Everything you need to know about Turia Pitt’s story and what happened to her
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Sometimes you unleash your true potential only after you have a tragic experience. The rock-bottom you reach in your life is just to push you to greater heights and success in the future. Just like in the life story of Turia Pitt.
Turia Pitt is an Australian athlete, a motivational speaker, an author, and a mining engineer. Despite her multiple talents, she is a very special woman with a very special life story to tell.
Turia Pitt was born on 24 July 1987 at Tahiti, French Polynesia. She is best known for surviving after her severe burns during her ultramarathon match. That accident changed her life. Turia did not take that incident as tragic but used it to boost her worth and value in the world.
Turia Pitt Before her accident
Turia Pitt’s life as she highlights is divided into two parts, before the accident, and after the accident. Turia Pitt was born and raised on Ulladulla in New South Wales. For studies, she attended Ulladulla Public School and Ulladulla High School. Ever since childhood, she was active in the sports field. She was best known for her athletic abilities and participation in sports.
Later in 2010, she completed her bachelor’s in Bachelor of Engineering(Mining) from the University of New South Wales. Turia then began participating in running races and training for them. She followed her interest in sports careers and became ambitious about it. Growing and excelling in her running career, she started participating in big events like the Ironman Australia Competition. Unfortunately, a horrible event was waiting for her in one of her marathons.
What happened to Turia Pitt
Turia Pitt’s life is divided into two parts, one is before the accident and another is after the accident.
In 2011, when Turia was 24 years old her life flipped upside down. As an athlete, she was competing in a 100km ultramarathon in Western Australia’s Kimberley region. Unfortunately, she was caught up in a large bush-fire. The fire was out of control and she had nowhere else to run. The blaze swept out a whole bunch of Selena Gorge.
After several hours when the fire had gone down, the medical team arrived at the scene and found her. At that time, Turia had suffered a full burn of nearly 65% of her body and had lost some fingers. She got out barely alive and wasn’t expected to survive due to her severe burns.
The organizers of that event ‘RacingThePlanet’ were to be partially blamed for that disaster. Even though the fire was naturally caused, the organizers were irresponsible in protecting the participants and viewers. Thus the organizers were highly criticized and blamed for this tragic event.
Turia Pitt recovery and her mindset
For Turia’s recovery after the burn, she had to stay for six months in hospital. During that time, she underwent over 200 operations and surgeries. For the recovery, she had to wear a full-body compression suit and mask every day to retain her form. The suit helped to soothe out the scars on her body. Her seven fingers had to be chopped off and she spent over two years in the recovery process.
In 2014, Turia went on Supreme Court and launched an action against the organizers RacingThePlanet. They reached a conclusion of out of court settlement.
Turia Pitt story after the accident
Turia was told that she will never be able to walk, run, or be independent again in her life. Even after being told so, she was destined to rebuild her life and placed goals of walking and running again. Having that mindset she trained herself to believe that she can achieve anything she wants.
After her recovery, Turia was invited to Australian television programs 60 minutes and Women’s Weekly. She shared her story and her mindset behind her recovery. She also inspired thousands after sharing her life story at TEDx Macquarie University Conference as a public and motivational speaker.
In the journey of her speeches, she was continuously gaining popularity. She also conducted various programs online and offline. She mentored people worldwide through online programs, raised awareness, and funds for philanthropic concerns. She also authored two books Everything To Live For’ and ‘Unmasked’ and still is in the process of writing more books. In 2018, she became a headliner at National Achievers Congress in Brisbane.
Turia Pitt’s Accomplishments
In 2014, she was named as Woman of the year in New South Wales Premier’s Award. She was also able to become a finalist in Australian of the year award, Telstra Business Woman of the Year, and the NSW awards.
Turia hasn’t stopped competing even after the accident. In May 2016, she completed Ironman Australia competition in just 13:24:42. Again in October 2016, she completed Ironman World Championship held at Kailua-Kona, Hawai at just 14:37:30.
At present, Turia is an ambassador for the ReSurge international company. Till now she has walked the Great Wall of China in 2014, Inca Trail in 2015 and Kokoda Track in 2016.
Turia Pitt’s husband and family
Turia has a fiancee who is also her all-time supporter Michael Hoskin. In 2017, Turia and her fiancee announced her pregnancy. In 2017 December she gave birth to a healthy boy, Hakavai Hoskin. Again in 2020 February, Turia announced through her Instagram that she gave birth to a second baby boy named Rahiti Hoskin.
Conclusion
Let women like Turia Pitt inspire people around the world. She never gave up, even after such a tragic and traumatic experience she rose back up and proved to be one of the trending women around the world. Let her tale light the spark inside you like it did inside her.
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