Two of the most powerful, uplifting, upsetting TED talks I've watched.

"I had extensive and life-threatening injuries. I'd broken my neck and my back in six places. I broke five ribs on my left side. I broke my right arm. I broke my collarbone. I broke some bones in my feet. My whole right side was ripped open, filled with gravel. My head was cut open across the front, lifted back, exposing the skull underneath. I had head injures. I had internal injuries. I had massive blood loss. In fact, I lost about five litres of blood, which is all someone my size would actually hold. By the time the helicopter arrived at Prince Henry Hospital in Sydney, my blood pressure was 40 over nothing. I was having a really bad day."

Janine Shepherd was training for the Australian Olympic team when she was run down by a truck. Her story of her road to recovery will amaze and move you.



And while thinking of TED talks that stay with you, another I've been meaning to share for a long time is this one by Jill Bolte Taylor. She was a brain researcher who suffered a stroke of her own. In this extraordinary talk, she explains how she saw this happening from the inside, realising the headache was something more.

Then I realized, "Oh my gosh! I'm having a stroke! I'm having a stroke!" And the next thing my brain says to me is, "Wow! This is so cool. This is so cool! How many brain scientists have the opportunity to study their own brain from the inside out?" 

Between TED and YouTube views, this talk has been viewed more than 12 million times.