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 Seann Walsh said elsewhere, not written here
When I was about two, I accidentally knocked a boiled kettle on myself. I am scarred, in many ways, from that.

The Q&A, The Guardian, 31 January 2026 source ↗

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I fell asleep in a room that had an oil heater and it filled with carbon monoxide and, if it hadn’t been for my husband, Terry, I would have died.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 12 April 2025 source ↗
A running accident when I was 14 or 15. I fainted but I was a bit of a jester and they thought I was taking the piss, so I was left for a bit. I woke up in hospital.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 May 2026 source ↗
Julian Sands British actor
In the early 90s, in the Andes, caught in an atrocious storm above 20,000ft with three others. We were all in a very bad way. Some guys close to us perished; we were lucky.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 9 May 2020 source ↗

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