The Edge Breakfast - AMA White Island Survivor - Stephanie Coral Browitt FULL INTERVIEW

Episode Date: March 26, 2026

This is a podcast from Rover. The sheer scale of this disaster is still unfolding. Right at the crater, Stephanie Broward, has taken the full brunt of the volcano's ferocity. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has told families of the foreign victims, they will forever be linked to our nation. Good morning, Steph. Hello. Hi, how are you? It's Clemegen, Ben.

We're so excited to chat with you. I actually saw on your TikTok, I think it was just a few days ago that you've been doing so many interviews that you've almost lost count of who you've spoken to, which is really exciting because it means so many people want to support your book that's coming out with your mum out of the ashes. So thank you for chatting to us and giving us your time because I know you're really busy.

No, thank you. Thank you for wanting to have me on. I'm very grateful. And also just like off the bed as well, just, man, I mean, I know people apologize and say sorry for what you've gone through and we're asking you to kind of dig up those memories and tell us about them.

because even just learning about your story, obviously when it happened, it was big news here in New Zealand, but just horrific to hear not only losing your dad and your younger sister in the White Island disaster, but also like what you went through physically for years and years after the fact. There's just, man, you've absolutely been through it. Oh, thank you. Thank you for understanding that as well.

That's right. It's definitely a lot for one person to experience having to go through grief and then also recover from such severe injuries at the same time. Hard to know where to start with your story. And I mean, the fact that you have gone through that trauma and the years after, and then you've relived it again in a book, writing it with your mother. Is that right? Yes, that's right.

I think I always felt like I wanted to do a book. It was just about the timing of it all. And then mum and I thought it would be a great idea to do it together. So that way we could give the full story. me with my injuries and what I was going through physically, but also the behind the scenes of what my mum was going through during hospital and outside of my recovery. Yeah, I remember hearing your story

and thinking about your mum at the time as well, obviously. You must just, it's going to meet me well. You guys must just be so close and you must be so thankful for her to, I'm guessing, have been your rock this whole time. And what a hard thing for your mum to have to go through while supporting you. Yeah, that's exactly right. I mean, it's very easy for people to focus on myself

because, of course, I'm the one who's scarred for life physically and injured for life with my disability. But my mum was also hurt just as much. She lost her husband. She lost her youngest daughter. And she had to see me fight for my own life and get through all of this as well. So her scars, even though they may not be visible,

she's very much scar deep on the inside, and I think it's very easy for people to overlook that. But she is my rock. She's my best friend. We've always been very close in life, but this has definitely brought us together at another level. I mean, the trauma you went through is unfathomable. No one should have to go through any type of trauma like that in their lifetime.

But do you have much memory of that day? Or have you sort of blocked it out of your memory? Yeah. No, I remember every single moment of that day up until arriving at the emergency room and being put under and into a coma. So it is very vivid in my mind and the visions and everything that I saw and felt on the day

in the moment that the volcano erupted. Steve, can you take us right back? to the start of you being on the boat and how you came to getting off the boat onto the island and obviously just sharing what you're comfortable sharing. To the people that maybe haven't heard of the war. Yeah, I mean it happened seven years.

I was surprised that it was that longer in December, 2019. But can you take us back to the moment? You're on holiday with your dad and your sister on a boat. What happens on that day? Yeah, of course. Yeah, we were taking a cruise

because it's something that we've done a few times as a family because of course, you know, we have our own lives. Me and my sister were very busy with our studies and with work and things. So it was hard to spend quality time as a family, and that's something we always valued. So an end-of-year cruise was one way to do that to bring us all together. We were, you know, trapped and we couldn't escape each other in the best of ways. So that was the reason, and it was also a way to celebrate my sister,

who had just turned 21 a few days before that as well. So we hadn't heard about this prior to the cruise ship. We'd only just come across it on the cruise ship in one of their pamphlets. So we decided to take the tour and my mum stayed back on the ship because she has her own health issues, multiple sclerosis, and it mentioned that if you can't really do much walking, it might not be for you. So me and my sister and my dad went and we had to get a boat, a little jet boat, type thing to get to the island because it's obviously out in the ocean not on the mainland

and that in itself was a hard experience because everyone ended up being quite seasick actually I know my sister and my dad actually ended up vomiting and I struggled trying to prevent myself from vomiting and then once we were on land I think a lot of people I know my dad and my sister and I were just happy to be on land because of how seasick we were. Yeah, and of course we began the tour and we were walking around and we were in the very far group that happened to be closest to the crater when it erupted and yeah, it was just very sudden. There was no sound, no pre-warning.

It's just we happened to turn around and see that this black smoke, black dust, black ash, whatever you want to call it, was coming out of the crater, which we had just turned our backs on to get to walk back towards a jetty. Sorry, Steve, just on there, you don't probably, like us, I imagine, know what to expect. You're like, oh, yeah, cool, maybe it does that all the time, because you're not expecting anything to be sinister, you know, coming out of a volcano that they let you walk on. Well, yeah, my knowledge, I don't have much knowledge about volcanoes, of course. That's not my area of interest.

it was just something that we happened to come across in a pamphlet and it was shared to us as something fun to do so we just saw it and thought why not and of course we're putting trust in the people that are offering it to us that they know what they're doing and that we wouldn't be there if it wasn't as you would you would think yeah so at what point when you see the black smoke do you realize okay this isn't actually supposed to happen I think for the first few seconds we were just in a bit of all

because you couldn't tell where it was going it just looked like it was going straight up and down. That's how it felt. So I think a few people, I know I myself, taking a picture and then another few seconds go by and you hear one of the tour guides in our group screaming run, and that's the realization of, okay, shit, this is not normal, this is not meant to happen, it's erupting.

And in that few seconds, we just turn, we run for our lives and everything changes, the fear that just overcomes you and the adrenaline to just try and get away. Yep, that just overtook my body. And how far, because I'm trying to imagine the island, but you've been told to run. Oh my gosh, I can't even imagine the fear.

Like, do you stay close to your dad and your sister? Do you guys just run as fast as you can? You try to get to the water. I'm guessing at one point there's just no outrunning it. Yeah, that's right. We, I think, I know my dad and my sister were behind me, not very far behind me. And so I was just keeping my,

keeping myself facing forward away from the crater, the eruption, and trying to focus on the people in front of me and where they were running because the tour guide was at the front of the grip, so I guess we were trying to follow him. But at the same time, I'm trying to watch my feet. I'm looking at the ground because I don't want to fall, I don't want to slick or hurt myself. But of course, we were all caught in this,

what I now know is a pyroclastic flow within seconds. it was something you can't outrun and we were we had nowhere to go and we didn't have any shelter our group so unfortunately we were all just taken in this flow what happens after that

once I mean I can't I think I mean who knows how your brain copes with the amount of pain that you must have been in with your injuries yeah yeah I think I was just like I remember of course

okay now I don't have any control. I've lost control now. I've just got to let whatever's happening happen and pray I'm actually still alive by the end of this. But in that moment, I know my mind was just rolling through so many thoughts, like the shock that this is actually happening and how unbelievable this is.

It just doesn't feel real. It can't be real. And then the realization of, okay, I'm probably going to die. This is my last moment. I'm going to die and my mum's not with us. She doesn't know this is currently happening. And in my mind, going to my mum, because my mum has always been a very protective parent. You know, my parents have always put us first, their kids first.

We've always been their main priority. And my mum's always been a protective person because she's always wanted us to be safe, looked after. She always worries for our safety. So I knew this was her biggest fear, something happening to a family, the people she lives for. So then my mind was racing towards my mum and thinking, I have to survive, have to be okay for her and get through this somehow. How, I don't know, it's a really huge topic, but is there anything, and this is not something that I would think you would need to experience, but I know others do going

through trauma of survivors' guilt? Yeah. Is that something you went through? Oh, it definitely affects me here and there in my day-to-day life. Of course, so many people lost their lives, and it's very hard not to question. why me? Like, why me? Why am I here

and why aren't these other people here who are also just as deserving to still be here today? You know, especially when I've lost my sister and my dad, their lives were taken and they were so young, they had so much left to give to the world. So it's very hard not to go,

my sister deserved to be here just as much as me. She should be here. Why am I here? But, of course, logically, I know that that's not, you know, that's not something you should think. it's not realistic, but it is just something that happens.

Or when you enjoy and have a good moment and I smile maybe because I'm enjoying something in that moment, then I sometimes get overcome by a bit of guilt because it's like my sister is not here enjoying this moment. So why should I be happy? Well, Steph, 47 people were on the island and 22 passed away. When you start being hit with this skin burning heat, is it all blank from there until you wake up in the hospital? Or are you very aware that you've now been taken on the bow,

but your sister's not accounted for? I imagine that hysteria feels like time would slow down if you remember any of it. Yeah, well, I was actually shout out to the helicopter pilots, the civilian pilots, Jason, Tom and Mark, but I was rescued by them after waiting on the island for over an hour. So I have a very vivid memory. of my time on that island waiting and waiting for help and just trying to stay conscious and keep my eyes open.

But those pilots, I will never have enough words to thank those pilots who did end up taking myself, my dad and my sister off of that island, including other people. You know, they risked their lives and they did something they did not have to do. It was not their duty and it was not their job. They were just everyday people. and after meeting them I've realized just how remarkable and amazing they are, even though they act like it was a normal thing to do. They are amazing people and I am so grateful to them and I will always be so thankful to them

and yeah, I just can't believe it. The good that came out of some people that day amazes me. Something that we sit there and go you have your life and so lucky to have it, but then something so, it seems so silly but as a young, beautiful, woman, you then at 23 have to come to also face that you don't look the same, you won't look the same, you don't know what you're going to look like, and now you live with

scarring, you are really a beautiful woman. I've seen you online and you're gorgeous to look at, but has it been hard living in the real world with scars? Thank you. Do you know what I want to wear? I would want to wear like a tissue and be like, like I survived. Like I wouldn't want anybody that stared at me or looked at me, I would want to scream at them of you don't know what I've been through. Is it hard to go in public and see people potentially looking at the scarring

and them not understanding just how resilient and incredible you are? Yeah. Yeah, I definitely discussed this a lot, like when I first saw my body and my face in hospitals during the early days of my recovery and just having to come to terms with what I now look like, but then also being told that it's going to improve over time and not, believe in these people that are telling me that because it just it doesn't sound true. Of course, it did improve over time because that was very early days. But I am scarred for life. They don't disappear. They get better, but you cannot get rid of them. And it is something that I've had to come

to terms with and live with and, you know, change my views around my looks. And instead of seeing myself as, you know, feeling awful about myself because I look different and I stand out, I've come to change my perspective and understand that these scars are a representation of what I've had to overcome and what I've had to endure, like you said, I survived a volcano eruption and I can't believe that. You know, there are so many moments where I can't believe I am still here today. My body went through so much and yet it has kept me alive and battled through so much for me. And for that I am very grateful to my body and what it had to do.

Yeah, I love that you feel, you sound like you're empowering your scars by giving yourself a new story to what they represent. Because to a lot of us listening, you, they can represent trauma and pain and anguish. And you've almost given them a new meaning now when you look at them in terms of triumph and what you can overcome in life. I mean, wearing a compression mask for 800 plus days. So two and a half years you wore a compression mask. You lost eight fingers. Like it's not just a little bit of burns here and there. Like even I was reading a quote from you saying that like when you're in the helicopter and that and you're looking at your hands and that and you're like nails are hanging off like horrific stuff.

That's right. Yeah, that's right. And I remember that and seeing my hands and at that moment in time just understanding this is extremely bad. This is worse than I could have ever imagined. I don't know how I'm going to get through this. You know, just the shock of it and the unbelievablyness of it. But yeah, that's exactly right. It was horrific and having to get through the compression garments for so many days, like you said, over two years.

That was another thing that felt like torture, to be honest. But I got through it. I did it because I needed to and because I understood that that would help me. Admittedly, with some breaks as needed for my mental health. But I did my best to get through the treatment so that I could get through and do. the best that I could fall my scars and my injuries so that I could have the best outcome in life. How do you get through this sort of thing mentally? Because a lot of the time when we go through trauma, we maybe speak to someone or talk to someone that's got a similar experience,

you know, that you can talk to and go, we've got a shared experience. I'm guessing you didn't really have that with many people anyway. So how do you sort of work through this mentally? Yeah, I think definitely my mum is one of my biggest sources of strength. I mean, she had to go through so much herself and yet every single day she was there at hospital for me morning to night, morning to night, traveling back and forth to make sure that she could be present for everything I was going through and to keep my fight going and to keep motivating me. And she also reminded me, had to remind me multiple times that my dad and my sister would

want the best for me in life. They would not want me to give up and give up hope and to lose my fight. So she reminded me that all the time. And, of course, I knew that what she was saying was completely true. But then you're right, it's very hard. There were plenty of moments where I wanted to give up. And I wasn't sure who I could listen to or believe because they weren't, they weren't burned.

And they had been through it. I don't know. That's right. I don't know if what they're saying is true because they don't understand how I'm feeling. Yes, but I'm very grateful. The physical stuff. Because I was able to meet another burn survivor and speak to some other people who had gone through something, their own burns recovery. And I think that added another level of determination and gave me an extra bump of motivation that I needed to continue.

Have you ever spoken with Katie Piper? Or do you know Katie Piper? Yes, I do. Yeah, so I actually first spoke to Turya Pitt, who was a huge person in Australia that suffered bushfire burns. And then online I've also been able to speak to Katie Piper here and there as well. And they're both very inspirational women to me. Yeah, and they're inspirational women to the world. I know Turya as well and have followed her story.

An incredible harrowing thing is for people to go through and to wear their trauma on their bodies and their faces with burns. Does it make you a little bit hesitant now, Steph, to put yourself out there and experience life in adventurous ways, like going in, jumping on a tender and going onto a volcanic island to wander around? Those sorts of things now, do you sort of second-guess them, or do you just have to live your life? Yeah. I mean, before all this, I wasn't really a huge risk-taker anyway.

Like, you wouldn't find me jumping out of a plane or anything like that. that's for sure. But since what's happened, it's definitely changed my perspective on life. And unfortunately, now, whereas before you live life thinking, oh, this stuff can't happen to me. It doesn't happen to people like us. That's rare. It's not common.

Now I'm sort of in a mindset of anything can happen. I do have to be cautious and careful. And my mind sometimes does go straight to the worst thing possible. You know, I have like a fear of planes now. I get a bit anxious and nervous going on a plane, which I never felt before all of this just because it's like, okay, it could go down. It's rare, but it could happen because this happened to me, and that was rare. So, I mean, that has changed, unfortunately, and it does make things a little bit harder

in my everyday life. Can I just ask, we've got just a couple more questions because it's just so interesting to chat to you. How was the process of writing the book? Because obviously you did it with your mum, and I can imagine it could go one of two ways. It could be quite cathartic because you're obviously sort of telling the story and getting it out of yourself, but also it could be quite traumatising reliving it again. Yeah, for myself, I think I found it quite cathartic.

I mean, it's nice to be able to put down in words everything you're feeling and thinking. But also, I think in a way for both mum and I, we wanted to honour my dad and my sister and keep their memory alive, our family moments alive. And this book was another way to do that also. But at times it was hard because of what I'm having to relive and bring up and also hearing things from my mum that I may not have realized or remembered or known that she was going through at the time as well. So I guess we were both sort of learning things from each other,

which was hard to hear. Steve, for the people that have just learnt your story, or are now going to buy and read out of the ashes. What is the final feeling or thoughts that you want people to be left with after reading your book with your mum? I think there's a few things. I think one of them is that you should never be ashamed of what you look like or any differences that you might have.

I feel like you should always be proud of who you are and your uniqueness because that is what makes you who you are today. So that's one thing I want people to remember, but also that we should be allowed to speak about grief. You know, I think it's a very hard thing for people to talk about, and yet it's something that all of us do go through. It's a very taboo subject, but it's important that we speak about it and that we know how to look after and help other people who are going through grief as well. I think a lot of people will learn resilience from you as well. Something that I'm going to take away from you, Steph, is definitely. resilience and I'm working on that myself.

Oh, thank you. You're very kind. Thank you so much. I'm not sure if you mentioned in the book, but yeah, I know you've settled out of court. No amount of money would ever be enough money for what you've been through, but that's all done now and the compensation is being paid out so those who are responsible have been held accountable, correct? Yes, we did end up settling with the cruise company. So that was done outside of court. And of course, you know, we just, we wanted to get some form of justice, some form of accountability for my dad and my sister.

So I guess that was just our main fight was for my dad and my sister. Yeah, fair enough. Well, we look forward to getting amongst it and reading it, out of the ashes. Thank you so much, Steph, for retelling what is a horrific ordeal that you experienced seven years ago. really, I guess even though we saw the story, we really didn't understand or I didn't personally understand the gravity of, the toll. Yeah, and the toll that it took until you speak to someone who's on the ground that really truly experienced it.

And I'm sure your book goes into far more detail on that. So we look forward to getting around it and reading your story in more detail. Thank you. No, thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. It was really lovely to speak to you all as well. Thanks so much. Thanks.