Australian Gill Hicks lost both her legs in the July 2005 London Tube bombings. photo / Getty Images
Australian Gill Hicks lost both her legs in the July 2005 London Tube bombings. photo / Getty Images
Australian Gill Hicks, who lost both her legs in the July 2005 London Tube bombings, has used her anger at the "senseless act" to fuel her devotion towards building a more cohesive society and discouraging violent extremism.
Corazon Miller spoke to the 2014 South Australian of the Year, who is in Auckland for the 11th New Zealand Diversity Forum that opens today Wednesday September 9 under the theme; Empathy in the Face of Diversity.
"I am very angry...especially as a mother of a two-and-a-half-year-old; my anger increases almost daily because I can't run after my child. I can't do the things I would like to do," Gill Hicks says upon reflecting on the explosive events that led to the loss of her legs and almost took her life.
The former creative professional's whole life changed in a single violent instant on the morning of July 7, 2005 when a 19-year-old suicide bomber detonated a bomb on a London train, killing himself, 26 others and injuring more than 340 people.
Ms Hicks, who had lived in the English capital for the better part of two decades working for a number of prestigious creative institutions, was critically injured in the attack, going into cardiac arrest three times, showed "no signs of life" for 30 minutes, was in a coma for several days and had to have both her legs amputated below the knee.
Gill Hicks said they weren't entirely sure she'd survive. Photo / Getty Images
"They weren't entirely sure that I'd survive."
But survive she did...leaving hospital walking, on a pair of new prosthetic legs that added a few inches to her former five feet stature, three and a half months later - a couple of months earlier than expected.
In the decade since Ms Hicks has founded her own not-for-profit organisation aimed at promoting peace, moved back to her country of birth, found a new love and in 2013 gave birth to her "finest achievement" - daughter Amélie.
It could have been easy for Ms Hicks to dwell on what had been taken from her - her former life where her world revolved around herself and her career working at the helm of a number of architecture, design and contemporary culture firms.
"I was a person, who was typical of many in society...my world view had me in the centre of it."
A self-confessed workaholic Ms Hicks says she forgot to experience all the "extra bits of life" and do things, like skiing, while she still had her legs.
"Even things like going to a gym, or going jogging, those fascinate me. How amazing is it that people can do that? I'd love to do that."
Gill Hicks is in Auckland this week for a diversity forum. Photo / Nick Reed
While Ms Hicks remains angry at the "senselessness" of the act that robbed her of her legs and the chance, most parents take for granted, of running after her active toddler she refuses to be bitter about it.
"I'm not bitter...I don't harbour hatred," she explains. "For me anger has become a very positive motivator."
Instead of simply allowing her anger to fester Ms Hicks has used it to fuel her desire to make sure what happened to her doesn't ever happen to anyone.
"There's nothing good about being an amputee."
Softly spoken and dressed in a casual chic black attire, with some dark red lippy adding a splash of colour, Ms Hicks shows little outward signs of the trauma she experienced ten years ago, barring a slightly slower gait and the thin walking stick she uses for support.
The scene of the 2005 London tube bombing. Photo / Getty Images
But as she reflects back on that single moment ten years ago she admits it's undeniable the experience has changed her not just physically, but also her whole outlook on life.
While Ms Hicks has adapted to her new life as a double amputee she never got used to it.
Pain is a constant part of her life and not ever knowing where the floor was situated was somewhat unnerving.
"The only way I've ever tried to describe it, not that I've done this, but it's like putting your legs in a vice, wearing stilettos while walking on stilts," she says. "It's always uncomfortable."
But for her, this pain has become a reminder that she is still here to experience it.
"Pain has become part of my understanding of life and one of the signals that I am even here to experience it."
It was 8:50am on July 7 2005 when 19-year-old Germaine Lindsay, one of four suicide bombers that day, detonated the bomb he'd been carrying in his backpack just moments after the Piccadilly Line train pulled out of King's Cross station.
Ms Hicks says it was at that moment her world "turned a tangible black".
A series of misfortunate timings had led to this moment where Ms Hicks, who otherwise would have been safely sitting at her desk, boarded the exact same train and carriage as the teen bomber.
The need to buy a paper ticket after forgetting her travel card and a delay with the trains cost her the precious minutes that could have made all the difference.
Though Ms Hicks was standing but a person away from the teen, she doesn't recall anything significant about the bomber himself, saying he had blended into the usual anonymity of fellow London commuters.
A wounded victim of the blast is helped at the time of the tragic event. Photo / Getty Images
In fact it wasn't till days later that she knew exactly what had happened.
In the moments after the explosion her focus was on staying alive.
As the last to be freed from the wreckage, Ms Hicks spent a good hour trapped on the train, during which she applied tourniquets around both her legs to stem the blood flow and faced the prospect of her own death.
"I was able to confront the very real idea of death and make the choice to choose life."
She describes the moment the darkness cleared as the torch from the rescuers shone through.
"The first moment I saw the torch and heard 'Priority One'...it was amazing to know rescue was at hand."
Waking up from a coma, a few days later, to see the tag on her arm that read "one unknown, estimated female" was another defining moment in Ms Hicks' experience.
"Here I was an un-recognisable, unidentified person, and people risked their own lives to come and save me," she says. "It didn't matter what the colour of my skin was, where I came from, if I had faith or not, if I was rich or poor."
Ms Hicks says absolutely nothing mattered other than that "I was a precious human life".
It's this value of human life that has inspired Ms Hicks not to harbour hatred against her attackers but to work to foster understanding and eliminate extremism every day of the ten years since.
"The difference to me had to be in deterring anyone from every following the path down to violent extremism...my work is focused on how we build a sustainable peace, in which we see coherent and cohesive societies."
She does this through the not-for-profit organisations she's founded, M.A.D (Make a Difference) for peace and its Australian reincarnation, M.A.D. Minds.
Through these platforms Ms Hicks hopes to connect people and encourage them to think of Peace as a verb - something one can actively do.
Her work is focused on public engagement, education and bridging divides in communities, to eradicate ignorance and intolerance of people of other faiths and cultures, including the Arabic and Islamic communities and provide a counter-narrative to extremist ideologies.
"It was important for me to use my body in its 'new' form to show the strength, courage and determination that I believe is within each of us - that we can face adversity and make a difference, embracing life for all it offers."
About the London bombings
On Thursday July 7, 2005 four suicide bombers detonated bombs in Central London
52 people were killed and more than 770 were injured
Three bombs went off at 8:50 on underground trains just outside Liverpool Street and Edgware Road stations and on another travelling between King's Cross and Russell Square
The final explosion was an hour later on a double-decker bus in Tavistock Square
