'Disasters taught me to live with great joy'

Emergency planner Lucy Easthope helps communities after catastrophes such as Grenfell and 9/11, but the horrors she has seen have had a surprising effect on her own life

- INTERVIEW BY CHARLOTTE HEATHCOTE

Though Lucy Easthope is a fascinating, warm and often funny interviewee, I can't help hoping that we never meet again.

Because she's an adviser on emergency planning and disaster recovery - showing up in the wake of unimaginable calamities and helping devastated communities with the long work of recovery and rebuilding.

To date, she has advised on the aftermath of 9/11 and the 7/7 London bombings, on the Ukraine war and the Grenfell Tower fire, to name just a few.

Now, Lucy has written a book in which she shares all the wisdom she has accumulated over two decades, showing how we can all cope better with adversity.

She also points out that we don't need to survive earthquakes or terrorist attacks to benefit from her insights - life events can hit people just as hard.

So how does she cope seeing the aftermath of so many dreadful disasters at close range, with all the suffering and despair that accompanies them? "It has taught me to live with great joy," says Lucy. "I genuinely live for today."

She also deploys psychological techniques to help herself stay sane. "I talk everything through in my own head. I did cognitive behavioural therapy so that once I became a mum [her daughters are 10 and 13], I didn't catastrophise and let it affect their world."

Lucy's beloved father, whom she cites as her biggest influence, died two years ago - and she says that they treated every encounter like it could be their last, for who knows what the future holds?

"Today is the day," she says. "I don't know what is going to happen tomorrow." Then she smiles. "Although I do still have a pension.

However much she wishes her work was not needed, she is grateful for what it teaches her.