No regrets: Alex Danson

Giving your everything and having no regrets with Olympic gold medallist Alex Danson. Alex is one of Britain’s greatest ever hockey players, who suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2018. Alex has been capped over 300 times and was an instrumental part of the team that won Olympic gold in Rio in 2016. We talk about some of the lessons she learnt in becoming the best in the world, including understanding that character is more important than talent if you’re going to make it. Alex suffered a traumatic brain injury in the most innocuous of circumstances, while on holiday with her husband. It left her languishing in a dark room for weeks on end, unable to cope with light, touch or noise. At one point she lost the ability to talk. She has now recovered enough to rejoin her teammates, but admits she’s a different person now to who she was before the accident. Alex explains how the most difficult aspect of her injury was the loss of identity and purpose that she suffered. She has now come to see what happened as a gift, that’s enabled her to have more balance in her life, and value what is truly important: her health and the relationships she has with those people important to her. Alex has become more open and vulnerable, has stopped overthinking and worrying about what others think and slowed down and become more present. She is hyper aware that life can change in an instant, and even if she isn’t able to make it back into the team in time for Tokyo 2020, she will have no regrets because she gave everything to follow her dream when she could.