Cat Deeley: How close have you come to death?

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.

Recorded Cat Deeley said elsewhere, not written here

Horse riding in a steep canyon in Los Angeles. A couple of paparazzi had hidden under camouflage blankets and when a horse sees a lens, he thinks it’s the eye of a predator. My horse flipped out. When he landed, I ended up on his neck; that was pretty close.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 1 May 2021 source ↗

Others on this question

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Simone Biles United States artistic gymnast

In dreams, but that’s about it.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 February 2017 source ↗

Robert Peston British journalist

Being driven across the Atlas Mountains in a snowstorm 25 years ago, by a local taxi driver who plainly put a lower premium on the advantages of living than me.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 June 2018 source ↗

Diana Athill Editor and memoirist

So, when many years later I really was near death as a result of a haemorrhage after a miscarriage, and heard a doctor saying “She’s very near collapse – call the lab and tell him to run” and understood that the “him” was the person fetching the blood they were going to pump into me, I was not in the least alarmed as I dimly wondered if I had the strength left to think some suitable Last Thought, concluded that I hadn’t, and said to myself the words: “Oh well, if I die I die.” I was sure, then, that nothingness was just that.

Recorded The Guardian, 23 September 2014 source ↗

Mathew Horne English actor

Last Christmas I was clipped by a train. Mum was dying so my head was elsewhere. I was walking home and had to cross one of those crossings that say, “Stop, look and listen.” I didn’t do any of those things, and I had my headphones in so I couldn’t even hear the train. It clipped my left elbow.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 21 December 2019 source ↗

More from Cat Deeley

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Question Which living person do you most admire, and why? Values & belief

Michelle Obama. Her girls were massive fans of So You Think You Can Dance and we were invited to the White House for the Easter egg hunt. She was even more brilliant than you imagine, and we bonded over a love of Beyoncé.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 1 May 2021 source ↗