Big Stuff With Danielle Colley

She Woke Up With One Arm And Felt Grateful - Kerryn Harvey

Danielle Colley Season 2 Episode 36

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0:00 | 58:57

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Most of us walk around cataloguing what's missing. The goal we haven't hit, the body that isn't enough, the life that doesn't quite measure up yet. Kerryn Harvey woke up from a ten-day coma with one arm and saw a miracle.

In 2013, Kerryn contracted necrotising fasciitis — flesh-eating bacteria — from a minor cycling accident. Within 30 hours she was unconscious. She survived on a 5% chance, losing her right arm and shoulder in the process. What followed wasn't just a recovery story. It was a complete rebuilding of a life — on purpose, and with her eyes wide open.

Kerryn has since won medals at the Paratriathlon World Championships, completed two Ironmans (one after the amputation), run twelve marathons in twelve months for charity, and is currently working her way through the six Abbott World Marathon Majors. She is also the author of Mostly Ups.

But none of that is really the point of this conversation. The point is what Kerryn sees when she looks at her life — and why most of us can't see the same thing when we look at ours.

Kerryn is real proof that the version of yourself you haven't met yet might be the most extraordinary one. Not because something catastrophic has to happen first — but sometimes it takes something major to show us that the way we've been looking at our lives is upside down. 

We're scanning for the deficit when the miracle is sitting right there.


Chapter Markers

00:00 — Introduction 

03:00 —  Why Iron Man is nothing compared to what she's been through 

08:30 — The cycling accident and the fight for her life 

16:00 — The confusion and the grief 

21:00 — How she survived the emotional side

24:30 — What is necrotising fasciitis, and why it's terrifyingly ordinary 

28:30 — Running toward or running away? 

32:00 — This wasn't her first battle 

36:30 — Allowing herself to fall in love — and what life's too short really means

 38:30 — How she feels about this body, this life, and what's changed 

43:00 — The difference between living every day as if it's your last and living every day with joy 

46:00 — The 2018 Ironman start line: what it felt like to be back 

51:00 — Seeing the miracle, not the deficit — and how that shift actually happened 

54:00 — The six Marathon Majors and what's next 

56:30 — Radical acceptance, small goals, and opening doors 

58:30 — Thinking points and close


Resources and Links

Kerryn's book Mostly Ups — available August 17. Find her at kerrynharvey.com

Find Kerryn on Instagram

Nine Lives Training — Kerryn's personal training business based in Melbourne


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