“I went from being aworld championship canoeist, to having such extreme exhaustion that I couldn’t lift my arms up enough to wash my hair.”

Anna Hemmings is Britain’s leading female marathon canoeist and the current world champion.  In 2003, after years of training and competing at the highest level, she was told she might never race again. This is the story of how she fought back chronic fatigue syndrome, and regained her health to be selected for the Beijing Olympics.

The Beginning of a Canoeing Career
Hemmings began canoeing at the age of 8, when her mom booked her onto a week-long canoeing course for the school holidays. She joined the local canoe club, and canoeing became her passion over everything else.

“There’s nothing quite like the feeling of canoeing down a river—it’s such a liberating feeling," she says. "I’ve always been a strong and competitive person, and when I started to win canoeing races, it drove me further.”

By her late teens and early 20s, Hemmings was devoting a lot of her time to training. She socialized a little, but getting up the next day to train or race was always in her mind. She competed at the World Championships several times, and at the Sydney Olympics.

“I loved it, and was totally focused," she says. "A couple of times though, I had to stop training because of extreme exhaustion, and I assumed that I had just over-trained.”

In 2003, Hemmings went to the doctor with symptoms of exhaustion. By that time, even with light training, she was utterly exhausted.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Diagnosis Provides Answers
“I tried absolutely everything to find out what was wrong," Hemmings recalls. "I saw sports doctors, an acupuncturist, a nutritionist, changed my diet, cut out certain foods, had blood tests, and even went down the spiritual path and saw a shaman. I’m normally a positive person, but I became increasingly frustrated, as nothing seemed to help.”

Hemmings was finally diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, which is still not well understood.

Chronic Fatigue has different symptoms, which may include exhaustion, aching muscles, migraines, and extreme tiredness, affecting work, social, and family life significantly. Anna was finding even easy tasks a struggle, feeling fatigued after just 20 minutes of canoeing.

Reverse Therapy: New CFS Treatment
Hemmings was introduced to Reverse Therapy by an employee of her sponsors, Pindar. Reverse Therapy is an innovative treatment that addresses the imbalance in the mind-body environment, which is one of the triggers that causes the symptoms of chronic fatigue.

“Reverse Therapy was a complete revelation for me," Hemmings says. "I had to keep a detailed journal and write down everything I was doing and feeling to help identify patterns and triggers for my symptoms.

I realized I didn’t have enough balance in my life. I had been too single-minded, hadn’t expressed emotion, and always put on a brave face, isolating myself from other people. It was hard to change at first, show weakness, cry sometimes, and learn to do things differently.”

After starting Reverse Therapy, it took Anna about six months to get her confidence and health back, and to build her fitness again without fearing the symptoms would come back. She returned to competition in 2005 and has since gone on to win the world marathon canoeing championships three consecutive times and has been selected for the Beijing Olympics. However, Anna tries to have more balance and awareness throughout her training.

Anna says the things that helped her through chronic fatigue were her family and friends, and that she never gave up hope that she’d find a way back. She also discovered the importance of surrounding herself with positive people.

This article is based on an interview carried out for BBC Radio Scotland series, "Fighting Back." The interview is available for a short time at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes. You can also find out more about Anna, and her battle with chronic fatigue syndrome at www.annahemmings.co.uk.

Photo by Stuart Robinson

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For more stories about athletes pushing themselves beyond their disability, see Fighting Back 1: Blind Athlete Mark Pollock Shares His Adventure Story.

See Fighting Back 2: SCI Survivor Commits to Wheelchair Marathon Days After Becoming Paralyzed to learn how one man beat the odds after his accident.