A woman who survived the Boxing Day tsunami has revealed how she has cheated death an additional three times.
Twenty years on from the tragedy that killed at least 230,000 people including 149 Brits, Ani Naqvi is telling her story.
The now 52-year-old Londoner was on holiday in Sri Lanka visiting a friend.
She was napping when the Indian Ocean tsunami struck.
“I was fast asleep in my hut when suddenly the door flung open and water began to flood in,” Ani told Need To Know.
“Within a millisecond, I was under water, drowning and fighting for my life.
“I was tumbling around like a grain of rice in a washing machine in a pitch black thundering swirling mass of water.
“This was the first time I thought I was going to die.
“My life flashed before my eyes, I didn’t want to die so I fought tooth and nail to stay alive.
“Eventually the hut disintegrated with the force of the wave which was a blessing as now I could see where the sunlight was and realised I was upside down in the hut.
“The force of the wave was so strong it ripped off all my clothes and jewellery.
“My eardrums burst from the pressure and I was injured from all the debris in the room.
“I was washed inland with the tsunami and other bodies, most dead around me, and was luckily thrown into the path of a tree which I held on for dear life and saved my life.”
She then nearly got caught in a second wave, but had managed to get to higher ground with the help of some locals.
Ani said: “I gave first aid to survivors.
“But I was also injured, I had suffered cuts, bruises and gashes, mostly on my legs and arms but also one whole side of my face had been scrapped off as I was trapped under a falling building face first.
“I helped everyone I could make camp for the night, took a register of survivors and tried to create a running order of evacuation based on people’s injuries until the morning”
According to her, the next day was “bedlam”.
She said: “Fit and healthy people rushed those first few choppers but eventually we managed to get the sick on board.
“I ended up taking the last chopper of the day out to Arugam Bay after all those who wanted to be airlifted out had been.“
She was there until New Years Eve, when she finally managed to get herself a plane ticket.
Ani said: “To see the devastation was unbelievable.
“It looked like the world had ended, pure armageddon, everything upside down, smashed to smithereens, death and destruction everywhere.
“It was out of this world.
“I couldn’t believe it at first.”
The tragedy affected surrounding countries as well including Indonesia, India, The Maldives and Thailand, as well as parts of East Africa.
Ani considered herself lucky to be alive.
But since the traumatic event, she has “cheated death” three more times.
Six years after surviving the tsunami, doctors found cancerous cells in her left breast.
The cancer was treated but in the years following, the cancer returned, twice.
In 2014, doctors discovered it had spread and reached stage four.
Ani required two lumpectomies to remove the tumours in her left breast, and also had the lymph nodes removed from her underarms, as well as a course of radiotherapy.
She said: “Having survived a tsunami but then being faced with death a further three times, I believe that all those experiences were given to me as blessings in disguise to help me set on to the right path in life.
“I feel incredibly lucky to have had so many near death experiences as I know for a fact that death is not the end merely a transition.
“Before these experiences I had struggled with depression, anxiety and the usual ups and downs of life.
“I didn’t understand the point of life, and had all the trappings of external success but none of those things made me truly happy.
“Now I do something I love and make a positive impact in the world by transforming the lives of my clients.”
But when she got the cancer news, it was still a huge shock.
Ani, a transformation expert, said: “I had experienced long term depression and suicide ideation thoughts on and off for many years so whilst I was shocked to be diagnosed in my 30’s.
“Deep down inside I wasn’t.
“But my intuition told me I had brought this into my life through my negative thoughts and that it would be a five year journey but then I would be ok and it was spot on.
“Shortly after, friends told me that I was full of grace, as I seemed to move into a place of calm and wisdom.
“However there were mostly very difficult and stressful years ahead. So yes I was devastated, shocked and terrified but it all turned out for the best in the end.
“As much as the diagnoses were heart-breaking, I decided to look at them as a challenge.
“It’s always so strange to think about cheating death so many times.
“But I think life only gives you as much as you can take.
“And I knew I could take this.”
Thankfully, Ani has been in remission since 2014 but has six-month scans to monitor the cells.
She said: “I had to have all of these experiences to understand that we are more than just a mind and body.
“I feel blessed and lucky to have survived.
“But it also feels normal to me, as all of them have made me who I am today.”
“I am still in remission and don’t have any cancer.
“My life has never been better.
“Some of my friends joke with me how I am a disaster magnet.
“My husband and family are just happy that I’m alive.
“Do I worry about the future? Not really, we’re all going to die at some point.
“I am very optimistic and positive, I’m very happy and content.”
And during her cancer diagnosis’s, she met her now husband Andrea Barra, 47, an osteopath.
She said: “We are truly happy.
“He has been there for me every step of the way.”
READ MORE: ‘I live in agony with stroke-like symptoms every day – my jaw locks and I lose my vision’
