In 2011, 24-year-old athlete and fashion model Turia Pitt, a former Miss Australia nominee, competed in the RacingThePlanet Grand Marathon.
The route of the marathon went into the forest belt and into the mountains. Six people climbed to the top of the hill at the same time: four men, Turia and another woman. They were almost at the very top when a fire broke out somewhere behind. A minute later, the fire closed around the runners. Then Turia remembers everything in fits and starts: how she sat down on the ground, for some reason covered herself with a jacket, how it became “hotter, hotter, hotter”, how, unable to bear this heat, she jumped up and tried to run ... And flew into the fire. “Then it was just black and hot.”
Turia Pitt lost all her fingers and a hand on her right hand. Luckily, the left one survived. Later, in the hospital, doctors had to amputate the fashion model and the athlete's leg. In the early days, doctors did not promise at all that she would survive. And when the critical moment passed, it became clear that the girl would spend the next few years in hospitals.
And if in these most difficult, life-threatening first days, youth and good health helped her to get out, then for the first time to look at herself in the mirror and master the prosthesis, as Turia herself admits, she was able only thanks to love.
Turia and Michael Hoskin met at school, but became a couple only at the age of 21. Michael found out about what happened to the girl only when the helicopter was already flying to the hospital and the doctors were fighting for her life in the sky.
Seeing her disfigured skin was the easiest test of all Michael had to face. After all, Pitt, after the amputation, could not only run - walk the way she used to. She was almost unable to wash herself, eat, serve herself, could not simply open a bottle of water, go to the toilet without help. She had to be with her around the clock. And Michael went for it. He changed jobs to be at home or in the hospital as much as possible. He taught her to walk again, dressed her, was literally her arms and legs. During two years. Until she recovered.
Now Hoskin says about his beloved: “She is beautiful!” - and it doesn't look forced. Because then he continues admiringly: “She has crazy energy. She tries to be active along with me. She gets up every day at 7 o'clock in the morning to walk and swim before the physio, she spends this time with me and forbids her to feel sorry and give in to her. She is incredible. You can't call her a "survivor". All this time she did not try to survive, she tried to fully live every day.
Turia has yet to undergo several cosmetic surgeries. The worst, the most frightening, they and Michael went through - and remained together.
December 27, 2017The 30-year-old model was at the epicenter of a fire in the steppe six years ago, and her skin was badly burned. Her lover helped her overcome depression. Not only did he help Turia Pitt embrace her new look, but he also started a family with her. This month, the girl gave birth to a daughter.
Turia Pitt with her lover / photo: instagram.com/turiapittSix years ago, Turia Pitt took part in the 100 km race Racing The Planet. However, on this day there was a strong steppe fire, and the girl, like other participants in the marathon, found herself in its epicenter. She managed to survive, but almost 70% of her body was completely burned. For the Australian model, this was a tragedy, and she became depressed. After several skin grafts and two years of recovery, she repeatedly admitted in interviews that she did not know why she survived.
However, her lover helped her find the strength to move on, who did not leave Turia after the fire. Michael Hoskin helped her overcome depression and taught her to accept her new appearance. The model started a family with him and found out this summer that she was pregnant. Later, she began to upload pictures on the Web in which she posed with a rounded belly. The girl and her chosen one began to look forward to the appearance of the child. In early December, Pitt became a mother. She gave birth to a daughter, who was named Khakavai.
Now the newly-made parents are getting used to the new role, and also plan to arrange a magnificent wedding next year. Michael said earlier that his lover does not like being pitied. The man himself considers Turiya very beautiful. The model loves to walk and organize outdoor activities. The groom admitted that he is always next to her.
How do you imagine a girl on the cover of a glossy magazine? Beautiful, well-groomed and flawless of course? You'll be absolutely right, because it has always been like this, right up to the publication of the July issue of the Australian women's glossy magazine Women'sWeekly. For him, the producers organized a photo shoot for Turia Pitt, a well-known athlete in the country, whose 65% of her skin is affected by deep burns. So Turia returned to the modeling business, from which she had to leave three years ago - due to injuries that are theoretically incompatible with life. But love saved her and brought her back to life.
In 2011, 24-year-old athlete and fashion model Turia Pitt, a former Miss Australia nominee, applied to compete in the RacingThePlanet (RTP) Grand Marathon. She was refused because she could not make an entry fee - to pay the organizers $ 1,600. However, a few days before the race, Turia and several other athletes received a call from the organizing committee and were offered to participate for free: there was a shortage of runners, and the marathon itself was in jeopardy. Pitt immediately changed all her plans so that she would definitely get to the race: it was a dream.
After the second reference point, the marathon route went into the forest belt and into the mountains. Six people climbed to the top of the hill at the same time: four men, Turia and another woman, 35 years old. They were already almost at the very top when they heard "a terrible sound, like the roar of a huge heavy truck." It turned out to be a fire that broke out somewhere behind. A minute later, the fire closed around the runners. Then Turiya remembers everything in fits and starts: how she sat down on the ground, for some reason covered herself with a jacket, how it became “hotter, hotter, hotter”, how, unable to bear this heat, she jumped up and tried to run ...
The medical helicopter arrived for the runners only four hours later. All this time, male athletes saved the lives of both girls (the second participant also received serious injuries). Being on the top of the rock, where the fire did not reach, they covered their burns from the sun's rays with their clothes, moistened them with drinking water, tried to bring them to their senses.
Before the fire
Turia Pitt lost all her fingers and a hand on her right hand. Luckily, the left one survived. Later, in the hospital, doctors had to amputate the fashion model and the athlete's leg. In the early days, doctors did not promise at all that she would survive. And when the critical moment passed, it became clear that the girl would spend the next few years in hospitals.
And if in these most difficult, life-threatening first days, youth and good health helped her to get out, then for the first time to look at herself in the mirror, master the prosthesis and three years later appear on the cover of the Turia gloss, as she herself admits, she could only thanks to love.
Turia and Michael Hoskin met at school, but became a couple only at the age of 21. And already at the very beginning of the relationship, Michael realized that Turia was exactly the girl he needed.
They also worked together in mining. Michael found out about what happened to the girl only when the helicopter was already flying to the hospital and the doctors were fighting for her life in the sky.
Seeing her disfigured skin was the easiest test of all Michael had to face. After all, Pitt, after the amputation, could not only run - walk the way she used to. She was almost unable to wash herself, eat, serve herself, could not simply open a bottle of water, go to the toilet without help. She had to be with her around the clock. And Michael went for it. He taught her to walk again, dressed her, was literally her arms and legs. During two years. Until she recovered.
The girl had to learn to live with a new face, or rather, without a face. Learn to go out, be among people, feel the views. But next to her was a man thanks to whom she was able to cope with depression. Michael, her boyfriend, quit his job to be with the girl every minute, to care for and support. And most importantly, continued to love her.
How does Michael feel about Turia's new look?
“She doesn’t want people to feel sorry for her. He just wants to keep living. You know she's beautiful. She is great".
"It's still the same Turia, only the skin has changed."
It would seem that it is so simple - the same girl, only with a different skin! But how many people are capable of such an attitude? Thank you Michael
Now Hoskin says about his beloved: “She is beautiful!” - and it doesn't look like a stretch. Because then he continues admiringly: “She has crazy energy. She tries to be active along with me. She gets up every day at seven o'clock in the morning to walk and swim before physiotherapy, she spends this time with me and forbids her to feel sorry and give in to her. She is incredible. You can't call her a "survivor". All this time she did not try to survive, she tried to fully live every day.
Turia has yet to undergo several cosmetic surgeries. The worst, the most frightening, she and Michael went through - and remained together.
Athletics for Turia Pitt is now closed for obvious reasons. But there is always a way out.
With her prosthesis, the girl re-mastered the bike. Now she races from Sydney to a nearby city for fun and local competitions.
He also participates in 20-kilometer swims. And she says that she is happy that she has one working hand left - even if she had to completely relearn how to do everything with her left.
And this year, Pitt was able to climb the Great Wall of China and in eight days complete a given route of 95 km with obstacles as part of a charity event.
This act of hers was covered not only by Australian, but also by the world media. Through her action, Pitt raised $200,000 in donations. She directed all this money to the development of restorative medicine for people with severe injuries in developing countries.
“This experience showed me how important it is for me now to interact with other people, how important mutual help and support is,” says the athlete. - Other participants of the action constantly helped me where a second hand is needed. I wouldn't have made it without them.
Turia Pitt has already released a biographical book. Now she is getting her master's degree in engineering and gives seminars as a motivational speaker. Forecasts as to whether she will ever be able to get rid of her scars, the doctors do not give the girl.
By the way, Turia Pitt was able to prove to the parliamentary commission investigating the incident with the fire that the organizers of the race were indirectly to blame for what happened, and sue compensation. The marathon was held in September, this is a fire-dangerous period for those places. And for security reasons, the event had to be postponed or canceled altogether, but there was no talk of it. Before the start, the athletes were warned about the danger of snake bites and encounters with crocodiles, but they did not say anything about fires, although the instructors were familiar with the climatic conditions. And the organizers and special services were not ready for an emergency: this follows from the fact that the victims had to wait an unacceptably long time for a helicopter with doctors.
And until Pitt proved the guilt of the RTP leadership, she met with almost no desire on their part to atone for their inaction. All she got from the organizing committee while in the hospital was a postcard, a few sympathetic emails, and chocolates.
This summer, Michael proposed to Turia during a holiday in the Maldives, giving him a diamond ring that he bought 4 years ago.
“When Turiya was in the intensive care unit, I went and bought a diamond ring. I showed it to my father when we were standing at her bedside in the clinic and said: "If Turia survives, I will marry her." He looked at me and said, "Well done, boy."
After that, Michael gave the ring to his father for safekeeping, and, having quit his job, he remained to look after the girl in the clinic, because she could not do anything on her own, even dress and eat.
Michael: "I wanted to wait for the right moment - I wasn't going to rush and propose right after it happened."
Turiya: “The fire made me more grateful for everything I have, for every day I live. Before, I didn’t think about anything when I went to bed with my boyfriend. Now I think how lucky I am that I fall asleep next to this beautiful man. He is a good person, I am very lucky to be with him. Every day when I wake up next to him is a great day. He loves me just the way I am."
“At the moment I am overwhelmed with love. Michael is my soul mate, I have known this for many years. All this time we talked about marriage, but still the proposal came as a surprise to me.
How did it happen? The couple was on a night out on a boat when they suddenly announced that a manta ray was swimming right under them. Sensing that the right moment had come, Michael grabbed the ring he always carried with him and asked Turia to do him the honor of becoming his wife. They celebrated this event in an unusual way - they put on masks and snorkels and swam along with the stingray for an hour.
“It was magical,” they say.
“The past 4 years have been the hardest for both of us, and only over the past 6 months have we returned to normal life, to the relationship that we had before. It's a good time for us. Now we are planning a wedding next year - a big celebration, not a romantic event. This is an opportunity to thank friends and our families for their help.”
Turia's plans: “I don't mind improving my appearance with the help of operations. If I need 1000 more operations, I will do them. On average, I have 3 surgeries a year and will stop when I've done my best. This is the goal, but not the only one.
However, sometimes operations don't go as planned. At the beginning of the year, Turia's nose was reconstructed, but during the operation, the girl stopped breathing. Turia's mother and her boyfriend were waiting outside the operating room.
“When we heard the resuscitation signal for cardiac arrest and the head nurse ran to the operating room, we thought we had lost her. I said, "God, don't you dare. This girl fought so hard. Struggling to get out of bed, to walk, to accept the situation - don't do this to her."
Now Turiya lives a full life, surfs, rides a bike, travels, works. And is a member of a charitable organization dedicated to reconstructive surgery in developing countries. Turiya performs, drawing attention to the problems of people who have suffered as a result of injury or illness.
Someone is interested to look at the girl in burns and find out what happened to her. And for someone, her example will help to cope with their own tragedy, because support is the most important thing for those who have lost confidence.
After 6 years, the girl's life has completely improved.
Turia married her lover and ... will soon become a mother.
The women's magazine "Women's Weekly" was published with a very unusual cover. So, instead of the standard beauty, the face of a girl who could hardly be called pretty looked at the readers. Burn scars disfigured her face beyond recognition, but this could not bring anyone down confused - it was Turia Pitt, until recently a fashion model and a very promising athlete.
The life of Australian Turia Pitt is now divided into two main periods - Before and After. So, before the accident, Turia was a beauty, a contender for the title of Miss Australia (Miss Earth Australia), a popular fashion model and an athlete-athlete. From childhood, she got used to train, work and calmly accepted her victories, did not "star", put up with defeats, but did everything so that there were as few of them in her life as possible. She enjoyed life, loved her friends and family, adored her job and dreamed of a real big career.
All dreams were shattered in 2011 when Turia decided to run the 100km marathon, the famous RaceThePlanet race.
Now it sounds a little ominous, but then the organizers of the marathon refused her participation - Turiya did not pay the entry fee for participating in the marathon, and if everything had gone on like this, what happened would never have happened to the girl. But, as they say, all the paths are painted on the stars, and just before the race, Turia suddenly got a call and offered to participate anyway - there was a shortage of athletes. And Turia responded, and on the fateful day she was already at the start of the RTP marathon, thinking that her dream had come true, because she had dreamed of taking part in this race for so long.
During the marathon, there was a terrible fire in the steppe, and Turia, and with her several other runners, found themselves in a ring of fire. The girl was badly burned - 64 percent of the skin, mainly the back and face, these were the terrible figures of the doctors.
She miraculously survived, she needed several dozen skin grafts, and also took two long years to recover. She lost her fingers and one leg, but still survived.
But on that day, when Turia looked at herself in the mirror for the first time after the fire, it suddenly seemed to her that it would be better if she never got out of that fire - it was not her, but someone else's face that looked at her from the mirror, in no way resembling the former one. beautiful Turia Pitt. Terrible burns mutilated her beyond recognition. It was here that a new series of trials began for the girl, who now had to learn to live in a new reality and with a new face. At some point, it even seemed to her that she simply could not bear it, but then love came to the rescue, as if in a good fairy tale.
It was Michael Hoskin, her beloved Michael, whom they had known since high school. Pitt's main supporter was her fiancé, Michael Hoskins. They met when she was 14 and he was 17. It was he who managed to find the right words for his bride, it was he who was there all the time while Turia was balancing between life and death, it was he who patiently and carefully helped her to get out. And it was he who managed to convince Turia that it was not at all about her skin, and not about her appearance, because nothing had changed for him - for him she remains and will always be the same Turia that he loved many years ago.
Michael spent all these long two years with his beloved - taught her to walk, changed clothes, fed and watered, and was for her the best nurse in the world. He had to quit his job and find another one to spend more time in the hospital, and when the day came to go home, it was Michael who led Turia out onto the hospital porch.
Today, Turia Pitt is already living a new life, surfing, cycling, working as a mining engineer and finding time for public speaking as a motivational speaker. And Turia devotes a lot of time to charity - having gone through a serious illness, she now knows exactly how important support is for such people. Not so long ago, she became the subject of a documentary film about herself, it is called "Phoenix" and is filmed with money collected from donations.
Turia Pitt also wrote a biographical book. To the question whether plastic surgery can restore her beauty, there is no answer yet - everything is possible, but for now Turia lives with scars on her face and body, which, if not reconciled, but which she nevertheless began to get used to.
Michael reluctantly proposed to his bride and presented a diamond ring during their holiday in the Maldives.
The life of Australian Turia Pitt is now divided into two main periods - Before and After. So, before the accident, Turiya was a beauty, a contender for the title of Miss Australia (Miss Earth Australia), a popular fashion model and an athlete-athlete. From childhood, she got used to train, work and calmly accepted her victories, did not "star", put up with defeats, but did everything so that there were as few of them in her life as possible. She enjoyed life, loved her friends and family, adored her job and dreamed of a real big career.
All dreams were shattered in 2011 when Turia decided to run the 100km marathon, the famous RaceThePlanet race.
Now it sounds a little ominous, but then the organizers of the marathon refused her participation - Turiya did not pay the entry fee for participating in the marathon, and if everything had gone on, what happened to the girl would never have happened. But, as they say, all the paths are painted on the stars, and just before the race, Turia suddenly received a call and offered to participate anyway - there was a shortage of athletes. And Turia responded, and on the fateful day she was already standing at the start of the RTP marathon, thinking that her dream had come true, because she had dreamed of taking part in this race for so long.
During the marathon, there was a terrible fire in the steppe, and Turia, and with her several other runners, found themselves in a ring of fire. The girl was badly burned - 64 percent of the skin, mainly on the back and face, these were the terrible figures of the doctors.
She miraculously survived, she needed several dozen skin grafts, and also took two long years to recover. She lost her fingers and one leg, but still survived.
But on that day, when Turiya looked at herself in the mirror for the first time after the fire, it suddenly seemed to her that it would be better if she never got out of that fire - it was not her, but someone else's face that looked at her from the mirror, in no way resembling the former one. beautiful Turia Pitt. Terrible burns mutilated her beyond recognition. It was here that a new series of trials began for the girl, who now had to learn to live in a new reality and with a new face. At some point, it even seemed to her that she simply could not bear it, but then love came to the rescue, as if in a good fairy tale.
It was Michael Hoskin, her beloved Michael, whom they had known since high school. It was he who managed to find the right words for his bride, it was he who was there all the time while Turia was balancing between life and death, it was he who patiently and carefully helped her to get out. And it was he who managed to convince Turia that it was not at all about her skin, and not about her appearance, because nothing had changed for him - for him she remains and will always be the same Turia that he loved many years ago.
Michael spent all these long two years with his beloved - taught her to walk, changed clothes, fed and watered, and was for her the best nurse in the world. He had to quit his job and find another one to spend more time in the hospital, and when the day came to go home, it was Michael who brought Turia to the hospital porch.
Best of the day
Today, Turia Pitt is already living a new life, surfing, cycling, working as a mining engineer and finding time for public speaking as a motivational speaker. Turia also devotes a lot of time to charity - having gone through a serious illness, she now knows exactly how important support is for such people. Not so long ago, she became the subject of a documentary film about herself, it is called "Phoenix" and is filmed with money collected from donations.
Turia Pitt also wrote a biographical book. To the question whether plastic surgery can restore her beauty, there is no answer yet - everything is possible, but so far Turia lives with scars on her face and body, which, if not reconciled, but which she nevertheless began to get used to.
The organizers of that marathon paid compensation to Turia, as their indirect guilt in what happened was proven.
