Gill Hicks, 2016

Gillian Hicks AM MBE (b. 1968), peace advocate, is the founder of the London-based not-for-profit organisation MAD [Making a Difference] for Peace. Having grown up in Adelaide, she moved to London in 1991 and worked for Marie Claire magazine, architectural magazine Blueprint and the Design Council. On 7 July 2005 Hicks set out for work as usual, although she did not take her customary route, changing trains on the way. Within hours, she was the last living casualty rescued from the London Underground ‘7/7’ bombings. So severely injured that she was unidentifiable, she was admitted to St Thomas’s Hospital tagged ‘One Unknown’. Having lost some 80 per cent of her blood, she was not expected to live. Both her legs were amputated below the knee. As soon as she was able to walk on prosthetics, Hicks visited Beeston, where three of the bombers had come from, and met members of their community, who embraced her. In December 2005 she walked down the aisle to be married. Her first book, One Unknown, was published in 2006. Two and a half years after the bombing, she walked more than 430 kilometres from Leeds to London. Currently holding two honorary doctorates, she returned to Adelaide in 2012, remarried, gave birth to a girl, established a public speaking career, learned to swim and was named South Australian of the year for 2015.

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2016
© Tony Kearney