It was the third Monday in a row that Megan Sullivan had a near-death experience.
The 31-year-old was on her way out of a doctor’s appointment in November, 2014, when "pure vanity" compelled her to ask about a spot on her forehead.
"I'd had this red mark on my forehead and thought it was a pimple that never went away," Sullivan told CTVNews.ca, explaining that she was subsequently diagnosed with skin cancer.
"That was the 'are you kidding me?' moment," she said.
It came just two weeks after the San Francisco native fell 15 metres from a cliff, while rock climbing in California's Yosemite National Park. She walked away from that incident bruised, but alive.
The following week, while riding to work, Sullivan's scooter was hit by a car she says ran a stop sign. She managed to avoid tragedy by jumping from the scooter, but she collected a few more bruises along the way.
Bandaged and shaken by her experiences, Sullivan was out with Chris McNamara, the man she'd been dating since they met while rock climbing, just before her first big scare.
When Sullivan explained why she looked like she had been assaulted, McNamara told her it might be time to start checking items off her bucket list.
Inspired, and buoyed by the news she was clear of cancer, Sullivan took two weeks off work to set out with McNamara to see the Seven Wonders of the World. It took them just 13 days to see them all in an adventure from Machu Picchu in Peru to the Great Wall of China.
Sullivan posted a video of the escapade online in April, racking up more than 150,000 views.
Sullivan was so bitten by the travel bug that, after finding out she had a four-day weekend, Sullivan sold most of her clothes and a guitar on eBay to fund another epic trip. She and McNamara took an electric skateboard through Istanbul, Turkey, with layovers in Amsterdam and Paris, and made another video along the way.
The trips have taught her to grab every chance to realize dreams, Sullivan said.
“I think it’s just to not live a life with any regrets whatsoever, and it doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to go climb a mountain.”
But that’s what Sullivan is doing as she makes another travel video in November, a year after the scares that changed her life.
For the last month, when she’s not working, Sullivan has been rock climbing throughout California, in Mount Rainier National Park in Seattle.
Sullivan said she knows everyone has grand plans they put on the backburner, from traveling the world to telling someone you love them. Whatever their bucket list includes, she recommends starting to cross a few things off.
“You’re never going to regret doing something,” Sullivan said, “but you’ll always regret something you never did.”
