TWO decades ago Maria Munn was fighting for her life after being hit by a lorry.

She suffered various injuries, including 15 fractures, and was in hospital for six months, unable to walk.

But far from letting a terrible experience define her, Maria used the incident as inspiration.

After moving from London to Swanage in 2012, Maria dipped her head beneath the waves and hasn't looked back.

She has dedicated her life to taking stunning photographs of marine life, which she displays proudly in her studio.

"The doctor said I wasn't going to walk again", says Maria. "But I just obviously wasn't listening, and it took me three years to walk again."

(Image: Simran Mehan, NQ)

(Image: Simran Mehan, NQ)

The time in the hospital helped her to fall in love with the ocean and sharks and for Maria, it became a therapeutic experience. 

Maria left her job in healthcare because of her injuries and discovered a new world underwater.  

She has since travelled the world doing different campaigns about preserving marine life.  

She said: “I've been lucky in the sense I've had so many incredible encounters. 

"I've swum with orcas up in Norway.  I've swum in icebergs in Alaska, and worked with humpback whales off to Tonga, but I still get excited just coming here at Swanage. 

"Any encounter in the sea is completely unimaginable.”  

(Image: Simran Mehan, NQ) Her love for educating people about the ocean and creatures living there has led her to open her Ocean Studio in the Daisy May shopping arcade in Swanage. 

For Maria, the studio has been her second ocean home where she loves teaching children about snorkelling and underwater photography.  

“I really wanted to create this first ever snorkelling school here in Dorset, because I thought it would be a great opportunity for people who aren't divers. It gives them a platform where they can experience the ocean and they can see and learn about the animals first”, said Maria.

Concerned about the coastal ecosystem affected by overfishing and littering, Maria’s latest project has been going to Swanage beaches and collecting washed-up fishing nets and upcycling them into bracelets. 

She has also recently published her new book for children called Who Lives in the Swanage Sea?  

(Image: Simran Mehan, NQ)

"This idea came 10pm at night. 'Wouldn't it be nice to kind of write a story about Swanage underwater, because there's never been anything done before?' - so it's just a 24 page book combining education with little adventure. 

“It's just been life changing. It's more than life changing.  It's just been the best medicine that I could have ever wished for, that I could have had in my life to help me get through."