This Gymnast Is Literally Allergic to Everything, Even Exercise

[Applause] doing gymnastics with a chronic illness can be really difficult my body causes me to have life-threatening allergic reactions to seemingly nothing so sweating or crying can be a trigger i've nearly died from laughing too much with my friends but i love being able to fly through the air and flip and twist and spin it's just something that feels really free to me [Music] [Applause] [Music] my name is natasha coates and i'm an elite disability gymnast i was number one in the uk for four years running i have won 22 british titles and 38 british medals [Music] i started gymnastics when i was eight years old at my local recreational club and i've been doing gymnastics ever since my condition didn't become severe until i was 18. one day i went into final flight to shock it was completely out of the blue nobody knew what caused it mass activation syndrome is a rare condition that affects your immune system so when you get stung by a nettle you get a raised itchy bump that's from histamine which is released from the mast cell my body does that when there's no trigger i can be sat in my room doing nothing nothing's changed and those cells just switch and release all those chemicals which send me into anaphylactic shock so just as somebody who had a nut allergy if they ate peanuts their throat would swell their tongue would swell they struggle to breathe because your airway's shutting and you feel like you're gonna suffocate to death and that is a real possibility with this condition there are some that are caused by triggers so i know things such as getting too hot or too cold can cause a reaction certain foods can be an issue strong smells strong emotions can be a trigger i'm literally allergic to everything corniche seemingly fitting training when i became unwell i still wanted to carry on i just wanted to adapt to it there can be a lot of contradicting points between having mass activation syndrome and gymnastics my diet is quite restricted i'm quite malnourished with iron and things like that sometimes the exercises can be really really hard but i enjoy building up my strength and seeing an improvement in myself unfortunately it takes me quite a lot longer than everybody else that's able-bodied but that almost makes the victory that a little bit sweeter sometimes i do push myself too far and i regret it and i end up paying for it i have lost count of how many times i've been in hospitals it's way over 500 times it works out on average every two weeks it's got to the stage where most of the staff know me by my first name and only them by their first name thanks to social media i've been able to get in contact with people that have the same condition as me most of them are in america and we have this lovely little group of about four or five of us i'm the only one from england and we are constantly joking about my accent between us and they really are like my sisters unfortunately a couple of years ago one of the girls taylor passed away she'd been quite unwell [Music] it was really hard um not just to lose my best friend but the reality of the condition that i'm living with because as much as you can try and make it as light-hearted as possible it is life-threatening and the chances are it will kill me one day seeing the pain that i went through when she passed and knowing that one day all the people that i love and care about are going to feel that same pain really hard thing to carry and sometimes i want to cut myself up from the world so when it does happen it doesn't hurt them but i need them i need my friends and they need me i've had many conversations with them about it because we're very open they're just happy that i'm happy with what i'm doing and i'm really blessed to have them [Applause] it's not the medals that count for me it's the experience i love to go out and perform and show people that just because you're ill doesn't mean your life has to stop [Music] hey everybody my name is drew bibi and i'm here in my terrible home studio that i've made during quarantine and i wanted to tell you about our new podcast called great big story it's got more surprising and delightful stories just like this one so head over to apple podcast to spotify wherever you get your favorite podcasts and download great big story

Channel: Great Big Story

Views: 938,113

Rating: 4.9410677 out of 5

Keywords: great big story, gbs, lag, documentary, docs, New Releases, Biography & Profile, Sports & Action, biography, profile, sports, action, allergies, allergy, gymnastics, Natasha Coates, mast cell activation syndrome, syndrome, allergic reaction, athlete, training, medal

Id: whn0IAOCYsQ

Length: 5min 0sec (300 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 24 2020