The star gymnast who became 'allergic to exercise'
At the age of 20, gymnast Natasha Coates became, essentially, allergic to exercise.
The condition she still displays, first identified in 2013, has altered her life, and yet she remains determined for her diagnosis not to prevent her doing what she loves.
Natasha continued her gymnastics, this time entering in Disability Gymnastics competitions and in 2014 was crowned the all-around artistic British Champion. She will compete alongside other disabled gymnasts at the 2015 British Disability Masters at the Echo Arena in Liverpool on 29 March 2015.
Here, the English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS) publishes an extract from a blog Natasha has written for British Gymnastics:
Natasha’s blog:
I first started gymnastics just after my eighth birthday at my local leisure centre. It was actually rhythmic gymnastics. I loved to be able to bend in all sorts of directions and show people my splits.
But in May 2013, when I was out with friends, I went into anaphylactic shock and became very poorly incredibly quickly. We had no idea what had caused it so when it happened again two days later I was determined to find the cause.
I had extensive tests and while all these were going on I was still going into shock regularly - at one point I suffered eight separate, life-threatening reactions in two weeks.
The doctors eventually found that I suffer from rare condition which affects cells in my body, called Mast Cells. Mast Cells normally help protect you from disease and aid in healing of wounds by releasing chemicals such as histamine and leukotrienes.
However, in people like me the release of those chemicals can happen for no real reason, even when there is no attack. And if there is an attack, the release is also out-of-proportion and too many chemicals are spilled out.
The official diagnosis I have is called Chronic Spontaneous Angioedema and Spontaneous Urticaria leading to Idiopathic Anaphylaxis.
I also have asthma, Oral allergy syndrome, eczema, hayfever and Raynaud’s phenomenon.
As time went on I became sensitive to more and more triggers that cause reactions of varying severity. At first it was sweat and then it was heat, the smell of some foods and chemicals, getting to cold and water in contact with my skin. The list is endless and varies from day to day.
I was just getting back into gymnastics when during a normal training session my throat began to swell. I had literally just landed a vault, and by the time I had got back to the end of the runway I couldn’t breathe properly.
I was immediately taken to hospital and that’s how I learnt I was allergic to exercise - talk about learning the hard way!
These days I train alongside mainstream gymnasts so I’m coached in pretty much the same way as everyone else. However, the way I do each piece is a little different.
I run to warm up, like most gymnasts, and when I run I make sure I don’t breathe too fast or too slowly in order to maintain a healthy breathing rate and keep my oxygen levels up. As I start running everything feels normal, but I soon start to lose the feeling in my toes and fingers and that will slowly spread up to my knees and elbows.
By the end of the run I can’t feel when I’m touching the floor with my feet, I can only feel the physical motion of my weight shifting.
There are normally no pins or needles, it’s complete numbness, like my legs and arms aren’t there, yet I still have perfect control of them.
The biggest high of my career so far was my results from the British Championships last November. It was my first disability competition and by far the biggest I had ever done so I had no idea what to expect, I just wanted to go and do the best I could and I was really happy with my results.
I came away with gold on all four apparatus, as well as the all-around title for my category which was a complete dream come true and to then be announced as the highest scoring female of the competition, I couldn’t believe it and it still doesn’t feel real!
It was really funny because when it was announced for me to walk to the podium I had been standing for a while, so I was a little wobbly stepping up onto the podium and when I was handed the large trophy I just thought to myself “do not drop this”!
It still hasn’t sunk in, and I feel like someone’s going to wake me up one day and it will have all been a dream!
Disability Gymnastics is a fantastic sport and has given me so many opportunities that I would recommend it to anyone. If you want to give gymnastics a try, find your local club who offer inclusive sessions and get involved and remember, next time you see a disability gymnast, we are overcoming barriers that you don’t even know exist.
