moment I was rescued, from the
103. 5:00moment my hand was held, my face was
104. 5:03touched. And these people that rescued
105. 5:06me showed me the love and the brilliance
106. 5:10of humanity.
107. 5:13They came to rescue someone who was
108. 5:16without an identity. I was only one
109. 5:20unknown estimated female. And to them,
110. 5:24it didn't matter
111. 5:26what color of my skin was, whether I had
112. 5:28a faith or no faith at all.
113. 5:31All that mattered was that I was a
114. 5:33precious human life.
115. 5:35So, they showed me what love really
116. 5:38means. And love has saved my life every
117. 5:42day for the last 10 years because that
118. 5:45love has protected me and shielded me
119. 5:49from any feelings of bitterness or
120. 5:51hatred for what's happened to me.
121. 5:55I'm I guess I'm quite lucky in many ways
122. 5:58that I get to take very slow steps.
123. 6:02Because I now appreciate that by taking
124. 6:04slow steps throughout our life, we
125. 6:07actually get to savor a lot more. I get
126. 6:10to see a lot more. And I keep all the
127. 6:14big leaps and bounds for when I need to
128. 6:17have extra faith,
129. 6:19extra belief in all the things that are
130. 6:22possible. Thank you.