Unmasked (2017) is the second memoir of Turia Pitt who, at 25
years of age, survived the grassfire in September 2011 while competing in an
ultra-marathon event of 100 kilometres in the Kimberley region of Western Australia
that engulfed several competitors. It is a continuation of Everything To Live
For (2013) – and presents life beyond the compression
bandages that covered her body and face, intended to smooth out the horrific burn
scars.
Pitt suffered burns to 65% of her body and had four fingers and a thumb
amputated. From her job as a mining engineer at the Argyle diamond mine, to
near death, to a dependent patient, and finally to her renewed independence in
the space of five years, Pitt is now a humanitarian, motivational speaker, mindset
coach, endurance athlete, and author. Changing her bandages took four hours of
pain a day, and now … running or climbing or speaking takes up her time.
Progress that was measured in millimetres has been replaced with charity fund-raising
achievements.
In this memoir, Pitt ‘absorbs every precious second she has on Earth’
by continuing to undertake physically difficult events, including climbing the Great Wall
of China, walking the Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea, and competing in two
Ironman competitions. But these events are also fund-raising events for charity,
mainly for Interplast, a not-for-profit organisation of plastic and
reconstructive surgeons who work globally to ‘repair bodies and rebuild lives.’
She covers not only the physical pain and endurance of her survival and
subsequent competitions, but also the psychological ups and downs of everyday
life in the five years since the fire.
Not only is this
about her own ‘unmasking’ in which the compression bandages are removed and the
whole world sees her scars, but it is also the ‘unmasking’ of some of the
people in her life that assisted her recovery. Written in their own words are
chapters by her fiance Michael Hoskin, her parents Michael and Celestine, her
fiance’s parents Gary and Julie, the burns doctor Peter Haertch, friends, a
media representative, her training coach, and other survivors of the 2011 fire.
From these excerpts, the bonds that bind each of them to Turia are immense and
long-lasting.
Pitt, now 30, reveals
the love story between her and Michael, whom she was dating before the fire.
She says, “At heart, my story is a love story. As much as it is a tale of
triumph over adversity — a story of the girl who was burned but not broken —
it’s a story of the boy and the girl whose love for each other couldn’t be
dimmed. A love that no fire could tear apart.’’ Michael, in his own words,
answers the question they are often asked: why do you stay with her?
It is an honest
account of the pain, challenges, dependency on people for everyday living,
rebalancing personal and professional relationships, and changing a mindset
from negative to positive in a gradual painstaking process that takes community
support, family devotion, unwavering friends, dedicated doctors, the bonds of
survivors, an enduring love, and an individual spirit.
MARTINA NICOLLS is an international
aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of
Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet
(2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).
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