What is the bravest thing you have ever done?

Walked away from a very long unhappy controlling marriage with just a small suitcase. We had moved abroad to retire, I came back to the UK to start over, should have done it years ago.

Don't think it was a particularly brave but I felt like a super hero after this. I was driving home with my two boys a few years ago. It is a single track rural road with little traffic. Something caught my eye so I stopped the car. It was a young deer hanging upside down with one leg caught between the two lengths of wire fence (somehow the wire had twisted). The poor thing was really panicking and I pulled the wires apart, cutting my hands (it was barbed wire) and released it. My youngest son thought I was amazing and when I see a deer on our road I often wonder if it is a descendant of that deer. Not brave but was a real adrenalin rush.
The scariest thing I did was 4 years ago, going with my lovely Dad to identify my brother's body after he had been killed in a motorbike accident. I had never seen a dead body but had to support my Dad. Sadly since then I have lost my lovely Dad and my darling husband - doesn't get any easier.

I am inspired and in awe of all of these stories; you are all AMAZING! My thoughts and sympathies for those that have had to be strong doing brave deeds out of dire situations.

I honestly can't think of anything exceptionally brave I have done, but I have always been told that I am calm in bad situations; is that brave, or seeing what needs doing when others are having a hard time?

I do remember taking my 3 yr old daughter to emergency with an infection when a loud commotion broke out in the reception area. Luckily the exam room where we were waiting had a door; I slammed it, blocked it with a chair while there was havoc raging. It turned out the police needed to be called for a man having either a drug or mental health incident and the nursed commended me for my actions. I just remember thinking that this was perhaps a regular part of their jobs and that they were very brave to have such dedication to a career in nursing.

The bravest thing I've done recently is almost posted on the news and politics thread. But I bottled out.

I saved a gosling from a fishing hook. He was thrashing around in panic and it was terribly traumatic. Doesn't sound particularly brave but I had to climb on an overhanging bough over the pond with a very angry Mummy and Daddy Goose hissing at me. And an audience of thousands. Possibly not thousands. But I'm sure many people will now have footage of me doing my save a goose action.

**shorthand jotter not hotter.

**next day he said it was not there the previous night.....

Started a Law Degree at 32. I got it and practiced for several years.
Some 15 years on, I went back to college and retrained as a holistic therapist then set up my own business.

Aged about 19. I worked in the office of the local Technical College. There were 8 of us in the office and the Headmaster’s office was next door. He was a hateful man. Rude and disrespectful. The 30+ teachers disliked him including his wife who was also a teacher.
One day he called me into his office and questioned me about a notice that he had asked me to put up the previous evening on a certain notice board. Yes. Job was done. He said it was not there the previous night.
I said it was done.
He wanted me to go with him to the notice board and show him the notice.

I was so angry. This was typical behaviour for him. I refused and said I was no longer a school pupil, I was an employee, that I had placed the notice in position and would not have my integrity questioned. Where I got the bravery from I don’t know. Headmaster said ‘you will show me’.
I said ‘I will not’.... and threw my shorthand hotter at the wall just over his shoulder.
I left his office via the adjoining door into our own office. All were standing looking at me unbelievingly. Agog!!
That’s it I thought. That’s me sacked.
But no. It was never mentioned again.

At age seventeen on a sunny day in Bournemouth clinic, hearing all the children out on the beach: went through an abortion that I didn't want because I was alone, single and frightened of my parents throwing me out.
Years and years later when trying to adopt ( couldn't have kids) sticking up for myself when during Home Study the SW told me to 'write a letter to the aborted baby explaining why you did what you did and asking to be forgiven'.

I wrote it. I fell apart when she told me it sounded 'too slick and too professional'.

Hitch hiked to Italy with my boyfriend to see a friend. We took a tent and sleepung bags and very little else! Met some nice people on the way and saw a lot of places but it was pretty uncomfortable and tiring at times.

Going on holiday alone, after being widowed. I went on safari (something I has always wanted to do). Everyone except me were couples, most were on honeymoon, so I didn't feel that I could "buddy up" or "tag along" with anyone. I felt really alone, but the experience was worth it!

Deciding to end a 38 Yr marriage and walk away from a lovely big house and comfortable life. But I wasn't really happy and hadn't been for many years. Now settled in my own little home about to retire and enjoy what life I have in front of me.

Going up in a Glider. There is a Gliding school across the road from us & one sunny afternoon I suddenly thought - why not go up in one rather than just watching them going over so I went over then & there & they took me up.
It was just magic. Obviously silent as no engine & we went over my garden & all the local neighbourhood. We were up about an hour &I loved it. It was so smooth & all you can hear is the wind on the wings. I had a go at flying it too- not for long.
A little while afterwards a friend was having his 50th birthday so we bought him a trip. He was keen to have a go but he came off looking green & was sick as soon as he got out.
I'd do it again in a shot but it has got a lot more expensive now- I think I paid £5.

Horse riding through the Rocky Mountains for three hours. We weren't given a helmet and I couldn't reach the stirrups! Very scary as the horse kept slipping on the rocks!

Going on a foreign trip as part of my teaching degree. I had never flown, but we all travelled in a coach so I thought I'd be fine. However, as I knew no one else, they all disappeared through the airport. I managed to get through the 1st stage, not realising it was only the first stage! Only just caught the plane, despite arriving 2.5hrs early.

While away I tore my Achilles tendon, lecturers wouldn't sort a Dr, so flew home 10 days later having seen no one. When i saw my Dr the next day, he told me flying home should have killed me, because of blood clots...i was a mature student but didn't stand up for myself

I have a very brave brother. It was his son who died of leukaemia aged 16 after two years of gruelling treatment. A few years later my brother's wife collapsed and died aged 49. My brother lost his son and his wife and has picked himself up and got on with his life.

Moved to France to run a gite business during pandemic and Brexit. Minimal French but lots of enthusiasm. Miss family and NHS nothing else..

To those who say that they're scared and not brave - if you're scared but you get through an awful situation without collapsing then that's being brave. I fell in front of a class of children and cut my hand on a broken glass. I got the children back to class into the care of the TA, and off to the nurse without crying. The same when I cut my knee badly with my 3 year old son in tow. Had 10 stitches, drove 45 mins home, sent my son off to play then cried all over my husband!

At age 20 refusing to leave my severely disabled newborn daughter at the hospital and bringing her home against advice to die. I was told " If she were to live she'll never amount to anything - go home, forget you ever had her and start again!" Oh thank God attitudes have changed.
Against all the odds she didn't die and is 43 now and although her life is limited by our standards she is very happy living in her little bungalow with minimal help. She has little to smile about but is ALWAYS joyful and the happy heart of our big loving family.

When I was 12 years old and living in Yorkshire, I was invited by a schoolfriend who had relocated with his family to Kent to visit them. I told my father I would be all right to go on my own and he trusted me. I took a train to Kings Cross, a tube (never been on one before) to Charing Cross, and a train to Maidstone. I did not know that the train split there. I was on the wrong half. After a few stations I realised my mistake, and got off. The stationmaster took pity on me, and asked his friend to drive me to the correct station, which he did and refused to accept my offer of my pocket money as a reward. I look back on it now and can envisage all the awful things that might have happened. Five years later I took the train to London, one way, and stayed. Now retired, living in Kent, 3 daughters, 14 grandchildren, and 16 greatgrandchildren. Now THAT'S brave!

Did run off the side of a mountain in Turkey to go paragliding, at the age of 65, was a wonderful experience, would definitely do it again, my next one to go off the bucket list is to do a sky jump from a plane.

walking out on my 2nd marriage to a man who turned out to want a replacement for his mother his 1st wife had warned me . he refused to do anything around the house would not even cut the grass

I divorced my husband when I was nearly 25 and had 2 children under 4 years of age. I had to move house 3 times, with both boys and without any help from family or friends.
I've done several brave things that I wouldn't have said made me brave at the time. I've travelled alone to Ibiza for 10 years running, to the same hotel. I also flew alone to Valencia and Menorca.
In recent times I had to undergo chemotherapy as an inpatient for 6 weeks (I had Acute Myeloid Leukaemia) and I went through that entire journey by myself. I don't know if any of these things make me brave but they have shaped the person I am now.
And last year I published a book which is an account of the leukaemia journey, and this Sunday just gone, I've published another one - my cat wrote his diaries when he was a kitten!

I’m petrified of heights but on holiday in Australia I climbed Sydney Harbour bridge as my hubby had always wanted to do it and didn’t want to go without me.

Got married to someone of far superior intelligence, when I knew I would have to do a lot of social mixing with profs and the odd Lord. Also, provide dinners for them and "Smalltalk".much against my parent's guidance.