Athlete Brooke McIntosh tells women of Kalgoorlie-Boulder how she turned her life around

Former mine worker Brooke McIntosh was miraculously uninjured when she was hit by a truck four years ago, but the near-death experience inspired her to turn her life.

At last week’s Women’s Leadership Conference in Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Ms McIntosh shared how she changed from a struggling young adult to the fastest woman to run across Australia.

Abuse, mental health battles, substance use, and eating disorders had defined Ms McInstosh’s childhood and early adult years.

She was in the depths of despair in 2022 while driving to a Perth high school to talk to students about confidence.

“Driving along the highway at 100km/h, all these thoughts were running through my head,” she said.

“You are a fraud. You’re not enough. You’re not good enough. Stay silent. Sit down — these thoughts had been eating at me since I was just two years old.”

She was considering taking her own life when she hit a concrete bollard, was T-boned by a truck and was smashed into another car.

“I was in that car concussed for 15 minutes,” she said.

No one was injured but Ms McIntosh was taken to hospital for examination.

“They had no physical evidence that there was anything wrong with me, so they discharged me,” she said.

“Yet I knew in that moment, if I didn’t acknowledge the truth over the safe, comfortable lies, nothing in my life was ever going to change.

“And the truth was that mentally, I wasn’t okay.

“I transported myself to the future, and I realised this is my second life. This is my second chance.”

Back at work on a mine site, Ms McIntosh began having conversations with her colleagues about mental health.

She encouraged people to check in on themselves first, before checking in on others.

“Slowly, one by one, I was having these conversations on site with the boys,” she said.

“First and foremost, I was always checking in on myself first, putting my own oxygen mask on.”

Wanting to take her impact to the next level, Ms McIntosh decided to run 1600km from the Pilbara to Perth to raise money for mental health in mining and construction workers.

“In August 2023 — one year on from my car accident — that day is when I started running 1600km,” she said.

“I knew in my heart that I needed a mission that was way bigger than my pain, and I needed a system to get with it.

“That is literally where just one more became my lifeline and became that system. Just one more step, breath, and day.”

By backing herself daily, Ms McIntosh said she reclaimed parts of herself she never thought she would rediscover.

She ran 60km every day for 27 days and raised more than $70,000.

In March 2025, she began running 14,200km across Australia for 204 straight days.

“I did end up becoming the fastest woman to run around Australia — that was never the point, though,” she said.

“The point was to impact our nation to have just one more conversation.”

Ms McIntosh has now raised more than $360,000 for mental health causes and was a WA Young Australian of the Year finalist.

She told the crowd that through “just one more” they could overcome and achieve anything.

“Just one more is a practice that we live in our life every single day,” she said.

“Just one more for me started as just one more step . . . that became 1600km, to 14,200km.”

“Just one more conversation with myself in the mirror became just one more conversation in schools, and now up on stage in front of 300 people.

“Just one more is inside of each and every single one of us when we first choose to have courage over comfort again and again and again.”

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