A Life Shaped by Experience
Born with a severe congenital disability and shaped by grief, chronic pain, elite sport and a global corporate career, my life has taken me through very different worlds.
Representing Great Britain internationally in para canoe marathon racing became part of a much deeper journey — one that led me towards recovery, reflection and a different understanding of health, performance and life itself.
Much of what I share today comes not from theory, but from lived experience.
My Story
By the age of ten, I had already undergone twenty-two operations. Over the course of my life, I have now been through more than sixty anaesthetic procedures alongside years of chronic pain, recovery and rebuilding.
When I was thirteen, I lost my daddy suddenly to a heart attack. He was just forty-eight years old.
Looking back now, I can see how much of my early life became shaped by survival, pressure and learning how to keep moving forward no matter what was happening physically or emotionally.
In my twenties and thirties, I built a successful corporate career in finance and financial software. From the outside, life looked successful. Internally, I was exhausted, disconnected from myself and living at a pace that my body and mind could no longer sustain.
At thirty-eight, I collapsed at Belfast airport with a suspected heart attack while travelling for work.
Even then, I kept going.
It was not until a few years later, at forty-one, when I unexpectedly received a phone call inviting me back into canoeing after not paddling since my teenage years, that the direction of my life truly began to change.
What began as a challenge slowly became something much deeper than sport.
Over time, I transformed from an unhealthy, sedentary sales director into an international GB para athlete, winning medals for my country and still competing at the age of fifty-four against athletes less than half my age.
But the deeper work did not begin in the gym or on the water.
It began in quieter moments of listening.
Once told that amputation was likely, I underwent three major surgeries and extensive reconstructive metal work in an attempt to save my feet and reduce the chronic pain that had shaped much of my life.
Alongside surgery and rehabilitation, I began exploring a very different path to recovery through fasting, cold immersion, movement, breathwork, gut health, nature and plant medicine.
Over the last two years, I have dedicated myself to understanding nervous system health, inflammation, emotional awareness, metabolic health and the long-term impact that stress, pressure and modern living can have on the body over time.
I began to understand that when we truly give the body space and time, it has an innate capability to heal, recover and adapt far more than most people realise.
At fifty-four, it still feels almost unthinkable that my feet are actually improving.
The pain has not disappeared and parts of my body will always carry structural limitations, but my understanding of pain, inflammation and recovery has changed completely, along with the impact they have on my daily life.
I cannot change what has happened structurally within parts of my body, but I can improve and take responsibility for the rest of my health, physically, mentally and emotionally. That understanding became a huge turning point in my life.
As my health improved, I experienced first hand what science is increasingly beginning to validate. When systemic inflammation is reduced through targeted nutrition, metabolic reset, movement and nervous system regulation, the body responds.
By reconnecting the mind, body and gut, we create the internal conditions that allow the immune, digestive and neurological systems to repair and restore.
I began to understand that many people are not broken.
They are simply exhausted, overwhelmed, disconnected from themselves, and living too far away from how human beings were designed to live.
Today, my work is about helping people slow down, reconnect with themselves and create healthier, more sustainable ways of living.
Some people come to me through pain or burnout. Some through health struggles, anxiety, recovery or major life changes. Others simply feel that something in life no longer feels right.
The work itself is grounded, practical and human.
Honest conversation.
Awareness.
Health.
Recovery.
Movement.
Nature.
Nervous system regulation.
Metabolic health.
Fasting.
Learning how to listen to the body again.
I do not believe wellbeing is about perfection.
I believe it is about understanding ourselves more deeply and creating the space for real healing, change and connection to happen naturally over time.