Australian double Paralympic gold medalist Alexa Leary has revealed shocking details about the day she decided to take her life and the two words she said to her brother after deciding to keep fighting.
Alexa, 23, had an impressive campaign at the Paris Paralympic Games, taking gold in the 100m freestyle swim after single-handedly leading the Australian relay team to first place two days earlier.
The achievement marked another incredible milestone in the increasingly rich chapter of what she calls her “second life.”
Alexa, once a star triathlete, fell from her bike in a near-fatal accident in Queensland in July 2021, leaving her with brain damage and several long-term injuries.
More than once, doctors informed her parents, Russ and Belinda, that they should prepare to say goodbye to their daughter.
Despite doctors’ grim prognosis, Alexa began breathing independently after being taken off the ventilator.
Alexa Leary (pictured after winning gold at the Paris Paralympic Games) has spoken openly about the mental health challenges she has had to overcome since the life-changing accident.
Leary (pictured with parents Russ and Belinda) had to learn to walk again after a horrific bicycle accident in 2021 came incredibly close to claiming his life.
His parents remained steadfastly by his side during his 111-day hospital stay as he learned to walk again and adjust to permanent brain damage.
Searching for answers and hope, Leary’s parents turned to a clairvoyant who made the eerily accurate prediction that the swimmer would become a Paralympic gold medalist.
The mental battles were huge and, at times, Alexa found herself in a dark place.
“I was very depressed and because my emotions hit me a little harder than ever, I was really very depressed,” Alexa said. News Corporation.
“I thought, I don’t want to be here because it doesn’t really make sense. I was very sad most days and that’s what anger brings.
‘When you’re so sad about your own life, you’re going to be angry at the world. That’s how I saw it.’
On the day she almost ended it all, one of her brothers left her on a walking trail in Noosa and the pair split up with no phone signal.
“I was so down on myself. I caught this lady, when I tried to do something to me, she caught me. I don’t even know her name. It gives me goosebumps (talking about this),” Leary said.
Leary, who used swimming as a way to recover after hitting rock bottom during his long struggle to recover from life-changing injuries.
Leary (pictured at this year’s Melbourne Cup) said she was 21 when she attempted to take her own life but was interrupted by a stranger.
‘She caught me and said, ‘What are you doing?’ She walked with me. I got goosebumps all over. She just walked with me for a while.’
Alexa says it was a while before she was able to contact her brother to let him know she had returned from the abyss.
“I let him know it was two hours away, so he obviously thought I was gone,” he recalls.
‘I remember when I got in the car, I texted him and said, “I’m here.” He is crying and I am too, I was crying with him.
“It was just a difficult time for me because I was happy to leave because I was so sad.”
Russell, Alexa’s father, remembers the experience vividly.
‘Thank God we found her because she was gone that night. “I had tried a couple more times,” he said.
‘We had to discover that we have to fight this. Many people with brain damage commit suicide because they lose everyone due to their anger.
Leary’s incredible Paralympic Games put an exclamation point on his recovery
After winning her second gold medal in Paris, Alexa had to fight back tears when she received a special video message from the doctor who performed the surgery that saved her life.
Dr. Norman Ma recorded the clip so Leary could show it to him when he appeared on A Current Affair after his win.
“It feels amazing,” he said of his double gold medal.
“I’m very proud of myself, but I’m very grateful for my family and, honestly, my mother and father, who brought me here.
“We really got the medals.”
Leary’s father said Mom was “amazing.”
“He said ‘if we don’t remove his skull, he’ll die,'” Russell said.
“It was just amazing and the way the whole staff took care of us for three months, four months, it made us like family to them.” RBWH (Royal Brisbane Women’s Hospital), are legends.