A ‘Miracle’ Saved Her in the 2004 Tsunami, Then She Went Back to Help Others with Her Partner (Exclusive)

• Rachel Hearson changed careers after helping others who survived the 2004 tsunami

• "I can be strong in a situation like this, and I can be there for other people if I'm needed," she tells PEOPLE now, 20 years after the catastrophe

• She also recalls the sudden onslaught of the water and the hours before she reunited with her longtime partner

Rachel Hearson says it was a "miracle" she found a "pocket of air" and managed to survive the catastrophic tsunami that swept through the Indian Ocean, including the Phi Phi Islands in Thailand, on Dec. 26, 2004.

Some 230,000 people died.

"It had all happened so quickly," Hearson tells PEOPLE in this week's issue, looking back at the worst disaster in modern human history. "I'd never heard of a tsunami in my life."

Hearson, 61, says when the water came, she was "spat out to sea" and then pulled into a small fishing boat before being brought to a larger tourist boat further out.

"I was cut and bruised and my clothing was hanging off me," shares Hearson, who is also featured in National Geographic's Tsunami: Race Against Time, streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.

Related: Young Brothers Orphaned in World’s Worst Tsunami Were Taken in by Their Neighbors: 'Made Us Who We Are' (Exclusive)

"I heard people say, 'What's the matter with her? What's happened to her?' Because they had no idea because they didn't experience the wave out at sea," Hearson recalls. "And then people's phones started pinging."

For the next three hours, she says she sat with a towel wrapped around her.

She eventually persuaded the captain of the boat she was on to let her go back for her partner, Cici Romain, as she feared the worst for him: "I had no idea whether he was alive or dead."

For more on life 20 years after the 2004 tsunami, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands now, or subscribe.

"I had no shoes," says Hearson. "I picked my way across all the debris towards the hotel where we'd been staying because I thought — that's the only place I know that potentially, possibly, I'm going to find Cici."

"I don't know how long it took me to get back to the hotel," she says. "I just know that I was trying to avert my gaze from bodies."

Suddenly, as she walked, she spotted him helping others and joined in.

Though she didn't have any medical training, she says her "biggest role" was to "hold people's hands and to give them water and to reassure them that help was coming."

"I'll always remember the sound of that first helicopter coming in because it was that feeling — oh my God, somebody's coming," she says. "Somebody's actually coming to rescue people."

Related: Journalist Who Lost 50 Family Members in World’s Worst Tsunami Opens Up About What Came After (Exclusive)

After the devastation, Hearson, who lives in London with her partner of over 22 years, says she felt a sense of guilt over their survival.

Eventually, she felt there was a reason she lived and, in a way, she learned about her resiliency.

"I can be strong in a situation like this, and I can be there for other people if I'm needed," she says. "Actually, I reacted positively to a situation which was utterly horrendous."

She decided to give up her job in the fashion industry and now works for a cancer charity.

"I think one of the things that was a result of the tsunami was that I came back and I questioned what I was doing with my life," she says. "I thought to myself, 'I haven't been put on this planet to decide what color purple is right for the season.' "

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