A NI man has conquered a fear that "haunted him for years" after a terrifying fall when he was just 10.
Ian Malcolm from Lurgan says he is 'lucky he didn't die' after a scare while walking down to the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge near Ballintoy, Co Antrim during his childhood.
In September, he went back and crossed the bridge but did not tell anyone about the brave move until this week.
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The journalist and Irish language teacher has suffered from recurring nightmares ever since the incident.
He told Belfast Live: "I was up in the North Coast with my mum, dad and brother. In those days, Carrick-a-Rede was accessed from a different direction.
"Now it's in the control of the National Trust and there is a long pathway down to it which is fairly easy to [navigate], but whenever I was a child, there was a house away up on the clifftop near the road and you had to go there and pay some sort of fee and then go down to the bridge.
"But the route down to the bridge was very very steep, very very sharp and ran along the edge of the cliff. It sort of zig-zagged around, there were these long zig-zags but over the years people had taken shortcuts and instead of going down here. There was sort of a very rough path."
Ian added: "Going down the zig-zags, me being a wee lad, full of bravado, I thought to myself 'I'm going to get down here before anybody else'. I was being a bit daft.
"I took this muddy track down. It was very, very steep. My speed increased, I got faster and faster and faster and in the end, I could not stop."
The Lurgan man says the incident was "absolutely terrifying" and happened in the space of a few seconds.
He continued: "What saved me was, I went down to where there was no more muddy path, it was just the last little bit between me and the actual drop into the sea.
"What happened fortunately, there was a big drop of about 6 feet and I went down that, I tumbled over, ended up flat on my back, I thought I broke my back and I couldn't breathe, I was in quite a bit of pain and obviously I was in shock as well but it was that six feet drop that saved me. Otherwise I was only a few metres away from the actual edge itself.
"I have had nightmares about that ever since. The next thing I knew, I was back home but at least I survived."
Ian says this was "the most appalling experience".
"I found it most unsettling," he explained.
Ian then decided this year to go back to "conquer his fear" and cross the Rope Bridge.
He said: "As I drove close to it, my heart was absolutely pounding because this was the place where I almost died.
"Thankfully, when I got to the park I realised I wasn't going to have to go down that horrible zig-zag path. I was at ease.
"I thought to myself, 'Am I actually going to do this?' and then I said, 'Yes Ian, you are'.
"I went down, crossed the bridge and my heart was in my mouth. I went straight across. I didn't stop. I maybe spent 10 or 15 minutes on the other side and the scariest thing of all was looking over to the place where I almost died.
"It seemed even steeper than what I remembered as a child. I am so fortunate I didn't die that day.
"I had a friend with me who was a massive support."
The Lurgan man said he was "delighted" and felt "ecstatic" when he got to the other side.
"It was just the most amazing experience. I had conquered a fear that had haunted me for many, many years," he added.
The Irish language teacher wants to give a message to others who may have a fear.
Ian said: "No matter what your fears are, you can, if you are determined, conquer them.
"People can do anything, it's just a matter of putting your mind to it.
"Now when I go to bed, I still think about Carrick-a-Rede, but now they are very happy memories."
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