What is the bravest thing you have ever done?

I always feel brave when I have driven a good distance in the car and negotiated motorways etc, especially the M25. I suppose that is normal to some people

What’s brave to one person is not necessarily so to another. My friends thought I was incredibly stupid brave when I met a backpacking Aussie in the street and gave him a bed for the night, but actually I’m so experienced in putting up waifs and strays that I believed (correctly) the risks were extremely low.

And to anyone who feels like being flippant on this thread - please go right ahead - I’m sure all experiences and comments are equally valid.

I have had to be brave at times dealing with things in my/our personal life as I am sure many have.

The thing I still can’t believe I did many years ago was to go on the Olympic bobsleigh run in Innsbruck.I was absolutely terrified but once at the start the only way was down.There was an ex Olympian driving and an ex Olympic brake man.All I can remember of the actual run is the speed and the noise of the sleigh on the ice.The adrenaline rush and exhilaration at the end though, I could have done it again!

I am another who divorced after a long unhappy marriage. I should have done it years before. Money is tight but I am happy.

Similar to Tanith. Got myself a full time job before leaving my unreasonable first husband, as I knew I had to support myself. Then I rented a cheap flat, got a divorce and never looked back!

Luckily it only happens once a year but they don't even warn us so I don't have any dettol spray or similar to get rid of the smell in the house, urgh

I am going to be flippant. I feel like I am being VERY BRAVE atm as the poo lorry has turned up
bleurgh bleurgh
The smell in unbelievable. Who said it was a good idea to live in the country???

Thankyou Kate, but some of you are awesome, be proud.

Telling my then fiance that I couldn't marry him three weeks before our planned wedding day.

string-bag not back ( rolls eyes )

I have been called ‘brave’ for surviving and living with illness and disability. It isn’t brave, I had no choice in the matter.

Many of you are saying you’re scaredy cats. Feeling scared and doing it anyway is the very essence of bravery. Thank you for sharing your stories.

Outside of nursing, I suppose I've acted bravely at times, but you never lose that need to help someone. However I've never looked on myself as being brave.

Again, abroad, just one moment of " foolishness" really but I didn't think so at the time. On walking the miles through Singapore airport there was an old Chinese lady struggling with a long-handled string bag that was heavy, she was only little too.

I walked across to her and " signed " to her that I would carry her bag up to the customs area. She nodded and smiled and I took over. Dear me it was a weight ! I asked her if it was full of house-bricks, she just grinned as obviously there was no understanding and I struggled and sweated my way to the customs area-----and was stopped !

Told them I was doing the elderly lady a favour by carrying it for her, that it wasn't mine and did I look as though I was the type to carry something that would probably be balanced on my head. Customs were superb.

Next thing, the Chinese lady was taken into a room while I was ushered on my way and told never to carry anything for anyone else through an airport.
Needless to say I was laughing to myself and wondered what on earth was in that string back that felt like lead weights.

I would have said it felt more like a scene from a comedy film more than anything else.

I did save a stepGD from choking on a 2pence piece when she was little as it lodged at the back of her throat. The hardest part was keeping her calm. I gave her an almighty thump on her back between her ribs and out it shot.

Not flippant Sara just different life experience. I think my husband is brave too as he has (so far so good) overcome cancer and once donated his bone marrow to a stranger in another country after we lost our nephew to leukemia.

One of the bravest things I've done was to return to education in my 40s.

I became motivated and gained 6 GCSEs, 4 A Levels, and gained a place at our local university.

I didn't take up the place though as a job was offered to me, and thought at that time that the money would be more useful.

I agree, I feel really flippant now.
Some of you are truly brave and amazing

Admitting I needed help and accepting it last year for debilitating anxiety.

Too many to list but facing up to losing all my hair, having lost all my teeth aged 11.

Echoing what Laura just said.
What an unexpectedly moving thread

I came on to make a flippant and witty comment but thankfully read first.
I will just say I have great respect for the bravery many of you have shown.
Grandma70s and grannyactivist, so very sad.

I took up an invitation to go to Bangladesh on my own to speak at a conference and do some training at a local charity and to have several TV interviews. I was also expected to try to influence government officials of the need for this charity. It was a complete leap in the dark for me. However, I was absolutely fine. The people who had invited me were wonderful and I was very well looked after. We're still in touch and the charity is still going strong. I have very happy memories of my time there.

Emigrate . We had no clue what we were going to, what it was like, what the people were like etc. We knew it was a one way ticket because we didn’t have the money to return and we knew no one at all. It turned out to be perfect for us but not without initial struggles.

grannyactivist.

I haven't done anything brave. I have been scared a lot though.

I am afraid of heights, but I’ve climbed mountains and abseiled. At work I’ve been in situations where I’ve had to face violent men and women, but in the spur of the moment I’ve simply reacted, so haven’t felt particularly brave. However, I went to University at nearly forty years of age and with a part-time job and five children (including a baby and a toddler) - now that felt like a really brave thing to tackle.

At my son-in-law’s funeral I read the same poem that I’d read just a couple of years before at their wedding. It was a full military funeral with honours and was being recorded so I felt I really needed to do it (and him) justice, but walking behind the coffin into the packed church I just had a moment where I thought, ‘I can’t do this’. It seems ridiculous now when I think of the bravery of my daughter who was burying the hero father of her six month old son (he was killed in action), but it took every ounce of courage I had to step up to the lectern.

I had gone alone to visit eldest son in New Zealand , he was working , I took myself to the tourist office and booked tours , but the scariest thing was my journey home , said son was still working so couldn’t drive me to the airport so he put me on a single engined plane to Auckland to get my connection ! The pilot stepped into the plane , looked at the half dozen people and rearranged us to “ balance “ the plane , how I didn’t get off I’ve no idea !

Stood up to the angry parent with the knife, who came to get his children after he had put their mother in hospital.

Watched my back for months.