The day that turns a life upside down usually starts like any other, but what happens the day after?
As a journalist, Leigh Sales often encounters people experiencing the worst moments of their lives in the full glare of the media. But one particular string of bad-news stories – and a terrifying brush with her own mortality – sent her looking for answers about how vulnerable each of us is to a life-changing event. What are our chances of actually experiencing one? What do we fear most and why? And when the worst does happen, what comes next?
At Byron Writers Festival, Leigh Sales will share the candid stories in her book Any Ordinary Day from people who’ve faced the unimaginable: from terrorism to natural disaster to simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Expecting broken lives, she instead finds strength, hope, even humour. Leigh brilliantly condenses the cutting-edge research on the way the human brain processes fear and grief, and poses the questions we too often ignore out of awkwardness. Along the way, she offers an unguarded account of her own challenges and what she’s learned about coping with life’s unexpected blows.
As well as taking her turn in the hot seat at Byron Writers Festival on Saturday 3 August to discuss her life and book, Leigh Sales will take part in the panel Resilience and Strength During Adversity with former World Vision CEO Tim Costello, and Chloe Hooper, author of The Tall Man and The Arsonist.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
