Eden star rescued as she tries to survive for 40 days on isle
SHE was one of only a handful of participants to survive a year living off-grid in the Scottish wilderness for a controversial Channel 4 television programme.
However, Katie Tunn – one of the stars of the Eden TV experiment in the Highlands – has almost been defeated by her latest adventure.
The self-styled Girl Friday set off to spend 40 days and 40 nights alone on an uninhabited Hebridean island at the beginning of the month as part of an Ordnance Survey campaign to get more people outdoors.
But halfway through the challenge, the 32-year-old artist from Berkshire, who moved to Skye four years ago, had to be rescued after falling and suffering a head injury.
She was forced to radio the Coastguard last week after the ‘severe knock’ developed into an acute headache and a lifeboat team was dispatched to take her to hospital.
Determined not to admit defeat, Miss Tunn – who recently announced she had broken up with vet boyfriend Robert Pattinson, whom she met on Eden – persuaded doctors to allow her to complete the quest after her CT scan came back clear.
Speaking to the Scottish Mail on Sunday yesterday after getting the green light to return, she said: ‘I was having a wonderful time, comfortable and very reluctant to leave my perfect island home. The choice was taken out of my hands once the doctor had given his advice.
‘The trip has been magical and I can’t wait to get back to complete it.’
Before her solo expedition, Miss Tunn – one of 60 people chosen to be Ordnance Survey Get Outside Champions – said she wanted a ‘Castaway or Girl Friday experience, only without the sand or the sunshine’.
She said: ‘I will have no human contact, no electricity, no entertainment such as books or sketchpads. I’ll be completely alone… wildlife and the landscape will be my only company.
‘I hope that I can show people that you don’t have to be an endurance athlete to enjoy getting outside.’
She added: ‘Spending a year off-grid in Ardnamurchan for Eden wasn’t exactly the immersive close-to-nature experience I had expected. It often felt like a constant battle to persuade certain people to respect the environment in which we were living.’
During Eden, participants were challenged to create a utopian society while cut off from the world on the Ardnamurchan peninsula, Lochaber, from March 2016 to March 2017.
Miss Tunn won a legion of fans for speaking out against male competitors’ ‘Lord of the Flies’ approach.
An Ordnance Survey spokesman said: ‘While undertaking a private retreat on an uninhabited Hebridean island, our Get Outside Champion Katie Tunn suffered a severe knock to the head, which later developed into an acute headache.
‘Sensibly, Katie radioed for medical advice and was advised to seek help. After a discussion with the Coastguard and a specialist doctor, she was reluctantly removed from the island and taken to Stornoway hospital for CT scans and 24-hour observation.
‘Katie was keen to return to her island as soon as possible. She is grateful to the RNLI team for their assistance.’
‘I was reluctant to leave my island home’