Kickboxer helping people understand Crohn’s Disease
By Aura McMenamin
CHAMPION Kickboxer Caradh O’Donovan may have hung up her gloves for good this year after nine years of training and competing with Tallaght Martial Arts, but the sportstar is now taking on the challenge of helping people understand Crohn’s Disease, reports Aura McMenamin.
Caradh, who has won the Irish Open title four times in the 55kg points-fighting category, most recently in 2017, has now quit the sport to focus on her goal of qualifying for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics - in karate.
With such an active lifestyle, it may come as a surprise to many that Caradh wasn’t always in top physical form, due to living with Crohn’s disease.
Crohn’s disease is a type of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Signs and symptoms often include abdominal pain and cramps, diarrhoea, vomiting, fever, and weight loss.
This week, Caradh helped the Irish Society for Crohn’s and Colitis (ISCC) to launch their helpline, 01 5312983, to support people living with either disease.
She said: “The helpline is open three days a week. The best thing about it is creating awareness of Crohn’s Disease and colitis.”
Caradh told The Echo this week about how she managed with the disease.
“I’m 33 and I got symptoms in my early 20s, but ignored them. They became progressively worse and worse,” said Caradh, who began training with Dave Heffernan in Tallaght in 2009 after moving to Dublin for college.
“I had symptoms 5-6 years before getting diagnosed. A lot of that was my own issue. I was training and ignoring the pain. It was insanity to do that.”
For Caradh, she ignored the disease because of embarrassment from having to use the toilet up to 15 times a day and suffering from stomach ulcers and blood loss.
“I didn’t want the humiliation of people knowing I was having these problems.
“I also had pain in my joints, which I thought was from training.”
After receiving a Crohn’s diagnosis three years ago, Caradh has made major changes to her diet and is now taking medication to treat the once excruciating condition.
She said: “It was a huge adjustment period after I got diagnosed. There’s different foods I stay away from – mainly Chinese takeaways and my grandmother’s brown bread!”
Despite being cut from the senior national team in 2013, Caradh came back stronger than ever by winning the Irish Open in her division in 2014.
She is now focusing her attention on qualifying for Tokyo 2020 and raising public awareness of her disease.
“There’s a lot of stigma around it if you use the disabled toilet – people that suffer from Crohn’s may look healthy but inside they’re very sick,” she said.
