The blood of 12 people saved Sheena Moyer's life after Cyclone Tracy tore through Darwin 40 years ago, leaving the then 21-year-old's body battered and bleeding.
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The Canadian-born Canberran had been in the nation's capital six months when she was flown to the Northern Territory for a temporary urban planning project.
On Christmas Day,1974, less than a fortnight after arriving in Darwin, a cyclone obliterated her new home, leaving it unrecognisable bar the lot number.
Cyclone warnings came but many didn't expect Tracy to hit.
Then the radio died.
"I walked out to the kitchen to get the keys to go [underground]. Halfway down the hallway a trash can came through the front window and the front half of the house disappeared," Sheena said.
Silence fell as the eye of the storm engulfed the property – but the chaos wasn't over.
"The eye passed and the wind came from the opposite direction and basically blew the back end of the house down," Sheena said.
She managed to move out of the rubble and down the driveway.
"I walked out, got a few steps, and noticed a big sheet of iron whizzing past," she said.
Her injuries from the flying fence left her unable to move.
"Everytime the lightning flashed I kept looking at my watch, thinking, 'when the sun comes up this is going to stop'," she said.
"Eventually it did but, for some reason, I simply couldn't get myself up."
Sheena and other injured residents were eventually found, loaded into a 4WD and whisked to hospital.
It was another three days before Sheena was flown to a hospital in Sydney.
Back in the ACT she spent another two months in the Canberra Hospital before undertaking a year of tri-weekly physiotherapy.
During the ordeal Sheena received 12 blood transfers, both ordinary and plasma.
She was hooked to four large bottles at once, two from her wrists and two from her ankles, before heading into surgery in Darwin.
The donations saved her life.
"I remember lying there looking at these four bottles, thinking, 'OK, this is not good'," she said. "I owe a lot back."
And Sheena has given a lot back.
She has volunteered with the Australian Red Cross ACT's Club Red competition two days a week since retiring in 2007 and donates blood when she can.
Sheena was central to starting up the early competition more than a decade ago after encouraging an internal challenge among colleagues in her government department.
In the challenge's first full year donations increased by 6000. This year the tally has already hit 12,000.
Today, she urges Canberrans to consider donating blood as the blood bank braces for herds of residents leaving the capital over the festive season.
"I think everybody should be a blood donor [if they can]," she said.
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"Life has a way of bringing on complete surprises. It's amazing what can happen at Christmas."
