The world according to Petra Nemcova

I thought I was going to die She is one of the world’s most successful supermodels but Petra Nemcova’s career almost ended in December 2004 when she was a victim of the devastating Boxing Day tsunami in Thailand . She spent eight hours clinging to a palm tree as the waves wrecked everything around her, and when taken to hospital she was told that her injuries were so appalling she would never walk again. She was also given the news that her fiancé, British photographer Simon Atlee, was dead. Now fully recovered, Czech-born Nemcova, 32, says, “Things happen in life for a purpose. You make a choice. You move forward and try and make your life better.” Her ex-boyfriends include Sean Penn and James Blunt, and she is currently engaged to actor Jamie Belman. Based in New York, she is the founder of the Happy Hearts Fund, which raises money for countries devastated by natural disasters.  I was with the man I loved, the man who had asked me to marry him, and it was the day after Christmas and we were packing from the most beautiful holiday in Thailand. We had just come back to our room after a walk on the beach. Everything was wonderful. The only different thing was that the sea had pulled right back off the beach which seemed strange, but nothing like a sign of what was going to happen. Then there were shouts from the beach and I looked out of the window and there was just a wall of water. It crashed through the bungalow; there was black water, broken glass everywhere. My last memory of Simon is seeing him on the bungalow roof and thinking: ‘He’s a better swimmer than me, he’ll be OK.’ I heard him shout my name and I shouted his name and then I was out in the water, clinging to a roof seeing nothing but water. After the first wave hit, there was a second wave and I was in the water. I felt myself starting to swallow the water and I knew this was the moment my life was going to end. It was actually a moment of pure bliss. I totally let go of any worries, any thoughts; I just accepted this was it. I felt weightless in the water and completely at peace. Then the water just as quickly pulled away and I opened my eyes to see bright blue sky. In a split second my brain clicked back into survival mode. As I was being dragged I knew I had to find something to cling on to, so I grabbed at a tree. I remained in that tree conscious and unconscious for the next eight hours. I was in total agony and blacking out every now and again. But I tried to remain focused. The most heart-breaking sounds were cries of children all around me. I couldn’t get to any of them and then the cries would stop. I could only move with my arms because my pelvis was broken and when the water subsided I was screaming in pain; when the water came back it relieved the pain. Then I saw a crab in the water, I pulled it out and kept in on the tree; I kept it from moving off the tree, I watched it, I guarded it, I spoke to it. I wanted to be able to feel like I was protecting something else. It sounds strange but it kept me calm.