Simone Biles
United States artistic gymnast
In dreams, but that’s about it.
How close have you come to death?
Question
What would you like to be remembered for?
Death & what remains
Question
What is the worst job you have done?
Craft & work
Question
What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?
Failure & regret
Question
What would you like to leave your children?
Death & what remains
Question
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Craft & work
Question
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Identity & self
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.
Throat and neck cancer in 2018. They told me six to eight months if it hadn’t been caught.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 August 2025 source ↗
Others on this question
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Emilia Fox
English actress and presenter
I’ve been to two postmortems in real life, and spent the last 14 years talking about death at work – so, pretty close.
Madhur Jaffrey
Actress, cook, and TV host
It’s nearly happened twice, each time after an operation.
Roger Ebert
Film critic
One of these days I will encounter what Henry James called on his deathbed “the distinguished thing.” I will not be conscious of the moment of passing. In this life I have already been declared dead. It wasn’t so bad. After the first ruptured artery, the doctors thought I was finished. My wife, Chaz, said she sensed that I was still alive and was communicating to her that I wasn’t finished yet. She said our hearts were beating in unison, although my heartbeat couldn’t be discovered. She told the doctors I was alive, they did what doctors do, and here I am, alive.
More from Mark Radcliffe
View profile →As someone who made people laugh, introduced them to good music and wasn’t too much of a pain in the arse.
Working in a bottle factory, which lasted one day, and the Radio 1 breakfast show.
This was said about me in a Radio 1 focus group: “I don’t pay my licence fee to hear scummy northerners.”
A sense of what’s right, a few quid and some nice paintings.
Having three great daughters, having been on the radio for nearly 50 years and not being dead.
A drummer in a famous band or an astronaut.
More on death & what remains
- What would you like to be remembered for? 214 answers
- What song would you like played at your funeral? 178 answers
- If you had only one day left to live, how would you spend it — and what would you deliberately avoid doing? 54 answers
- What happens when we die? 51 answers
- What would you like to leave your children? 44 answers
- How would you like to die? 44 answers
Also answered this
Helen George, Monty Don, Paul O'Grady, Ian McEwan, Anita Rani, Rosanna Arquette
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