Linda Fraser
In February 1983 Linda Fraser woke up to find her third-floor walk-up apartment in Edmonton, Alberta on fire. She ran to her five-year old son Adam's room, to find him completely surrounded by flames. Eventually she managed to get him to the comparative safety of a bedroom window. But fire trucks had not yet arrived, so she dropped her son three floors to a neighbour below, who somehow managed to catch him, and got up on the windowsill "to get off my burned feet" and wait for help to arrive.

Although Adam was burned, Linda's injuries were by far the more severe because she had to run the gauntlet of flames not once but twice - once to rescue Adam and again to get him to the window. As the firefighter who rescued her commented, "I thought at the time only a parent could sacrifice herself in such a way".

Adam is now studying photography. And Linda has no regrets about the way her life has turned out. "I don't think the way you look is very important in the end", she says. "I certainly haven't found it so. I always tell people, my life is so full and happy, I wouldn't change anything - and that includes being burned".