The mother of surfing legend Mick Fanning has suffered the painful loss of three children. Of the five children she raised alone, only her youngest son, Mick, and her oldest daughter, Rachel, remain.
Sean died aged 20 in a car accident in 1998, Peter died aged 43 from heart disease in 2015, and Edward died less than three months ago in Madagascar aged 48.
Liz Osborne said she felt her heart break when she received the call from Edward’s friend Blair, who gave her the terrible news that she had lost a third child.
‘The universe could never be so cruel again. A third son of mine has left this world. “Sean, Peter and now Edward,” she said. The Australian.
“The sadness and panic were overwhelming.”
Mick, a three-time world surfing champion, experienced his own brush with death in July 2015, when he battled a great white shark during the final round of the J-Bay Open in Jeffreys Bay, South Africa.
As if the horror of her children dying or coming face to face with a great white shark wasn’t enough, Mrs Osborne has now revealed she nearly suffered a heart attack less than two months after losing Edward.
Surfing legend Mick Fanning’s mother Liz Osborne (right) has seen three of her children die, with only her youngest son Mick (left) and eldest daughter Rachel remaining of the five children she raised .
Mick (right) credited his older brother Edward (left) for introducing him to surfing as a child.
On May 16, while taking out rubbish bins at his home in Tweed Heads, northern New South Wales, I couldn’t catch my breath.
Mrs Osborne knew she was having a heart attack and had very limited time to seek help.
But she wasn’t thinking clearly and didn’t call triple zero; Instead, she called Mick and asked if she could come pick her up.
He did. Mick took her to John Flynn Hospital and they arrived half an hour after the heart attack.
“He was very calm and reassuring, holding my hand,” Osborne said.
“He has always treated me with a lot of love and generosity.”
She remembered being terrified and telling nurses she didn’t want to die. She said they did an “amazing job” of calming her down and then saving her life.
A cardiologist inserted three stents into her blocked coronary arteries and Mrs Osborne felt very lucky to have survived.
He is now taking better care of his health after a “great sermon” from Mick.
“I think I just needed a very hard wake-up call, to remind me to be grateful, humble, kind and brave,” she said.
Mick Fanning (right) pictured with F1 driver Pierre Gasly in 2018 in Torquay, Victoria.
Mick had a brush with death in July 2015, when he battled a great white shark (pictured) during the final round of the J-Bay Open in Jeffreys Bay, South Africa.
In April, Mick and his fiancée Breeana Randall announced the birth of their daughter Lyla just weeks after Edward’s death.
The 42-year-old previously revealed the depth of his devastation in an emotional social media post shortly after Edward’s death.
“Ed, I love you my brother,” he wrote. ‘You taught me a lot over the years about everything life can bring. The good and the bad you were my teacher. You introduced us all to surfing, the joy and freedom of riding a wave.
‘The meaning of going to the ends of the earth to find waves or follow a passion with the belief that surfing could be the ultimate job. As the years passed, you drifted in and out of the ocean, but your raw talent would always shine.
‘How far you ended up teaching kids the joy of riding a wave. Without you I’m not sure what the world would have made of me, so thank you.
‘Ed, you had the biggest heart and were too loyal for your own good. Always standing up for the helpless and caring for those who needed help. You gave everyone everything you had, and if you didn’t have it, you would still give it to them.’
Mick paid tribute to his brother in emotional scenes at the Greenmount Surf Club on the Gold Coast on April 6, just two days after the birth of their daughter.
At the service, Mick told a story about how Ed had played guitar at a school concert, imitating Dire Straits’ 1985 song Money for Nothing.
He joked that the song’s lyrics of “getting money for nothing and your girls for free” became Ed’s theme throughout his life.
Australian surfing legend Mick Fanning (pictured) appears at a memorial to his brother Edward at the Greenmount Beach Surf Club on the Gold Coast on April 6, 2024.
Mick Fanning’s daughter Lyla (pictured) was born on April 4.
Ed had regularly raided Mick’s cloakroom and meeting room for free clothes and surfboards, he told those gathered.
He said his older brother loved beer and always feared that one day he would get a call telling him that Ed had drunk “his last schooner.”
That call came last month, but Mick said Ed had been in his “happy place” in Madagascar after moving there in 2020 to teach surfing to locals and tourists.
With a life that has brought him great ups and downs, Mick paid a heartfelt tribute to his mother saying: “I don’t know where I would be in my life without her.”
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