My Personal Journey —

The Moments That Made Me Who I Am

I became sickly in my teens, often developing the flu when others only had a common cold. This made me rather frail looking. But in the 90s ‘the waif look’ was in and it lead me to life as a model, travelling the world and learning about different dietary practices. It was during my two years working in Thailand that I found Taoism, planting the seed to my blossoming love affair with the interconnection of the mind, body, spirit, food and nature.

I was blessed to have my first daughter at 23 and spent my 20s travelling the world with her from job to job. However things took an unexpected turn when the week after I hit the Big 3-0 I was diagnosed with Lupus – an autoimmune disease that attacks the whole body. It’s fair to say that Lupus went on a rampage with me. The literature the hospital gave me and everything I read online said there was no cure; if I was lucky I could expect more of the same, but most likely it would continue to worsen. By the time I was 35 I was living with assisted apparatus and needed a special leverage device to get me out of bed, a Zimmer frame to help me walk around the house, and a huge mechanical contraption to get me on and off the toilet. As Lupus also effects the nervous system I was prescribed anti-depressants to sleep, alongside steroids, daily painkillers and immune-suppressant drugs.

One day my 11-year-old daughter asked me, “When you die, what will I do for money?”’ This moment shocked me into years of research and a quest to uncover why I had developed this illness. With the average diagnosis in Britain for Lupus taking 9 years I had already been on the path to being chronically ill for a long time, so I knew recovery would take a considerable amount of time. It did take time, but I did get better. And not just better to the point of remission; I can proudly say that I am now marker free!

After meeting my partner later in life, I was told at age 43 that I had 0.7 percent chance of having another baby with my own eggs. And that was with the assistance of IVF. I decided that if those were my odds I would personally prefer to take our fertility journey with Integrative Medicine. It meant a number of changes for my partner and me, but with the help of practices such as Ayurveda and acupuncture, I gave birth naturally to my second daughter — from my own egg — two weeks before my 45th birthday!

What Makes Me Smile

The laughter of my two girls. The Great Outdoors. Singing all the wrong words along to hits of the 90s on long car journeys with my partner. Good honest food and clothes that enhance my mood.

The Takeaway

There’s a rise in society of people suffering with chronic pain, IBS, infertility and weight management. But just because something is common doesn't mean it is normal, and it certainly doesn't need to be your YOUR normal. When people ask me if I wish I’d never been through those years of hell with Lupus, I say, “No!” I am grateful it happened as it set me on my journey of research and study to become a Certified Nutrition & Health Coach, with the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, which means I can now help people to fill their well* and be in a body that brings them a life they love.

*You can eat all the kale in the world and take the latest super-supplements, but if you are undernourished in other areas of your life, such as work, sleep, friends and family, ‘the well’ (your body) will develop cracks and begin to leak. Keep your well full, so that you and your loved ones can keep drawing the liquid of life from it.