Why I Became A Black Belt

Candice Winter, 42, was fit, active and healthy, until arthritis struck – but she refused to give in

- Ruth Addicott

As Candice Winter, then 37, watched her daughter, Holly, doing taekwondo, she wished that she could do those high leg kicks and join in too.

‘It looked so much fun,’ she says.

It was 2014 and Holly, then nine, had been wanting her to try it for a while, but after hobbling around on crutches for nine months, Candice didn’t think her body could take it.

Four years earlier, Candice was fit and active, she played tennis, and went running and hiking whenever she could. She had two children, Holly, six, and Shayne, three, and a busy job as a beauty therapist.

In June 2011, she had just dropped her kids at nursery when she noticed a niggle in her ankle. ‘By the evening, it was throbbing. I pulled my trousers up and it was the size of a balloon,’ she says.

As the week went on, the pain worsened, then her knee swelled up as well.

‘I showed my husband, Colin, 45, who is an anaesthetist and he said, “You’ve obviously done some damage,”’ she recalls.

‘I had an X-ray at A&E and they said, “You’ve sprained your knee.” I didn’t remember hurting myself, but the doctors wouldn’t listen.’

Candice was given crutches and told to stay off her leg. But the swelling didn’t go down.

Within two weeks, her other knee and ankle, then her wrist had swollen up too.