Chezzi Denyer has revealed she once suffered a near-death experience when she was ‘engulfed in flames’ during a monster truck rally.
She was watching her husband, Grant Denyer, take part in the competition when she walked behind one of the vehicles and the driver inadvertently started the engine.
The man behind the wheel started up the vehicle without checking first that anybody was behind it, and flames shot out the back in Chezzi’s direction.
Terrifying: Chezzi Denyer (pictured with her husband, Grant) has revealed she once suffered a near-death experience which saw her ‘engulfed in flames’ during a monster truck rally
‘The van had a jet plan engine in the back that shoots out a flame that can incinerate you in seconds,’ Grant, 43, said on the It’s All True podcast.
‘She was engulfed in flames and thrown through the air, injuring her hip, burning off all her body hair.’
The incident left Chezzi, 41, thinking she had actually died as her lungs collapsed due to anaphylactic shock, a severe and life-threatening allergic reaction.
The mother of two later discovered she was allergic to sulphur, which was present in the monster truck’s pyrotechnics.
Years later, she was diagnosed with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).
Injury: She was watching her husband, Grant, take part in the competition when she walked behind one of the vehicles and the driver inadvertently started the engine. Pictured: a stock image of a monster truck
Ordeal: The incident left Chezzi, 41, thinking she had actually died as her lungs collapsed due to anaphylactic shock caused by the sulphur in the monster truck’s pyrotechnics. Pictured with her husband and children, Scout and Sailor
Chezzi also recalled another terrifying incident which contributed to her PTSD.
When she was a trainee journalist aged 19, she saw a dead baby on the road at the scene of a traffic incident.
‘I was the first journalist on the scene of a car accident when a baby had died from being thrown from the window of a car, and I found the baby,’ she said.
‘I was told I was going to need counselling but I was trying to prove myself, and act tough, and I said I didn’t need it.’
She revealed on the podcast that her separate diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) actually helped counterbalance her PTSD.
‘It’s not a disability; it’s my super power, because now I know what it is and I recognise it. Now I know to utilise my strengths,’ she added.
‘ADHD helps me to act quickly and cope with my PTSD.’
Horrifying: Chezzi also recalled another terrifying incident which contributed to her PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) diagnosis. When she was a trainee journalist aged 19, she saw a dead baby on the road at the scene of a traffic incident
Decapitated: Grant shared a similar story from his early TV career when he reported on a car accident involving a man he had interviewed the week before. He was shocked to see the man’s ‘headless torso sitting in the driver’s seat’
Grant shared a similar story from his early TV career when he reported on a car accident involving a man he had interviewed the week before.
‘So, I’m there and I’m seeing bits of body and a headless torso sitting in the driver’s seat. I wasn’t equipped to see that s**t. There was bits of brain everywhere,’ he said.
‘The next story I went to was a flower show, and then a cat up a tree. Didn’t deal with it and passed it off as just another day.
‘As young journos, we’re trying to fake it till we make it. Pretending we’re good journos.’
Listen to It’s All True? here, or subscribe via Spotify or Apple Podcasts
Candid: Listen to It’s All True? here , or subscribe via Spotify or Apple Podcasts