The places that changed my life: Liz Ellis

OUTBACK AUSTRALIA

In 1982, our parents took us out of school to travel around Australia for seven months. We all had to pitch in and help while Mum and Dad worked overtime to afford it. It was an early lesson in goal setting, sacrifice and hard work. Spending time in such close quarters made us incredibly close. My most vivid memories are the blaze of the Milky Way in the night sky in Central Australia. Dad and I would sit around the campfire and spend hours looking up.

CANBERRA

I spent two years at the Australian Institute of Sport on a netball scholarship after leaving school. During that time, I went from a gangly, slightly lazy, 18-year-old wannabe to a member of the Australian Diamonds. Canberra hardened me. If I wanted to achieve, I had to learn to get up and do the work no matter how cold it was outside, how dark the early morning was, or how tired I was from the day before.

BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND

I won my first ever Netball World Cup in 1995 in Birmingham. I was the youngest member of the team, and was assigned to mark the tall, strong and skilful South African, Irene Van Dyk, in the final. We won by 20 goals, and it was the game that started a career-long rivalry between myself and arguably one of the greatest players ever in Van Dyk.

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND

I won my last Netball World Cup in 2007 in Auckland. Once again, I was up against my great rival, Irene Van Dyk, who had moved to New Zealand eight years previously and was now a mainstay in the Silver Ferns. We won a brutal final by four goals, in a match that I knew was my last. I had kept my retirement plans a secret from everyone but immediate family and a couple of close friends. My family were there to cheer me on, including my dad, who was diagnosed with lung cancer a few weeks later and passed away within a year.

INCA TRAIL, PERU

The summer after I retired, my husband and I went to South America for five weeks as a way of marking the end of one phase of my life and the start of the next. I had always wanted to walk the Inca Trail, and we did it so that we would get to Machu Pichu on my 35th birthday. It was an incredible experience, and a great way to put a full stop on my netball career. To stand in buildings that are centuries old is a great way to gain perspective, and it helped me mentally to move on.

Liz Ellis's new book, If At First You Don't Conceive, is a fully-researched medical, emotional and financial guide for Australian couples facing infertility issues. See panmacmillan.com.au She is also a Nine Network commentator for the 2018 Suncorp Super Netball season.