People couldn’t get their heads around me wanting to put weight on! While it’s a challenge to lose weight, it’s just as tricky trying to build lean muscle, but after several years I’d got the body I wanted.
All of this changed in August 2013 when I was diagnosed with cancer.
I underwent an initial operation, followed by nine weeks of chemotherapy in the autumn. Here I am meeting Jessica Ennis-Hill, the Olympic gold medalist heptathlete, who visited patients in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital where I was treated.
With my core strength gone, and struggling against ongoing fatigue, I began to rebuild my fitness. It was months before I could stay awake all through the day, and over a year before I dared touch a weight again, but gradually I recovered to where I’d been before.
Prior to my illness I’d been a care worker, and although it could be very rewarding, it was also heartbreaking. I was attracted to the idea of doing a job instead which would add years onto the lives of my clients.
After qualifying as a personal trainer, and later as a sports massage therapist, too, I started Home Fit and Healthy, and began my new career.