E82: A 1% Chance Of Survival — How Georgia Carmichael Rewrote Her Story
Guest: Georgia Carmichael
Released: 18 Feburary 2026
Themes: Mental resilience · Identity & purpose · Goal setting · Recovery & rehabilitation · Athletic mindset · Lived experience
A 1% chance of survival. Two spinal injuries. A terminal diagnosis. Georgia Carmichael heard every reason to stop, and still chose to fight, visualise, train, and rebuild. We welcome the GB para-rower to share how a kayak accident led to months in a coma, how a second spinal stroke revealed a rare mitochondrial condition, and how a goals list — starting with survive and ending with Snowdon — became her compass through the darkest stretch of her life.
Georgia takes us inside the lonely, relentless grind of rehabilitation: relearning speech, navigating life in a wheelchair, and turning visualisation into daily practice when progress felt invisible. She explains how an athletic mindset, family support, and a stubborn streak helped her challenge the impossible — from standing for the first time in three and a half years to taking her first unthinkable steps across a pebbled beach. We trace the moment she left her wheelchair on the dock to return to the water, the empowerment of adapted rowing, and how the river’s rhythm gave her a future to row towards.
Along the way, we unpack practical lessons in resilience: how to set audacious yet actionable goals, manage risk without living in fear, and “control the controllables” when outcomes remain uncertain. Georgia also opens up about working as a physio to support others through life-changing injuries, the community she found with Millimetres to Mountains, and why she has just booked a one-way ticket to New Zealand and Australia — honouring the hospital-day visions of far horizons and a wider life.
Press play for a story that blends mindset, medicine, and the healing pull of water.
Georgia Carmichael: LinkedIn - Instagram
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