Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (also labelled as autoimmune arthritis), Chronic IBS and gut infections, Depression, Crippling anxiety, Anaemia, Epstein Barr, Shingles, Dengue fever, Hyperthyroidism, Fibromyalgia and a double hip replacement.
So many years of fighting. Against disease, against my body, against the pain until I began healing holistically and found a place of radical acceptance and self love.
I first experienced health issues as a child and it has been a long challenging journey navigating how to not only live with, but thrive with autoimmune disease.
As a kid I was always bloated, tired and struggled with movement. This started the journey of seeing many specialists to get answers as to what was going on. I eventually got the diagnosis of Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis, IBS and severe Anaemia at age 10.
My health journey started down the allopathic route seeing medical professionals and taking multiple medications to get my symptoms under control. As time went on mum researched natural remedies and we started eating organic food as a family and I started taking natural supplements. The symptoms went into remission from ages 14-18 but came back strong when I started university to study design. I went back on medication and was determined to live my life like everyone around me. As a highly sensitive person on top of having health issues I have always felt so different from my those around me and the more I spent my time trying to fit in, the more alien I felt. I found it hard to join in with the usual binge drinking and pizza parties that come with uni life but pushed my body to do the things that everyone around me was doing.
When I completed my degree I moved to London to pursue a career as a Graphic Designer. Here I was, a highly sensitive soul in the midst of a fast paced, high competition environment. With my type A personality I was determined to make it as a designer and I had great success. My career and life was thriving to anyone looking in but on the inside I could feel my health getting worse as time went on. Due to the immune suppressant medication I was taking and my high paced lifestyle I ended up with several throat infections, followed by a chest infection and then shingles one summer. These all compounded on top of each other to add to the symptoms I was trying to manage.
To take some time out I decided to stop work for a while and go travelling around South and Central America for 3 months. This was a welcome break of fresh air but during the second month came with the challenge of getting severe food poisoning in Bolivia. My gut issues after this become horrendous and when I returned to London I spent 6 months living off plain rice, potatoes and steamed veg as nothing else seemed to digest.
I lost a lot of weight during this time and my depression and anxiety were at an all time high. I pursued working full time and got my first huge wake up call when after a routine smear test at age 23, the results came back abnormal. I was sent to a gynaecologist for testing and told I had CIN & VIN stage 3 and would need to have these abnormal cells removed. I had 2 surgeries to remove the abnormal cells.
25 years old, The turning point...
The medications were fading and I kept having to have steroid injections into my joints for the swelling. My digestion was a mess with constant bloating and pain and I had chronic fatigue. This effected my mental health and the depression and anxiety got worse leading me to eventually slow down and seek help from natural modalities. I started seeing a councillor and looking into how diet affects autoimmune disease.
This was the turning point of my life. I couldn't go on like I was. I was miserable and barely functioning so I began to take my health into my own hands and create the changes I needed in order to thrive once more. I moved to Melbourne and began working for a Naturopath/functional medicine practitioner as a designer but soon began being mentored by her in all things natural health. I learnt how nutrition, emotions, mindset, trauma and environment all play a part in our health. For the first time in my life I felt like I had found the path I was meant to be on. I worked extensively with her in all these areas and learnt how everything links to autoimmune disease. During these 2 years I experimented with different diets and looked at how food affected my symptoms. I came off all medications including the contraceptive pill and took herbs and supplements and started dealing with emotions I had bottled up for years. I began feeling relief from so many crushing symptoms that were holding me back from truly living.
The one thing I couldn't seem to shake was the pain in my hips. My arthritis had been chronic in this area from a young age and I was told at 27 it was time for a total hip replacement in both hips. Being so young this fuelled me to look into anything natural that could help heal and delay this surgery so I took my study of natural healing even further and I went to do an immersive yoga and breathwork teacher training in Thailand.
After 3 months of full time study and movement I was feeling better than I had ever felt in my life so I ended up staying in Thailand for 2 years after this training and mentoring with my teacher, David Goulet. At this healing centre David took people with disease through a whole health programme that consisted of looking deep into subconscious patterns and how they hold us back from healing, detox/nutrition, herbs, yoga, breathwork and trauma release techniques.
During this mentorship I learnt every thing that needed to be looked at when it comes to healing holistically. I worked with clients to help them through their health issues and knew this is what I needed to be sharing with the world...
I flew home to New Zealand in 2020 when the COVID lockdowns started, after getting a severe bout of dengue fever and continued my journey in Christchurch. The fever really knocked my health about again and I had a massive flare up of my inflammatory arthritis and also got diagnosed with hyperthyroidism. It had been 5 years on from needing a hip replacement at this time and when everything flared up I got to the point where I needed crutches to walk and decided it was time to get them both replaced at age 32. In the lead up to surgery I used holistic therapies and diet to get my thyroid and nervous system under control and avoided needing medication for this. I had bilateral hip replacement surgery in July, 2022 after being on crutches for 9 months and this was my biggest initiation yet.
No one should have to undergo a joint replacement surgery and at such a young age. It took a massive toll on my mental and physical health but the wisdom I gained in going through such a major surgery so young is priceless and it has helped me soften and come into myself even more and mentor from a deeper place within me. Living through so much adversity for most of my life I am a strong advocate for health and wellness and continue to live holistically and thrive despite all the health challenges I have faced. I have walked the path and come out stronger than ever... Now my mission is to guide you do the same.