In personal tragedy finding purpose
How Olivia's spirit lives on
When tragedy strikes, how do we respond?
Many of us at some point in our lives will lose someone we love through illness or accident. But when the circumstances involve corporate negligence, we may find ourselves dealing not only with our own devastating grief but also the formidable challenge of holding a large corporation to account.
This was Nigel Burt’s experience. When his daughter Olivia was killed in a preventable accident he somehow found his way through a 5-year long fight for justice, and a 3-week long trial. Because, to honour the memory of his beloved daughter, he simply had to.
In our honest and at times heart-rending conversation on this week’s episode of my Fearless Forward podcast, Nigel calmly and courageously shares the story of his daughter's tragically preventable death and what has helped him and his wife Paula get through it.
To Nigel, what mattered most in all this was that Olivia was not forgotten. And through the charity founded in her name, her spirit of inspiring others to be their best will live on.
In the past five years, 'Olivia Inspires' has changed more than 600 young lives. Individual grants totalling well over £100,000 have given teenagers access to training and education they need but couldn’t otherwise afford.
“People only die when people stop talking about them”, Nigel says.
And that is up to those of us lucky enough to be alive.
This is a remarkable story of courage and fortitude. There are lessons in it for us all.
With love from the mountain,
Sally-Anne