and so I spend most of my day in a
toilet and they didn’t know what used to
be that way in fact I used to spend most
of my day in the gym and I was a
kickboxer a champion kickboxer I used to
love this sport it is my one passion in
life to get up every day and to be able
to kick and punch things and win medals
from my country was it just a dream come
true for me and then all of a sudden two
words completely changed that for me
Crohn’s disease that’s what I was told I
had I hadn’t a clue what Crohn’s disease
was I’d never even heard of it before so
the first thing I did was absolutely
scared the life out of myself and I went
to Google
so after googling a lot of things I
realized maybe I’m not gonna die
tomorrow and in fact what I learned that
Crohn’s disease was was a serious
incurable autoimmune disease that
affects the gastrointestinal tract it
causes severe weight loss extreme
fatigue a lot of vomiting and a lot of
information the joint stomach ulcers and
then the really gross part is a lot of
diarrhea so how does somebody that’s win
in World and European medals get stuck
with this disease and I remember
thinking at the time I wasn’t even
skinny enough to have brown disease so
let me tell you a story about how this
came about
um as all athletes do we train really
hard six days a week I was in the gym
training twice a day and then once a
year I’d allow myself a little break
where I could just go away in a holiday
relax and unwind and just chill so
anyone that knows me knows I love the
Sun so I was packing my bag and getting
ready to go to Spain for a week it was
gonna be seven days in the Sun with my
mom and my sister the plan for me was
just throw a towel on the beach
lie down and just let the Sun hit me
well unfortunately my body had a
completely different plan for me and I
spent those seven days in my hotel
bathroom I was so ill I was vomiting
blood every hour
I was an excruciating pain it was like
somebody picked up a knife and just
started hacking away at my stomach
non-stop my knees and ankles had become
so inflamed as I could barely walk and
this is the bit I hate talking about i
sat in the toilet for hours and hours at
a time with a lot of diarrhea and I
remember at that point I lost feeling in
my legs from sitting in the same place
for so long so here I was trying to
crawl back out of the bathroom and just
at that exact moment my mother walked in
and saw me like this and at that point I
just completely broke down that had
become my life for the last few years
that had become normal for me I’ve been
living in that pain and agony for a long
time and I couldn’t even bring myself to
tell the people that was closest to me
so when she heard that of course she
started crying too and I never even
thought to ask you know for help during
that people think that’s the crazy part
how you could live like that but I was
an athlete I was a fighter
I was the first one to say if somebody
in training would say oh ever sore ankle
or a sore knee I’d say just so good oh
come on were fighters so I never told
anyone
so then Holliday landed me with a
hospital trip and their disability or an
incurable disease that I was gonna have
for the rest of my life and I remember I
had done so much damage that I could
barely walk let alone fight so I needed
some time to rest and at that time I
asked kickboxing Ireland for some time
off ask them for some time before they
made their selections for the World
Championships team well unfortunately
that team was picked while I was in
hospital so now I’ve was faced with the
darkest days that I can remember I have
this disease and I was no longer part of
a team that I loved because of us so and
then I found myself faced with a serious
challenge or a serious issue
till I just quit I mean I was 30 years
of age I’d already achieved so much of
my sport already maybe I should just
accept that this was now my life and
just quit or did I just decided I was
gonna fight I didn’t want quit I loved
kickboxing kickboxing was my life
so I decided no I’m gonna fight I’m
gonna prove to myself that this doesn’t
define who I am that I can actually
cheat achieve something in this sport
and a little bit of me the competitive
side me was still a bit annoyed that it
put me off this team so I was going to
show them and myself that I could do
this but that wasn’t an easy task I had
done so much damage from ignoring the
symptoms of Crohn’s disease over the
last few years that my body was broken
so I needed a lot of help to get this
plan together what was I gonna do well I
decided there was three things that I
was going to do and the first one
obviously was I had to get better I had
to get the right medicine the right
support to get myself better and during
their next few months I tried more
tablets than I could ever want to
remember my bedroom started to look like
a pharmacy until eventually I found the
right match today now I inject myself
once a week but in an injection I have a
couple of other medicines that make my
life a little bit better and has helped
me to feel somewhat human again the
second thing that I did was I had to
completely change my diet and lifestyle
in kickboxing we have a thing called
making waste and what that means is when
you compete you have to compete at a
certain weight so for me that meant I
had to stand on the scales before I
fought and be 55 kilos and my idea of
making weight in the past was not
probably the most ideal for an athlete
most of my year will be spent eating a
lot of junk food and then the weeks
leading up said competition I leave
nothing and worse again hours before the
weigh-in I would just throw on a sauna
suit I would throw on three hoodies for
tracks bottoms jump into the sauna and I
would stay there until I dropped every
single bead of water out of my body
until I made the weight and then I’d
compete and I did that over and over
again for years so that has to
completely go I ended up throwing away
the sauna and the worst part was I had
to give up Chinese food as well anybody
here like a spice bag you’ll know
exactly what I mean and then the third
thing I had to do was I had to get fish
if I was going to be a champion athlete
again I had to train and that was
definitely what era date the hardest
part for me if anybody here has ever
tried to give up smoking or try a new
diet
wanna know exactly what I mean here
there was days where I had just no
energy I was absolutely exhausted and I
just wanted to give up I just thought
why am I doing this to myself why am I
putting myself through this and I
remembered why at that stage I didn’t
want to be seen as the girl who was sick
I knew what they say or she used to be a
really good fighter but then she got
sick and had to quit no I was still the
kickboxer this is my identity this is
who I was so I kept going and eventually
the good days started I ignore me the
bad days and I got to a level of fitness
that was pretty impressive I was really
happy with it and I felt healthy for the
first time in years I’d felt really
healthy I was no longer struggling
through a training session having her
slog and being exhausted after it I felt
good about it but I still wasn’t there
there was one more thing that I had to
do and I wanted to win something so I
decided that I wanted to win the biggest
work hope that we have in kickboxing and
I remember it well it was March 2015
here I was with 4,000 competitors across
the world across all way categories and
I was having the best day of my life my
performances were brilliant and I
managed to get myself to the final of
that event and I was so happy to get the
final to explain that they I guess a
final in kickboxing World Cup terms is a
pretty impressive thing to do it’s not
easy to do but there was still a burning
desire inside me to go without one step
further I wanted to be on top of that
podium so there was just one problem in
my way and that was the world champion I
have to beat her so here I was in the
final of the biggest World Cup and in
order to get to that final there’s a
little walkway it’s about 10 meters long
to me it felt like 10 milah I was
walking up that that walkway and I was
so nervous my heart was pounding the
sweat was pouring down my face I cannot
even remember feeling the feet beneath
me at that point and I got to this stage
and next thing the bell rang I’m not fat
like four seconds later the bell rang
again I had no idea what was happening
and I realized the fight was over so I
looked over my shoulder and then big red
flashing lights there it said 14 points
I thought I scored 14 points have no
recollection of us but then I looked
over the other side and then big blue
writing it’s at 11 points and I was at
that exact moment that I realized I’d
won but one that feeling is the best
feeling I can remember it wasn’t the
most important one of my career beating
the world champion win in a World Cup
when nobody thinks that you can do it
and to be honest when I had even dead
and myself that I could do it so what I
learned from that was that no matter
what obstacle LifeStraw was at me I’m
still going to be able to find a way to
overcome that and be successful and what
I also learned from having problems
disease is that sometimes things aren’t
always as they seem sometimes you might
see somebody but you’ve no idea what’s
going on behind the scenes so what I
could ask you to do one thing leaving
here it’s nice that will be the next
time that you guys are out and you’re
queuing for a toilet and somebody bowls
past you and straight into this disabled
toilet that you might just think twice
before giving them that evil stare thank
you very much
[Music]
[Applause]
you
[Music]
toilet and they didn’t know what used to
be that way in fact I used to spend most
of my day in the gym and I was a
kickboxer a champion kickboxer I used to
love this sport it is my one passion in
life to get up every day and to be able
to kick and punch things and win medals
from my country was it just a dream come
true for me and then all of a sudden two
words completely changed that for me
Crohn’s disease that’s what I was told I
had I hadn’t a clue what Crohn’s disease
was I’d never even heard of it before so
the first thing I did was absolutely
scared the life out of myself and I went
to Google
so after googling a lot of things I
realized maybe I’m not gonna die
tomorrow and in fact what I learned that
Crohn’s disease was was a serious
incurable autoimmune disease that
affects the gastrointestinal tract it
causes severe weight loss extreme
fatigue a lot of vomiting and a lot of
information the joint stomach ulcers and
then the really gross part is a lot of
diarrhea so how does somebody that’s win
in World and European medals get stuck
with this disease and I remember
thinking at the time I wasn’t even
skinny enough to have brown disease so
let me tell you a story about how this
came about
um as all athletes do we train really
hard six days a week I was in the gym
training twice a day and then once a
year I’d allow myself a little break
where I could just go away in a holiday
relax and unwind and just chill so
anyone that knows me knows I love the
Sun so I was packing my bag and getting
ready to go to Spain for a week it was
gonna be seven days in the Sun with my
mom and my sister the plan for me was
just throw a towel on the beach
lie down and just let the Sun hit me
well unfortunately my body had a
completely different plan for me and I
spent those seven days in my hotel
bathroom I was so ill I was vomiting
blood every hour
I was an excruciating pain it was like
somebody picked up a knife and just
started hacking away at my stomach
non-stop my knees and ankles had become
so inflamed as I could barely walk and
this is the bit I hate talking about i
sat in the toilet for hours and hours at
a time with a lot of diarrhea and I
remember at that point I lost feeling in
my legs from sitting in the same place
for so long so here I was trying to
crawl back out of the bathroom and just
at that exact moment my mother walked in
and saw me like this and at that point I
just completely broke down that had
become my life for the last few years
that had become normal for me I’ve been
living in that pain and agony for a long
time and I couldn’t even bring myself to
tell the people that was closest to me
so when she heard that of course she
started crying too and I never even
thought to ask you know for help during
that people think that’s the crazy part
how you could live like that but I was
an athlete I was a fighter
I was the first one to say if somebody
in training would say oh ever sore ankle
or a sore knee I’d say just so good oh
come on were fighters so I never told
anyone
so then Holliday landed me with a
hospital trip and their disability or an
incurable disease that I was gonna have
for the rest of my life and I remember I
had done so much damage that I could
barely walk let alone fight so I needed
some time to rest and at that time I
asked kickboxing Ireland for some time
off ask them for some time before they
made their selections for the World
Championships team well unfortunately
that team was picked while I was in
hospital so now I’ve was faced with the
darkest days that I can remember I have
this disease and I was no longer part of
a team that I loved because of us so and
then I found myself faced with a serious
challenge or a serious issue
till I just quit I mean I was 30 years
of age I’d already achieved so much of
my sport already maybe I should just
accept that this was now my life and
just quit or did I just decided I was
gonna fight I didn’t want quit I loved
kickboxing kickboxing was my life
so I decided no I’m gonna fight I’m
gonna prove to myself that this doesn’t
define who I am that I can actually
cheat achieve something in this sport
and a little bit of me the competitive
side me was still a bit annoyed that it
put me off this team so I was going to
show them and myself that I could do
this but that wasn’t an easy task I had
done so much damage from ignoring the
symptoms of Crohn’s disease over the
last few years that my body was broken
so I needed a lot of help to get this
plan together what was I gonna do well I
decided there was three things that I
was going to do and the first one
obviously was I had to get better I had
to get the right medicine the right
support to get myself better and during
their next few months I tried more
tablets than I could ever want to
remember my bedroom started to look like
a pharmacy until eventually I found the
right match today now I inject myself
once a week but in an injection I have a
couple of other medicines that make my
life a little bit better and has helped
me to feel somewhat human again the
second thing that I did was I had to
completely change my diet and lifestyle
in kickboxing we have a thing called
making waste and what that means is when
you compete you have to compete at a
certain weight so for me that meant I
had to stand on the scales before I
fought and be 55 kilos and my idea of
making weight in the past was not
probably the most ideal for an athlete
most of my year will be spent eating a
lot of junk food and then the weeks
leading up said competition I leave
nothing and worse again hours before the
weigh-in I would just throw on a sauna
suit I would throw on three hoodies for
tracks bottoms jump into the sauna and I
would stay there until I dropped every
single bead of water out of my body
until I made the weight and then I’d
compete and I did that over and over
again for years so that has to
completely go I ended up throwing away
the sauna and the worst part was I had
to give up Chinese food as well anybody
here like a spice bag you’ll know
exactly what I mean and then the third
thing I had to do was I had to get fish
if I was going to be a champion athlete
again I had to train and that was
definitely what era date the hardest
part for me if anybody here has ever
tried to give up smoking or try a new
diet
wanna know exactly what I mean here
there was days where I had just no
energy I was absolutely exhausted and I
just wanted to give up I just thought
why am I doing this to myself why am I
putting myself through this and I
remembered why at that stage I didn’t
want to be seen as the girl who was sick
I knew what they say or she used to be a
really good fighter but then she got
sick and had to quit no I was still the
kickboxer this is my identity this is
who I was so I kept going and eventually
the good days started I ignore me the
bad days and I got to a level of fitness
that was pretty impressive I was really
happy with it and I felt healthy for the
first time in years I’d felt really
healthy I was no longer struggling
through a training session having her
slog and being exhausted after it I felt
good about it but I still wasn’t there
there was one more thing that I had to
do and I wanted to win something so I
decided that I wanted to win the biggest
work hope that we have in kickboxing and
I remember it well it was March 2015
here I was with 4,000 competitors across
the world across all way categories and
I was having the best day of my life my
performances were brilliant and I
managed to get myself to the final of
that event and I was so happy to get the
final to explain that they I guess a
final in kickboxing World Cup terms is a
pretty impressive thing to do it’s not
easy to do but there was still a burning
desire inside me to go without one step
further I wanted to be on top of that
podium so there was just one problem in
my way and that was the world champion I
have to beat her so here I was in the
final of the biggest World Cup and in
order to get to that final there’s a
little walkway it’s about 10 meters long
to me it felt like 10 milah I was
walking up that that walkway and I was
so nervous my heart was pounding the
sweat was pouring down my face I cannot
even remember feeling the feet beneath
me at that point and I got to this stage
and next thing the bell rang I’m not fat
like four seconds later the bell rang
again I had no idea what was happening
and I realized the fight was over so I
looked over my shoulder and then big red
flashing lights there it said 14 points
I thought I scored 14 points have no
recollection of us but then I looked
over the other side and then big blue
writing it’s at 11 points and I was at
that exact moment that I realized I’d
won but one that feeling is the best
feeling I can remember it wasn’t the
most important one of my career beating
the world champion win in a World Cup
when nobody thinks that you can do it
and to be honest when I had even dead
and myself that I could do it so what I
learned from that was that no matter
what obstacle LifeStraw was at me I’m
still going to be able to find a way to
overcome that and be successful and what
I also learned from having problems
disease is that sometimes things aren’t
always as they seem sometimes you might
see somebody but you’ve no idea what’s
going on behind the scenes so what I
could ask you to do one thing leaving
here it’s nice that will be the next
time that you guys are out and you’re
queuing for a toilet and somebody bowls
past you and straight into this disabled
toilet that you might just think twice
before giving them that evil stare thank
you very much
[Music]
[Applause]
you
[Music]
Please follow and like us: