MEET JAZZ'S HERO 'THE WOMAN WHO SAVED MY LIFE'

The mental health activist introduces the amazing doctor who rescued her from rock bottom

- Florence Hartigan

At 28, Jazz Thornton is an author, documentary filmmaker, Dancing With The Stars champ and co-founder of mental-health charity Voices of Hope – and no one is more surprised than her.

“If my teenage self could see this, she would fall over,” says Jazz, who hosts new ZM podcast Hope Is Real, focusing on uplifting stories of people overcoming their mental health challenges.

However, Jazz believes things would have turned out very differently had she not met Dr Stephanie Taylor, the woman she credits with saving her life.

Jazz left her hometown of Timaru at only 16, trying to escape the childhood trauma and bullying that later led her to attempt suicide 14 times. At age 19, she found herself in Steph’s Auckland GP office, trying to talk her way into getting medication to end her life.

“When she came into the room, she was as bad as you could be,” recalls Steph. “She sat there with her head down and was just miserable.”

Steph could see Jazz was in crisis, and kept talking to her for an hour and a half, even though her appointment was supposed to be only 15 minutes.

“The nurses were banging on the doors, but I knew she needed that time. If someone presents with chest pain, a doctor drops everything and goes to save their life. I could see that I needed to drop everything to save Jazz’s life or at least try as hard as I could.”

For Jazz, those 90 minutes changed everything. “The things Steph said to me that day I’d never heard from a medical professional before. Usually it’s all doom and gloom, but she told me that I could live a happy, healthy life. My mental illness wasn’t who I was – it was just something I was dealing with. I was shocked.”