Turia Pitt (born 24 July 1987) is an Australian mining engineer, athlete, motivational speaker, and author.

Accident and later life

On 2 September 2011, Pitt was competing in an ultramarathon 100km through

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia * Kimberley (Western Australia) ** Roman Catholic Diocese of Kimberley * Kimberley Warm Springs, Tasmania * Kimberley, Tasmania a small town * County of Kimberley, a ...

region, when she was caught in a large bush fire. During a subsequent inquiry, she stated there was "nowhere else to go" when the competitors tried to outrun an out-of-control blaze that swept up Selena Gorge, just outside Kununurra. Pitt suffered burns to 65 percent of her body. It was several hours before medical help arrived and she was air-lifted out. Doctors did not expect her to survive her injuries. The parliamentary inquiry into the Kimberley Ultramarathon was damning of the race organisers,

RacingThePlanet RacingThePlanet (RTP) is an organizer of off-trail and rough-country endurance foot-races, including the 4 Deserts. The company also operates an outdoor products store and a dried foods company. The 2011 Kimberley Ultramarathon was the subjec ...

. Among other things, it was revealed that the organisers were unable to communicate properly between checkpoints. Pitt launched

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

action against RacingThePlanet, and in May 2014, it was reported that an out-of-court settlement had been reached. Pitt has been profiled by the Australian television program ''

60 Minutes ''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who chose to set it apart from other news programs by using a unique styl ...

'', '' Women's Weekly'' and '' One Plus One''. She has become a sought-after public speaker, appearing at such events as the TEDx Macquarie University conference in September 2014, giving an inspirational talk entitled ''Unmask your Potential''. Pitt has mentored thousands through her online programs, raised funds and awareness for a variety of philanthropic concerns, and authored three books: ''Everything To Live For'', ''Unmasked'' (also available as Young Adult edition) and ''Happy (and Other Ridiculous Aspirations).'' In 2018, she joined Anthony Robins as a headliner at the 2018 National Achievers Congress in Brisbane. In 2014, Pitt was named the

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

Premier's Award for Woman of the Year and was a finalist for

Young Australian of the Year The Australian of the Year is a national award conferred on an Australian citizen by the National Australia Day Council, a not-for-profit Australian Governmentowned social enterprise. Similar awards are also conferred at the State and Territo ...

. In 2016, she was a finalist in the Australian of the Year award, and the New South Wales finalist for ''Telstra Business Woman of the Year'' award. A cover story about her in ''

The Australian Women's Weekly ''The Australian Women's Weekly'', sometimes known as simply ''The Weekly'', is an Australian monthly women's magazine published by Mercury Capital in Sydney. For many years it was the number one magazine in Australia before being outsold by ...

'' attracted worldwide media attention. She is an Ambassador for Interplast Australia & New Zealand (now called ReSurge International), and has raised money for the organisation by leading trekking adventures. In that capacity, she walked the

Great Wall of China The Great Wall of China (, literally "ten thousand ''li'' wall") is a series of fortifications that were built across the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and Imperial China as protection against various nomadic grou ...

in 2014, the

Inca Trail The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu (also known as ''Camino Inca'' or ''Camino Inka'') is a hiking trail in Peru that terminates at Machu Picchu. It consists of three overlapping trails: ''Mollepata'', ''Classic'', and ''One Day''. ''Mollepata'' is ...

in 2015, and the

Kokoda Track The Kokoda Track or Trail is a single-file foot thoroughfare that runs overland – in a straight line – through the Owen Stanley Range in Papua New Guinea (PNG). The track was the location of the 1942 World War II battle between Japanese ...

in 2016. Through this work, along with her support for other ReSurge International fundraising initiatives, she has directly and indirectly contributed to more than $1 million being raised to support the organisation's work. Turia Pitt is also an in-demand motivational speaker and regularly appears at conferences and events.

In 2022, Pitt appeared as a contestant on the sixth season of ''

The Celebrity Apprentice Australia ''The Celebrity Apprentice Australia'' is an Australian reality television series which aired on the Nine Network. Based on NBC's ''The Apprentice'', it first aired on 24 October 2011 and originally featured Mark Bouris, the founder and chairm ...

''.

Medical problems

Prior to the ultramarathon incident, Pitt was a healthy, fit athlete. As a result of her injuries in the fire, she was placed in a medically-induced coma for a month. All the fingers of her right hand, and two fingers on her left, had to be amputated. She endured six months in the hospital, underwent over 200 operations and spent two years in recovery. During that time, she was required to wear a full-body compression suit and mask, and was only allowed to remove it for an hour a day. The mask was required to help smooth out the

scar A scar (or scar tissue) is an area of fibrous tissue that replaces normal skin after an injury. Scars result from the biological process of wound repair in the skin, as well as in other organs, and tissues of the body. Thus, scarring is a na ...

s on her face and body. She removed it for the first time on the ''

'' program revealing her face to the world.

Personal life

Pitt spent her childhood in

Ulladulla Ulladulla is a coastal town in New South Wales, Australia in the City of Shoalhaven local government area. It is on the Princes Highway about south of Sydney, halfway between Batemans Bay to the south and Nowra to the north. Ulladulla has cl ...

, a small town in

. She attended Ulladulla Public School and

Ulladulla High School Ulladulla High School is a government-funded co-educational comprehensive secondary day school, located in the town of Ulladulla on the south-east coast of New South Wales, Australia. Established in 1974, the school enrolled approximately 1, ...

. During her youth, she was well known for her athletic abilities and also performed well academically. She went on to the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive ...

(UNSW), where she completed a

Bachelor of Engineering A Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) or a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE) is an academic undergraduate degree awarded to a student after three to five years of studying engineering at an accredited college or university. In the UK, a Bache ...

(Mining) /

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

in 2010. On 8 May 2016, Pitt competed in her first Ironman Australia competition, finishing in a time of 13:24:42. On 8 October 2016, she completed the

Ironman World Championship The Ironman World Championship has been held annually in Hawaii since 1978, with an additional race in 1982. It is owned and organized by the World Triathlon Corporation. It is the annual culmination of a series of Ironman triathlon qualification ...

Kailua-Kona, Hawaii Kailua-Kona is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Hawaii County, Hawaii, Hawaii County, Hawaii, United States. It is also known as Kailua (a name it shares with Kailua, Honolulu County, Hawaii, a community located o ...

, with a time of 14:37:30. Pitt and her fiancé announced on 21 July 2017 that they were expecting a boy. On 7 December 2017, she gave birth to their son, Hakavai Hoskin. On 9 February 2020, Turia announced on her Instagram page that she and fiancé Michael Hoskin welcomed their second child, another son, named Rahiti Hoskin.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pitt, Turia 1987 births Living people 21st-century Australian writers Australian amputees Australian autobiographers Australian female long-distance runners Australian humanitarians Women humanitarians Australian mining engineers Australian people of Polynesian descent Australian ultramarathon runners Australian women engineers Burn survivors Female ultramarathon runners People from Tahiti University of New South Wales alumni Women autobiographers 21st-century women engineers Scientists with disabilities