![\"Jack](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1788159016_110_7f32a709f91e1faa66bfacda80bb777543e07dcb3c4d95605354f4af55bc5de3.png\")
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August 30, 2026 \u2014 8:30pm<\/p>\n
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Shark attack survivor Leah Stewart has told of her terrifying battle with a great white shark at a Sydney beach, and how thoughts of her daughter growing up without her spurred her on as she \u201cfought like hell\u201d to stay alive.<\/p>\n A little over two months after losing part of her left arm and a \u201ccatastrophic\u201d amount of blood, Stewart told Nine\u2019s 60 Minutes program on Sunday she could feel her life slipping away as she lay on the sand of Coogee Beach on a weekend morning in June.<\/p>\n \u201cIt just felt like everything was leaving my body and I was going somewhere,\u201d Stewart said.<\/p>\n But then she thought of her baby daughter, August, growing up without her mum.<\/p>\n \u201cI just knew I couldn\u2019t leave her \u2026 I know it sounds strange but I sort of willed myself back,\u201d Stewart told the Nine program. <\/p>\n It was the middle of a winter\u2019s day and Stewart had been swimming between the flags in clear waters under blue skies at a beach that had not reported a shark attack in more than a hundred years.<\/p>\n She was just about to head in to shore to play with August on the beach.<\/p>\n \u201cI heard a girl behind me \u2026 a shrill shriek. I turned and there was a huge, huge fin behind her. It was massive,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cI looked at the size of it and I realised that\u2019s not a dolphin.\u201d<\/p>\n She began to swim to shore but felt movement in the water nearby.<\/p>\n \u201cI turned around, and it was right there \u2026 and it just was getting closer and closer and closer.\u201d<\/p>\n Stewart said she thought briefly about which limb she was willing to lose as she looked into the looming shark\u2019s beady black eyes.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m right-handed, so I thought \u2018let\u2019s do a left hook\u2019,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Related Article \u201cI just kind of throw my left arm and it just grabs onto my forearm and rips, rips away my skin, my muscle, everything \u2026 there\u2019s a big gap between my forearm and the hand.\u201d<\/p>\n But the shark wasn\u2019t done.<\/p>\n Stewart took a deep breath as the four-metre great white grabbed onto her leg and pulled her under the water. She thought this was how she would die. But then she thought of daughter, August.<\/p>\n \u201cIn my head, I was like, \u2018You ugly f—er. You are not taking me away from my daughter\u2019, and I twisted myself around and I just started punching it over and over and over again.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was like fighting a dinosaur. It was so big. It was like punching a brick wall.<\/p>\n \u201cI must have got a really good one in and so it let me go.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt was the hardest thing in the world, but I fought my way out of there.\u201d<\/p>\n She had beaten back the shark, but Stewart\u2019s fight was not over. A crew of rescuers, including champion paddleboarder Charlie Verco and off-duty lifeguard Ben Heenan got Stewart to shore before a team of clinicians at St Vincent\u2019s Hospital worked to miraculously save a patient who was barely conscious, hardly breathing and with an undetectable pulse.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a condition medical professionals artfully describe as \u201cnot compatible with life\u201d.<\/p>\n Incompatibility aside, Stewart is alive, to be with her daughter and to give her gratitude to the people who saved her.<\/p>\n Stewart\u2019s first thoughts were again for her daughter more than a week after the attack when she emerged from an induced coma, her brother Joshua previously revealed<\/a>.<\/p>\n Her incredible tale of survival is one she plans to tell August some day.<\/p>\n \u201cNot anytime soon \u2026 she\u2019ll understand the full story a bit when she\u2019s much older,\u201d Stewart said.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought maybe I\u2019ll just write her a little children\u2019s book, and I\u2019ll work very carefully on the wording and how it goes.<\/p>\n \u201cAlong the lines of: \u2018Mummy loved you so much that, even when the scariest, scariest thing could happen \u2026 she loved you so much that she was able to conquer that\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s a story she can tell with props. A broken-off piece of the shark\u2019s tooth.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a symbol of what I survived,\u201d Stewart said.<\/p>\n \u201cI took home something from him. He took a lot away from me, but I got a tooth,\u201d Stewart said.<\/p>\n Nine is also the publisher of this masthead.<\/p>\n Start the day with a summary of the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"Leah](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/fac93fd9fe1580b5f18e39a3f78b6f557d0bef8dcbcbe0e669e24729e1780cbf.jpeg\")
Leah Stewart can recall coming face to face with the great white shark.60 Minutes<\/p>\n![\"Swimmers](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/3957d89481a82230060646f47e2dff9524cec91b.jpeg\")
Swimmers in the water at Manly Beach, where signs alert to a shark sighting and that the beach is closed following a shark attack.KATE GERAGHTY<\/p>\n![\"romo](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/8e6e82abe981a6eb3d43e231ef37ac1b98f4a259.gif\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Leah](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/7fa6a22826592055530bb9acd76a23e9d9790a8465470087ff7c1abe91d50d4b.jpeg\")
Leah Stewart, pictured with her daughter before she was attacked by a great white shark at Coogee in June.<\/p>\n![\"Jack](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1788159021_985_7f32a709f91e1faa66bfacda80bb777543e07dcb3c4d95605354f4af55bc5de3.png\")
Jack Gramenz<\/a> is a breaking news reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"August 30, 2026 \u2014 8:30pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585637,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[111,139,69,147,406],"class_list":["post-585636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}