10 10 10: My 10 year journey from suicide attempt to ultra marathon runner

Fighting for her life after a suicide attempt, Laura Bird (far better known as Birdy) ended her turbulent adolescence physically and psychologically broken. Four days after Laura’s eighteenth birthday she tried to commit suicide by walking out in front of a lorry. This left Laura with life changing injuries. A broken femur, broken hand, broken ribs, severe tissue loss and a life threatening head injury were just the start of a harrowing list.

Fast forward 10 years and she has run 10 marathons in 10 days to raise money for the people who saved her life.

Laura’s journey didn’t end there.

Laura had previously worked in the police force. She loved her job but after overcoming her depression she wanted to help others do the same. She had set her sights on becoming a motivational speaker. BUT how could she get gigs doing what she loved? Could she turn this into a new profession?

The first step on this journey was to tell her story.

This is when Laura approached us to work on her book. She had the idea outlined but wasn’t sure how to best present her story. On top of this Laura was planning to use the book to launch a new business and career for herself. With this in mind the book had to be positioned in the right way. The book was going to be the key to unlocking new opportunities and raising Laura’s profile.
‍
We listened to Laura’s incredible journey. Laura has such an emotional and inspiring story. We paired Laura up initially with one of our publishing consultants. We spoke with Laura at length to understand the story she wanted to share. On top of this we spoke a lot about her goal for the book and how this would help her launch a new career.

We then paired Laura up with a ghostwriter and editor who had experience with sports memoirs. They understood how to structure the book to achieve the goals we wanted. They also understood how to tell Laura’s story in the right way and capture the wisdom from her experiences.

The book is the social proof to give events the confidence to book Laura to come and speak. It demonstrated her competency and the more success the book garnered the more bookings came flooding in. Ever since her book was published Laura has been working as a motivational speaker. Doing talks all over the country and getting paid to do this. Raising her profile through the book has also helped Laura move into a new career in Environmental Consultancy.

Laura’s book has done incredibly well in the charts.

Laura has been amongst the top ten sports memoirs on Amazon. Often overtaking Mo Farrah’s autobiography in the charts. Laura always jokes she’d love to overtake him in a marathon as well.

Laura has also appeared on the popular TV Show SAS: Who Dares Wins.

Laura has continued to use her new platform to raise money for the East Anglian Air Ambulance Service who saved her life that fateful night. Laura’s story is truly inspirational. It also shows how using a book and the power of storytelling you can launch a new lucrative career, raise money for charity and start a new adventure.

This is some text inside of a div block.

This is some text inside of a div block.

This is some text inside of a div block.

This is some text inside of a div block.

This is some text inside of a div block.

This is some text inside of a div block.