Sandi Toksvig: 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 Sandi Toksvig said elsewhere, not written here

I’ve had a surprising number of near-death experiences: I was nearly blown up by a landmine in Sudan; I was stranded on the Zambezi river at night; I was bucked off a rodeo horse in Arizona and had to be airlifted to hospital; and, worst of all, I once ate a Pot Noodle.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 3 March 2018 source ↗

Others on this question

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Paul O'Grady British comedian, actor and television presenter

I had a bad heart attack 20 years ago: I think I slid off the mortal coil for about 30 seconds.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 November 2021 source ↗

Emeli Sandé British singer

On a camping holiday in Scotland when I was nine: I was in an inflatable dinghy that drifted out to sea. A lifeboat had to come.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 January 2017 source ↗

Rose McGowan American actress and activist

Falling down a mine shaft in New Mexico while filming.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 December 2018 source ↗

Desmond Tutu Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town; chair of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission; Nobel Peace Prize, 1984

And actually now having had the advantage of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and being able to look at some of the records of what the apartheid government was doing, the thing that is surprising to me is why so many of us survived. I mean, how is it that they did not assassinate more of us?

Recorded Academy of Achievement interview source ↗