Biography - I Survived Denise Nick Leonilda (DVD)

DENISE - Denise McLain was a Dollar Store Manager in Jacksonville Carolina, who had to fight for her life with two knife-wielding robbers in a store hold-up. She was stabbed dozens of times, and had her wrist slashed as they stole money and forced her to try to open a safe. Denise made a run for the back exit of the store, but one of the men caught her and cut her throat. When her attackers planned to kill her with a hammer, Denise pretended to fall into unconsciousness. Her determination that her father would not have to attend her funeral, kept her constantly strategising on how to escape and survive. NICK - Former Marine Nick Williams was a company executive who went skiing without telling anyone where he was going, and quickly got caught in an unexpected snow blizzard on an unfamiliar mountain. In the whiteout conditions Nick completely lost his way and nearly went off a precipice. He had no cellphone, no food and no winter clothing in a storm where four feet of snow fell, and temperatures dropped to 40 below. At night he slept upright, leaning against trees so he would wake up when he fell. He stumbled into a snow-covered stream, which flooded his boots and froze his feet. For two days and two nights he worked to stay alive in the freezing isolation. On the third day people finally realised he was missing, and began to search for him. LEONILDA - Leonilda was a single mother who was charmed into having a relationship with a jealous boyfriend, Luis. When Luis began to take drugs, he became enraged and paranoid and one morning he abducted Leonilda from her apartment at gunpoint, threatening to shoot her and dump her body in the river. While they were driving there, Leonilda saw a truck passing and tried to get the driver's attention by jumping out of the car. To stop her, Luis shot her in the head. Luckily it just grazed her skull and shattered the window. She struggled with him, and tried to jump again, this time successfully. Her boyfriend swung the car around and shot her twice in the legs as she ran away. She took cover in a parked truck cab, but Luis followed her and shot her twice more in the back. Leonilda thought she was going to die, but her fierce protectiveness of her son drove her to stay alive until she could find help.

• documentary