Kerryn Harvey: From Flesh-Eating Infection and Forequarter Amputation to a New Memoir, Mostly Ups

# Quick overview

Kerryn Harvey is an Australian para-triathlete, motivational speaker and author who grew up in Melbourne. A 2013 bicycle accident in Adelaide injured her elbow and, within 24 hours after leaving hospital, she contracted necrotising fasciitis. The infection was life-threatening. After multiple surgeries, surgeons performed a forequarter amputation of her right arm and shoulder. Doctors initially gave her a 5% chance of survival.

Harvey spent years in rehabilitation and rebuilding a new life. She went on to compete as a para-triathlete and ran the 2024 Tokyo marathon. Now she has published a memoir, Mostly Ups, chronicling survival, rehabilitation and the choices that reshaped her life.

# The medical turning point

The chain of events began with a bicycle crash that affected Harvey's elbow. The complication came fast: within a day of leaving hospital she developed necrotising fasciitis, the so-called flesh-eating bacteria. The condition required multiple operations and ultimately a forequarter amputation — removal of the arm and shoulder — to save her life.

Harvey's case is put in national context in the memoir: she joined the roughly 14,000 Australians who lose a limb each year. The early phase of her story includes intensive care, emergency surgeries and the shock of very low survival odds.

# Recovery, sport and purpose

The book also notes specific milestones in her sporting life, including running in the 2024 Tokyo marathon. Harvey frames fitness, goal-setting and teamwork as central to the life she constructed after amputation.

# Writing Mostly Ups

Friends repeatedly urged Harvey to tell her story. At first she felt unready and unsure where to start. Over time she accepted the idea, joined the Expert Author Community for guidance, and approached the book one chapter at a time. Structuring the memoir into chapter-focused mini-goals made the writing process manageable.

Writing required revisiting painful memories. She describes putting herself back in intensive care on the page as the hardest part, with grief and fear resurfacing during composition. At the same time, the act of writing allowed her to review what she endured and what she achieved, and to name lessons she wants readers to use in their own lives.

# Themes and reader takeaways

Mostly Ups centers on survival, acceptance and practical strategies for rebuilding after catastrophic injury. Concrete themes include the value of community support, the role of physical fitness in recovery, the importance of goal-setting, and how humor and personal agency can coexist with trauma.

Harvey presents her story as a sequence of steps rather than a single dramatic leap: medical crisis, surgeries, rehabilitation, athletic reintegration and then reflection through writing. The result is a memoir aimed at people facing trauma, those interested in adaptive sport, and readers who want a straightforward account of recovery and resilience.

# Why this matters

Harvey's memoir adds a first-person account to conversations about limb loss, adaptive athletics and long-term rehabilitation. It also models a method for tackling difficult personal narratives: break the work into smaller tasks, rely on community, and accept the emotional cost of revisiting trauma as part of recovery.

Her story is specific to her circumstances — a bicycle accident, a rare and rapidly progressing infection, and a forequarter amputation — and her choices after those events inform the practical lessons she shares in Mostly Ups.