How food helped me FIGHT BACK

A shock diagnosis led Gemma Lea Edelman, 43, to overhaul her lifestyle

- WORDS: JOHANNA BELL

They say that true healing comes from within, and that's the mantra I adopted at my lowest ebb. At only 35, my body seemed to be giving up on me. But I'm not the kind of woman who'll sit back and accept something if I believe there's any chance I can change it. So, even in the face of a lifelong health condition, I became determined to get back to the fun, fit and healthy mum I once was.

It all began toward the end of 2017 when I couldn't shake a chest infection.

It developed into bronchitis, and after four long, dreadful months, I was finally admitted to hospital in February 2018. But doctors couldn't get my illness under control. When I was discharged 10 days later, I felt just as poorly.

My symptoms gradually got worse, and I struggled to breathe. I'd always been an energetic mum to my son Nicolas, then 7, and I was desperate to get out and about with him again, but instead I was forced to rely on my husband Jose, then 36, to help me walk, get up the stairs or have a shower.

I was in and out of hospital for months, but medics didn't seem to have any answers. Then I started getting pins and needles in my left leg, and losing sensation in the limb. The symptoms spread to my right leg, leaving me weak and wobbly, and soon my arms were suffering, too.

I was so ill I had to give up my teaching job. I spent hours sobbing to Jose, terrified of what the future held for me, and devastated at missing out on precious moments with our son.

Finding out the truth