<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>Exclusive:</span></strong><span> Lizz Hills was on a scuba diving boat in Thailand on </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/aussie-charity-founder-to-run-1400km-in-memory-of-the-boxing-day-tsunami/8a51ad9f-b482-400f-b231-dd9e518fcd44" rel="" target="_blank" title="Boxing Day in 2004"><span>Boxing Day in 2004</span></a><span> when she remembers the water "boiling" beneath her.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Then aged 21, she was back in Thailand a year after a horrifying train accident left her with traumatic brain injuries in 2003 during a solo holiday.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Hills was in the South-East Asian nation once again with her father, Dan, because she was grateful to be alive. She very nearly lost her life again when the tsunami hit.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/boxing-day-tsunami-20-year-anniversary-joe-giardina-survival-tale-exclusive/e413d7e3-d448-4d86-a97e-ab3c51ebda94" rel="" target="_blank" title="Joe lost his 'joyful' and 'loving' son Paul in the 2004 tsunami"><strong><span>Joe lost his 'joyful' and 'loving' son Paul in the 2004 tsunami</span></strong></a><strong><span></span></strong></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I went to Thailand for my 21st birthday. It was my first time overseas all by myself and it was awesome… Unfortunately, I lasted 48 hours in Thailand before I was involved in a major accident," Hills told 9news.com.au.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I broke 30 bones in my body, fractured my skull and lost my memory."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Hills almost let the injuries defeat her, but her dad convinced her to go back to Thailand for Christmas.</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/national/boxing-day-tsunami-20-year-anniversary-lizz-hills-survivor-thailand/e869d05d-91d1-4b95-a76f-c717b408738b" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><blockquote><span>I did see an awful lot of death and I did see an awful lot of heartache, but I also didn't lose my passport, and my dad and I left Thailand as fast as we could...</span></blockquote></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He wanted to "show me what a beautiful world it is again", she recalls.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But Hills was only there for 48 hours when a fresh nightmare began.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The pair had joined 16 others for a three-day scuba diving trip off the coast of Khao Lak and on December 26, they were safe in the water when the tidal wave killed 228,000 people.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"The ocean looked like it was boiling and we lost radio communication," she remembers.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Then we cut the anchor and left. I had a really big reaction because there were still divers in the water… we didn't really know what was going on.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"There were whispers that a major disaster had happened."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A small Thai warship picked up the group after several hours stranded at sea.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>When they returned to shore, the scale of the tsunami's impact was laid bare.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>It was an apocalyptic mayhem and at one point the gravity of the disaster made Hills burst into tears.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Thankfully, their decision to stay on a boat saved their lives that day.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"If we had decided to stay on land and have Christmas lunch on the beach, I wouldn't be here," Hill said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Hills and her dad waited in emergency accommodation and thankfully still had their passports on them.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Just two days after the tsunami, they were able to leave Thailand and ended up in Singapore, where Dan was living.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Hills struggled to comprehend why she was spared from the death toll, but the double survival has shaped her life.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>She described the tsunami as a "wakeup call".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I didn't lose anybody. I did see an awful lot of death and I did see an awful lot of heartache, but I also didn't lose my passport, and my dad and I left Thailand as fast as we could," she said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Grief is a natural process, and it does what it does, and it probably took a good two years for me to feel nice and calm about the situation I found myself in.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I thought, if I didn't get the wake-up call the first time around when I was so close to death, now's the opportunity, and I set out to live a life that I dreamed of."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Hills is now a mother of a "beautiful" teenage son – something she once feared would never happen.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Today's 20-year anniversary of the tsunami also gave her pause to think about how far she's come.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I think the tsunami is such a part of who I am and has formed how I want to engage with this life, this world… it's probably just such a deep part of me," she added.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I was a bit surprised that it was the 20-year anniversary, and that really brought home to me, it has given me a lot of chance for reflection, and that's been really lovely."</span></div></div>