In my early teens, I was told by a consultant at St Thomas’s hospital that my ‘large and lumpy’ legs were just puppy fat, and that they would go ‘back to normal’ after puberty. They never did, and it wasn’t long before I was trialling every diet invented in my attempts to change the appearance of my legs. I ended up ‘dieting’ for the next 30 years, and in 2010, I weighed in at my heaviest. I had severe foot, hip and knee pain and was diagnosed with fibromyalgia.
I am a Leadership Trainer and Coach. I was so very low and felt like a fraud – how was I, as a coach, supposed to help others achieve their goals when, despite all my efforts ‘dieting’, I was unable to change the appearance of my legs? I was using food to comfort myself.
However, I stopped dieting and started putting into practice the various creative tools and techniques I had learnt and recommended as a coach. I went on to release 5.5 stone easily and effortlessly over the next 11 months. The weight, I am pleased to report, has remained off over the last five years, although the appearance of my legs had not changed.
With a ‘perfect’ BMI, I went to see my GP, who has always been very aware of the issue with my legs and my unhealthy relationship with food. I asked her what else I could do to change the size and look of my legs. She told me it was just fat, and wrote down the name of a plastic surgeon who might be able to help me, at my own cost. This wasn’t an option for me at that time and I decided to try to accept my legs and attempt to live a happier life.
This situation remained until my eldest daughter happened to watch a YouTube video about a girl with Lipoedema.
‘Mum,’ she proclaimed. ‘This is your story and these are your legs!’
I attended my first Lipoedema UK Conference in June 2016. My decision was very last minute, as I had literally just stumbled across the possibility I had Lipoedema. However, as I walked into the venue and looked around me to see a room full of women with legs like mine, I knew there was no doubt about it! Understandably, it turned out to be an emotional rollercoaster of a day, concluding with a very emphatic and inspirational presentation by the Chair, Sharie Fetzer. I decided, there and then, that I would do all I could to support Lipoedema UK to raise awareness of a condition that has massively influenced my life experience, and that of my two daughters, my mother and her sister, too.
I have subsequently gone on to help Sharie with administrational sponsorship duties, attended awareness events at GP conferences, presented my own Lipoedema story to the nurses and GPs at my own Medical Health Centre, as well as delivering mindfulness workshops at recent conferences.
The Covid lockdown gave me an opportunity to launch a live online Health and Wellbeing Community programme for our members. I know how much living with Lipoedema has affected my physical and emotional health, and I recognise the feelings of loneliness, of being the ‘odd one out’. I understand how it can reduce our confidence and self-esteem. To be able to offer a free, weekly forum to share a balanced mix of medical information, relevant exercise and a wide range of bite-size workshops with Lipoedema ‘sisters’, from the programmes I have delivered for the NHS, has been an enjoyable and heartening experience.
