The kindness of strangers: I was so ill I couldn’t walk when a man virtually carried me to the toilets

I was determined not to vomit in front of six lanes of traffic, so I started crawling towards a nearby park

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When I was 19, I commuted to work every morning on an express bus. It was perpetually crowded and would always be standing room only by the time I got on.

One particular morning, I was feeling quite nauseous as the bus swayed around each corner. I kept telling myself to hold on another few kilometres until the bus got to my stop, and then I could make a mad dash for the nearest public toilet to throw up.