1978 - 1998:

Being happy! Eating and drinking all that I desired. I lived quite a healthy life so the next chapter of my life seemed so out of the blue to me. Little did I know about my body then.

1998 - 1999:

My third year in college in Cork, Ireland, was spent visiting doctors, healers, wellbeing experts to find out why I was feeling sick.

I had periods of time where I went off dairy, then off all nightshade coloured fruits, taking medication for 'acid reflux', all of which was not helping in the slightest.

Finally I got an appointment with a surgeon for an endoscopy. This is what I had needed all along. And I got the result which changed my life.

I was officially diagnosed a coeliac in 1999.

Thankfully I had a Mum who was very driven to help me find out the answers I needed. To this day, I will also be so grateful to her as she pushed and pushed with the doctors, when I didn't know how.

My symptoms: I couldn't digest my food. I know there are hundreds of symptoms for Coeliac Disease but this was my main one. My body started to reject everything I was eating - even just ten minutes after I would have finished eating something. And even if it was gluten free at this stage. My body needed help.

2000:

I moved college to be closer to family to have support during this steep learning curve. This isn't a diagnoses that you can hide away with and deal with it on your own. It's out there and at the beginning it was very hard for me to start talking about it. Back then, very few people had heard of coeliac disease or gluten free food. It wasn't understood. And so my new health journey started.

2002 - 2023:

I always wanted to travel and explore the world. And I didn't want my coeliac disease to stop me. So I'd pack my bag with health bars, bring as much dried food as possible with me, translations of what I'm allergic to in all languages and off I went hoping for the best. It may not have been perfect in every way, but I survived, I was rarely sick from food and I also have some fun stories to share. I've travelled to South Africa, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, parts of China, Oman, Australia, Vietnam, Thailand & New Zealand.

2011:

Officially moved to the beautiful country of New Zealand where we are now citizens.