Survival stories that defeated the odds Cast adrift American Yachtsman Steven Callahan was sailing his 6.5m boat across the Atlantic in 1981 when a large unknown object- most probably a whale or shark- crashed into it. Unable to stay aboard he climbed into his 6ft life raft armed with only enough food and water for a few days. He was 800 miles away from land in one of the most remote spots in the ocean. He survived for 76 days and drifted 1,800 miles before being rescued by fishermen in the Caribbean. During his journey ships passed him by, missing the flares he was sending out He managed to cheat death by spearing fish, barnacles and birds and collecting rainwater. It took Callahan six weeks before he could walk again after his rescue and he had lost more than a third of his body weight. Surprisingly Callahan says that he does not regret spending so long adrift because the experience "changed him" for the better. Left in a crevasse In 1985 Joe Simpson and his climbing partner Simon Yates were descending the remote Siula Grand mountain in the Peruvian Andes when Simpson broke his leg. Yates begin to lower Simpson down the mountain slope on a rope but inadvertently lowered Simpson off a cliff. As conditions worsened Yates could no longer see Simpson and was unable to pull him back up. Simpson couldn't climb back up so Yates took the decision to cut the rope and save his own life. Simpson plunged into a crevasse but stayed alive, despite Yates assuming he had died. Simpson managed to find a way out of the crevasse by abseiling down it and managed to crawl back to base camp. The journey took four days with no food and very little water. Blown away by a tornado In 2006 19 year-old Matt Suter survived being blown more than 1,300ft by a tornado in Missouri. The 150mph tornado ripped apart the mobile trailer he was hiding in and picked him up into the vortex before eventually dropping him an open field. Experts said that it was the furthest distance anyone has been carried by a tornado and survived. Apart from a small gash to his head Suter was otherwise unhurt. Stuck on a mountain Snowboarder Eric LeMarque decided to go for one last ride after the ski patrol shut the Californian mountain he was on in 2004. An approaching storm caused him to lose his sense of direction and he unwittingly ventured deep unto untracked territory. He was lost for eight days with no means of attracting rescuers. Surviving on pine needles and bark he dug snow caves to sleep in and left scraps of his clothes for the search part to find. On holiday without friends or family, no one knew he was missing. Eventually LeMarque was found by snow patrollers who discovered his snowboard trail. The feet and ski poles of another missing skier was also discovered in the same area who had apparently eaten by an animal. LeMarque's legs needed to be amputated but he was otherwise unharmed. Pinned by a boulder Actor James Franco as Aron Ralston in the Danny Boyle film 127 Hours. In 2003 Aron Ralston was hiking through a canyon in Utah when a boulder became dislodged and crushed his hand, pinning it against a canyon. Unable to free his arm he spent five days drinking the only water and food he had with him before being forced to drink his own urine. He then used his own body weight to bend his arm until the boulder snapped his forearm. He amputated his arm with a blunt knife in a process that took more than an hour. Ralston managed to rappel down a 60ft cliff face to the canyon before attracting the attention of some holidaymakers who called the rescue services. Fallen into a well A Chinese women was found at the bottom of a well in a rural village after surviving for 15 days. The woman apparently survived b yeaning the raw corn she was carrying when she fell into the well. She drank rainwater. Her family had given up the search for her but villagers eventually heard her cries for help.