After three desperate hours, we were reunited. Greg was overwhelmed and in floods of tears; he’d seen a lot more devastation than me. He’d been trapped underwater too and when he’d emerged he’d started to help with the rescue effort. He’d found a lot of dead bodies – all the while expecting the next one he pulled from the wreckage to be mine. He’d lost his shoes, was covered in cuts and the wounds were becoming infected.

We knew we had to get off the island and get help, so after hurriedly sending a text from Tossen’s phone to let our families know we were alive, we left the room. Outside people were in an awful state; many had lost limbs or large parts of their faces. One girl’s entire left buttock had been torn off; the back of her leg was open and pouring with blood. What was most unsettling was she wasn’t even screaming; she just laid there with a glassy look in her eyes. I met another woman whose two children and husband had died. She was just hysterical. Nothing anybody could say or do could help her

That evening, we managed to board a longtail boat leaving the island. As we departed, we moved slowly through piles of floating wood, ruined boats and bodies that were starting to bloat. Eventually, we made it to a fishing trawler, which took us to Phuket and then we were taken in a pick-up truck to Phuket International Hospital where we stayed for the next couple of days. I will never forget looking at myself in the mirror and seeing nothing in my eyes, as if someone had turned out the light. I felt numb, like I was on autopilot.

"I feel so lucky that I survived" one woman explains what happened the day the Tsunami struck, as she was honeymooning in Thailand