Shakin' Stevens: 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 Shakin' Stevens said elsewhere, not written here

I had a cardiac arrest in 2010. I also had a close call in the early days in Cardiff when I was in a band called the Denims. We were in a van driving along a narrow mountain road. Somebody wanted to go to the toilet, so we stopped, and afterwards the driver took a wrong turn and we went careering down the mountain. Everyone was screaming, it was like a nightmare. At the bottom was the railway line, but the van stopped just in time. We were very lucky.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 18 February 2023 source ↗

Others on this question

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Beverley Knight Singer and stage actor

On a flight to Newcastle, when we had terrible storms. The plane dropped quickly and the oxygen masks fell down. We had to land in Manchester.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 9 July 2022 source ↗

Bruce Dickinson English heavy metal singer

I’ve been asleep at the wheel on the M11, had an engine fire over the Atlantic in a light aircraft, driven unprotected through an enemy firing zone to do a gig in wartime Sarajevo – the list goes on and on. But I did have stage 3 throat cancer and was cured by some fantastic UK medics.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 July 2024 source ↗

Joanne Froggatt English actress

I was in a car crash when I was 16, and I have a little scar on my face from smashing the passenger window with my head. If the car had rolled, I would have been dead.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 February 2019 source ↗

Bobbi Brown