What is the bravest thing you have ever done?

lilypond and many others who have been through horrendous things. This thread has been awe inspiring to read of your bravery.

I don't think I am very brave. Probably things like diving off the high board - once! and driving a minibus (never driven one before) carrying all 16 of my inlaws' descendants, (one was pregnant), to their golden wedding party 60 miles away - and getting them all home with no mishaps in December, in the dark. Phew It felt brave.

I tackled an intruder once which was foolhardy. I ended up on the ground and he got away.

Dealing with mice, spiders, wasps and bees and a pigeon which came down the chimney last weekend, when there is nobody but me to do it so needs must.

Taking over the running of my husband’s business after his death.

Most of these have me in tears...Lillypond my heart breaks for you...

Sexually, mentally and physically abused along with my twin sister in childhood. We got through it because we had one another to love and support only to lose her to cancer at 45..... My life still feels empty without my beautiful sister....

Pearlsaminger fabulous, well done, good on you. Xxx

Talking through a caravan door to a patient with a loaded shotgun. We had searched the barns expecting to see the hanging body, as we had been sent a drawing of a hung body. I was the senior nurse so I went to support my charge nurse. It was not supportive to let her go on this search alone, remember thinking ‘what if they shoot me in the face where this door is ajar’. Well they didn’t, several months later they did end their life.

Telling my children I was leaving their father.

Agreeing to have my Grandad put on the Liverpool Pathway. It was a leap of faith that he wouldn't suffer and it was the right thing to do. It was one of the worst decisions I have ever had to make.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Lillypond x

Not as courageous as most of you lovely people but I did a wing walk on my 60th birthday. I was petrified but it was a gift so I had to overcome my fears.

In 2005, following some very difficult family stuff, I went to Thailand on my own and travelled round for 3 months. I did a Thai massage course in Chiang Mai. I was often asked "where is your Mr?" and then being given the best table in the restaurant when they found out I was on my own! It was scary, liberating, nerve wracking and fun.

Ringing my Son-in-Law to ask him to tell my Daughter, while they lived in America, her Father had died,she was pregnant at the time.
The most dreadful thing I have ever done,not brave but it took courage.

I think the bravest thing I ever did was to hold my daughter aged 42 whilst she took her last breath after fighting cancer for 2 years . Leaving behind 2 children . X

When I was 12 , inexperienced , I got on my friends pony, which then bolted for the gate she had left slighly open, I nearly lost my legs. Never went near a horse after that.

Years later on holiday in Morroco , the family wanted to go
on a Camel ride, I said I would watch , but the camels lying on the ground looked safe so I decided I would partake. As the animal rose I was overcome with fear, nausea and burst into tears, the handlers were so sweet and I managed to stay on.
It was an unforgettable 2 hours trek in the desert. I have
never been on an animal again!

My (now ex) husband and I had been to the theatre and when we got back to the car park we saw a young was urinating on the side of our car. My husband went over to him and just as the young man went to swing a punch at him I threw myself between them, shouting ‘that’s my husband you are about to punch’. The man was so surprised he just turned and walked away.

I am in awe of you ladies who have coped with what life has thrown at you and survived.
My husband as I had a campervan trip in Australia and New Zealand for 3 months and during that time I did a tandem parachute jump in Australia over the same beach our daughter had jumped a few years previously, I hate takeoff in planes and taking off in a tiny plane, sitting on the floor facing backwards was very scary, but I was so pleased I had the courage to jump! When we got to New Zealand my husband decided to do a hang glide off a mountain and I joined in with a paraglide. Experiences we both treasure for pushing ourselves very far outside our comfort zone.

Canoed to the Farne Islands whilst at college & I was the only girl Nearly bloody killed me !

Dealt with a very aggressive parent who bowled into the school I worked in to assault his son's teacher. I found a classroom assistant trying to calm him down in a corridor and took over the effort. He came nose to nose with me and made all kinds of threats, but I applied the broken record technique for quite a while and he eventually left. The classroom assistant had to be taken home as he had gone into shock.Threats of violence were common in the school I worked in. This was in the days before Dunblane when schools were sitting targets.

Pearlsaminger

Just in awe of your story , so well written, I was on the edge
of my seat reading it!

Forcing myself on a plane because my dh loves travel but since lockdown l have decided no more. He in all fairness has said fine, which is a weight lifted of my shoulders!

Saying NO for the first time to my ex

I stayed with my Dad when he died. I saved my son from a dog. I forgave my husband .

In the late 90's I went paragliding in Olu Deniz Turkey. This invovled jumping off the Babadag Mountain strapped to a (very handsome) Turkish man. The descent down to ground level took around half an hour, a truly sublime experience.

It was a tad scary in the moments when we first jumped off the mountain as the wind seemed to be blowing us back toward the mountain face. I felt a true sense of unexplainable calm in those moments, thinking that if this was 'my time' so be it.......I think it was the sense that I could do absolutely nothing about it which brought about this sense of fatalistic calm. Happily all was well, and I came home with the T-Shirt and video.

The other thing I've done which might be thought of as brave was, at aged 47, up sticks from where I'd always lived in Northern England, to move as a Billy No Mates to Kent for a new job. I loved it there, close to London, a little flat in the centre of town close to work and the train station, and I made a lot of good friends. I also met my husband, of now 10 years, there. So, a leap of faith that turned out to be life changing.

Nowhere nearly as brave as a lot of the posts on here.
I was in an abusive relationship & we was living with his parents a couple of hours away from my friends & family. One morning he came at me in front of my 3yo dd, the only thing that stopped him from really hitting me was a stair gate on her bedroom door. Later that day I found out I was pregnant & knew that if I didn't leave with one child I'd never go with 2 (had tried to leave 3 times previously but always chickened out) The next week while everyone was at work me & my daughter left with only a suitcase & the train fare home to my family, I never regretted it.
A few years later I met another man & married him knowing he had a terminal heart disease, he died just before our second wedding anniversary.
When I had an emotional breakdown & was very poorly 7 years ago admitting I needed help & agreed to admit myself to the mental health hospital so my dh wouldn't have to section me. Lost all of my "friends" as mh seems to scare everyone away ??‍♀️