Epilepsy is a big part of my life now, I didn’t get diagnosed until after turning twenty-one, not realising that I had been epileptic all my life, but it started out with absence seizures as a child and then tonic clonic ones which I don’t remember having. I used to have these with friends and they not knowing what they were I would be bullied for being weird or they thought I was putting it on. On my 21st birthday I had a very bad tonic clonic seizure which stopped my heart, and I went into cardiac arrest. Luckily my partner was there to do CPR to save my life after that experience I was admitted to hospital for three weeks for them to try and stop my seizures which were uncontrollable at the time, I was having seven seizures a day which you all know how much that wipes you out.
It was hard to come to terms with having epilepsy and for a while I pretended that I didn’t have it and tried to live a normal life of a 21-year-old, going out drinking/partying which was a big mistake taking me back further health wise, I was continually having seizures and my heart stopped a further 4 times. When I got to this point, I didn’t understand why everything was so bad they had realised that my heart was linked to my seizures, and this was going to keep happening to me until I either died or sorted myself out.
This is when I turned to bodybuilding this is a huge passion of mine, I was already a personal trainer in a gym which was hard having to change my lifestyle knowing my triggers for seizures was tiredness, stress and overheating which you would think doing a prep would be impossible. BUT I made it possible I cleaned up my eating, training and my whole life has changed. I am now a professional bikini bodybuilder competing all over the world and have been invited to compete in one of the most prestigious events the ARNOLD’S.
I can’t tell you how many times epilepsy has brought me down, but we can’t change the fact we have epilepsy it is a part of us, and we need to come to terms with the fact that we have to live with this. Why should we be any different? Why should this change what we can and can’t do?
I truly believe that you can set your mind to anything if you put in 100% and look after your health because at the end of the day, we only get one life. So don’t waste time live your life and become who you want to be.
I have I am now a professional bikini bodybuilder, I run three businesses, I have a personal training studio as well as a class studio and I am an online coach helping others to become a better version of themselves just like I have done.
I have decided to become an ambassador for the charity The Voice for Epilepsy so that I can spread awareness about how to deal with everything and help those who are struggling to come to terms with the fact that they have epilepsy.
If anyone at all has any questions or need to get in touch with me feel free my Instagram is – Jadekelsie_IFBBPRO.
