Jack Laurence

And it was during this time that he would meet the woman who would turn his life around.

And after his second and final stint in prison, he would be released and eventually found his way to North Korea undercover as a billionaire arms dealer.

They say learning to fly isn't just one of the most difficult things a person can do.

It's also one of the most freeing.

The experience of piloting a plane solo, thousands of feet in the air, looking down on the world below, is like nothing else.

And that was a dream for Jamie Hull.

One that he'd carried since childhood.

And one he would later work hard to make a reality.

But the dream that so many people chase each year, that feeling of total freedom above the clouds, would very quickly become Jamie's living nightmare.

Thousands of feet above the ground on a solo training flight, Jamie was facing quite possibly the worst-case scenario imaginable.

His small plane had caught fire and it was now a race against time to get back on the ground, not just safely, but alive.

Jamie would survive that fire.

But the real fight had only just begun.

But of course, before we get to all of that, we need to start at the very beginning.

My name's Jack Lawrence.

Welcome to What I Survived.

Chapter One.

The Very Arduous Pea Company.

Jamie Hull has always been an adventurous guy, something that would later see him take on some of the toughest challenges the British Armed Forces had to offer.

But as a youngster, fresh out of school, he decided to do what many Brits do in their later teens and early twenties and headed off into the world to go backpacking.