Crawley WORDfest - surviving a knife attack

In celebration of West Sussex Libraries’ Wellbeing Month, journalist, author and marathon runner Phil Hewitt, who is also group arts editor at Sussex Newspapers, heads to Crawley Library for a talk on his book Outrunning the Demons. The talk is part of WORDfest Crawley 2022 on Tuesday, March, 22 at 7pm.

As Phil says: “Running can take us to fantastic places. Just as importantly, it can also bring us back from terrible ones.

“For people in times of crisis, trauma and physical or mental illness – when normality collapses – running can put things back together again.”

After watching a cricket match in Cape Town, South Africa, six years ago, Phil was mugged – stabbed, punched, kicked and effectively left for dead in a grim, desolate suburb. Astonishingly, just as he could feel himself starting to drift away, he was scooped up and whisked to hospital by a passing pizza delivery driver. Two deep stab wounds, 18 stitches, three broken ribs, battered and bruised all over.

Phil resolved to put himself back together again by getting back to his first love, running….

And it proved a remarkable way to outrun the demons of PTSD, which is why it became the title of his book – Outrunning The Demons - available hereIn it, Phil tells of his own experiences and their aftermath – and also interviews 34 people from around the world who, as he says, have been to hell and discovered that the surest, safest, quickest way back was to run.

He interviewed people caught up in 9/11 and the Boston Marathon bombing; people who have lost loved ones to murder and natural causes; people who have suffered addiction, alcoholism, anxiety, depression, violent and sexual assault; sheer bad luck – and even a nose-diving jet.

The result is a remarkable collection of stories about hope and survival – a genuinely uplifting celebration of the strength of the human spirit and all the good that is unleashed simply through running.

Tickets for this event cost £3 per person and are available at

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/phil-hewitt-outrunning-the-demons-tickets-264628590237

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