Shark attack survivor credits thoughts of daughter with will to survive

Leah Stewart was swimming near the shoreline at Coogee Beach in Sydney on a June afternoon when a suspected great white shark, roughly 3.5 metres long, attacked her in the water. The shark bit her arms and legs, inflicting injuries severe enough to threaten her life. She was rushed into surgery, then placed into a medically induced coma that lasted nearly two weeks. When she woke, one of her arms was gone.

Months later, in her first public statement since the attack, Stewart described the moment she came face to face with the animal. She recalled the shark's face with precision—horrific, unforgettable, monstrous. But what she remembered most vividly was not the fear of dying. It was the thought of her daughter, August, growing up without a mother. That image, that single thought, became the thing that kept her fighting. "I was holding onto my leg and I just thought of August," she said in an interview. "And I thought she's not going to have a mum. I couldn't handle that. I did not want her to grow up without a mum. I just thought, 'I've got to fight it and do everything I can to be here.'" The will to survive, she suggested, came not from instinct alone but from love—from the refusal to let her daughter face the world motherless.

Stewart, 34, is a schoolteacher. Her recovery has required multiple surgeries and months of intensive rehabilitation. Her brother set up a GoFundMe campaign shortly after the attack, and the response was substantial. Nearly A$559,000 was raised—enough to cover prosthetics, ongoing medical treatment, and the costs of rebuilding a life after catastrophic injury. The family announced they were closing the fundraiser, having received sufficient support to move forward.

In a written update posted online, Stewart described the past months as incredibly difficult but said she had reached a turning point. She had regained enough independence to see a path ahead. "I still have a long way to go, but my recovery has been remarkable," she wrote. She attributed much of that progress to the network of support surrounding her—family, friends, and strangers from around the world who had sent prayers, encouragement, and practical help. "What you have offered has given us enough to recover, to stay in our home, and to give us options for further medical treatment down the road," she said. The tone of her message was neither bitter nor resigned. Instead, she framed her survival as a second chance. "I want you to know that I feel like I've been given a second chance at life and I'm not going to waste it. You've inspired me to get better, not bitter."

Stewart's attack is one of several shark incidents Australia has experienced in recent months. In January, four people were attacked over two consecutive days, including a 12-year-old boy who died from his injuries. A man was killed while spearfishing in Queensland in May. In Western Australia, a father of two died after being attacked by a four-metre shark. The pattern has raised questions about shark activity along Australian coasts, though Stewart's own focus has remained fixed on the immediate work of recovery—on being present for her daughter, on rebuilding independence, on moving forward with the life she fought so hard to keep.