I became a naturopath because of my love of plants, sustainability and also because my daughter got severe nappy rash and my son swallowed a padlock.

I had seen several GPs about my daughter’s severe nappy rash and I remember asking if it could be due to the food she ate. One of the GP’s laughed and me and told me not to be be silly, that there was no connection between what we ate and health.  18 months and lots of steroidal medication later I accidently stumbled across a naturopath who pointed out that 10 pieces of fruit a day was probably not the best thing to eat and that the sugar from the fruit was creating the thrush. I removed the fruit and bingo, the nappy rash went. Light bulb moment!

My second light bulb moment was my son swallowing a padlock, he very nearly died, and I lived in Starship for a month.

Back in 2008, I was teaching yoga part time whilst also bringing up my 4-year-old daughter and my 15-month-old son. For some reason, my son decided it would be fun to swallow a padlock…yes I did say padlock! The small one attached to my daughter’s diary.

He choked, I did the whole first aid thing but he was still hysterical and nothing had come out. I took him to the local A & M and was seen by a GP, straight out of training. She told me that there was nothing wrong him and that I was being overly dramatic! I asked her for an x-ray just to be sure and she refused. She told me he had viral tonsillitis and to take some antibiotics. I had questions – I had heard that you shouldn’t take antibiotics if it was viral – she told me it was a preventative; I asked if it was possible that he could have a normal oxygen saturation rate if the ‘thing’ he choked on was lodged in his food pipe rather than his air pipe, she told me I didn’t know what I was talking about and that she was the expert. I started to doubt myself, maybe I was wrong, maybe he hadn’t choked…I took him feeling told off and stupid.  My gut told me otherwise but I didn’t listen.

4 days later, my son was still distressed, he was back to eating baby food and was losing weight. My gut was telling that something was wrong. I saw my GP and told her what had happened, she watched him drink water, she checked his oxygen and she looked down his throat. She told me he was fine. I told her he was not. Thank God she listened to me and gave me a referral to Starship children’s A & E and sent me there immediately.

For the 4 hours, I saw countless medical professionals who did physical examinations and told me he was fine. I stood my ground and refused to leave until they X-rayed him. I waited patiently for 2 hours in the radiology department, watching people come and go. I then lost the plot and started shouting that I wasn’t going to leave EVER until he was x-rayed. Eventually a radiologist came out to find out what all the noise was about I told her how long I had been waiting and she saw me immediately. After the first x-ray, she came running up to me and said ‘don’t let him lie down’. ‘Why?’  ‘Because he has a padlock stuck in his oesophagus’. I won’t repeat what I said, but it was very, very rude!

He was then rushed into surgery. We were told it would be a quick 10 minute surgery to whip it out. 1 hour later, my husband (who had joined me by this time) and I were still waiting and I knew something had turned to custard. We were then informed that the padlock had become lodged in the membrane and had broken up…they had planned to cut his throat as they were struggling to remove it via his mouth but at the last moment had managed it, unfortunately ripping his oesophagus whilst removing it.

So to cut a long story short, we spent the next month living in Starship. It was the singularly most stressful experience I have ever had.  Because I was stressed, I couldn’t pump my breast milk so my son was going to have to have formula. I told the dietician that he couldn’t have dairy because it made him vomit. She told me that as I hadn’t had him tested he would be fine. I disagreed and she told me that I didn’t know what I was talking about. I kept quiet, even though my gut told me different.   Guess what – they gave him dairy formula and he vomited continuously, he became dehydrated, he had to move to intensive care because he was aspirating and at risk of pneumonia. His colon swelled up and he was losing a dangerous amount of weight. I lost the plot again. I refused to let them feed him the formula and bought a soy formula instead…the vomiting stopped (on his notes they wrote he must have had an infection). Then he was given lactulose as a laxative. I asked the doctor what was in it, ‘Sounds like dairy’. ‘No’, he said ‘It does not contain dairy’. My gut said it did, but I listened to the doctor. They gave it to him and he vomited again. He was so bad he need IV electrolytes. I Googled lactulose – guess what it contained – bloody dairy.  I lost the plot once again…I had by this time got myself a reputation for being ’difficult’.  I decided to take my son home and care for him there.  It was not easy to convince them to let me take him home but I think they were glad to see the back of me. Within 24 hours, of darkened rooms and proper sleep he started to put weight on and looked well.

I learnt a lot about listening to my intuition. I realised that nutrition was incredibly important and could be both poison and fuel…and that doctors didn’t really know about nutrition.

Don’t get me wrong – I am not medicine bashing. Without the doctors and nurses at Starship my son would have died – he certainly had a few moments where I held my breath but I learnt a lesson I have never forgotten – to always listen to my gut. It has never ever let me down.   Those in authority don’t always get it right, they don’t always know and your intuition is a powerful thing.  Don’t ever be scared to stand up for your intuition.

Whilst I loved naturopathy, it wasn’t enough. I saw clients improve their health and lose their weight only to put it back on. I realised that a lot of the goals were superficial because they didn’t address the elephant in the room – ‘mindset’.  So I studied Neuro-Linguistic- Programming, which is a fantastic tool for helping to change our thoughts, words and communication and life coaching.

Then I got sick  – I kept breaking out in abscesses and boils. No matter what I did (and to be fair I didn’t do much) they kept coming back and then more of them kept coming back and I started to get scared. I became a regular visitor to the emergency clinic to have them surgically removed but no-one could tell me why I was getting them. I did what everybody does and googled – I had a feeling I knew what it was but hoped that it wasn’t. I spent a fortune seeing a dermatologist who also couldn’t give me answers. I was beyond gutted that I couldn’t name what was going on and I felt like I was going mad.  Eventually after 3 years and several doctors later, the emergency doctor said the words that I needed to hear ‘Oh yes, I recognise this you’ve got Hidradenitis suppurativa.’

I cannot tell you the relief when you finally get diagnosed even though the doctor said ‘there is nothing you can do about it, it should go away after menopause’.   I cried my eyes out because I knew about Hydradenitis and it wasn’t nice!  Its basically an auto-infammatory condition when the body makes chemicals that cause an inflammation party in the body. The results are multiple abscesses and boils, intense pain and eventually  wounds that do not heal and stay open.  Do you feel the fear I did?

This is a condition that most medical professionals do not know much about and there is very little research on cause or cure.  I did some reading and tweaked my diet a little (removed dairy) and supplemented with zinc. This made a huge difference but not enough…I soon realised that stress was a major factor and was responsible for flare ups.

Then as if that wasn’t enough I developed reactive arthritis as a result of the inflammation. This was the kick up the butt I needed. I knew I had to change my diet and lifestyle. So I took the leap and resigned from a job that was probably the most stressful job I have ever had and decided to spend some time getting well and recreating a career that gave me joy.

I truly believe that women are the gatekeepers to health as they are the role models to those around them. When a woman feels crap, her whole family feels it. When a woman feels vibrant, bursting with energy and excited about her life then so does the rest of her family. She shows those around her that life is what we make it and we must not settle for feeling blah or even OK. Feeling amazing is our birth right.  I also believe that health and well-being encompass many things – what we eat, how we move, what we think – or relationships, our environment, our mindset, our values and beliefs all play a huge role.  When our belief stories are negative, they drag us down and stop us from being the person we were born to be. How can you change the world when you feel like crap?  Trust me I know!

My mission now is to empower women to have a healthier relationship with themselves and food, to reduce their symptoms (the bloating, flatulence, foggy head, fatigue etc.) and eat and live in a way that nourishes their gut, their mind and their body, cultivates habits that balances hormones and improves wellbeing and allows them to fully embrace their cycles and femininity.  This is so they can feel joy and vibrant, fully connected to their dreams and have the drive and energy to fulfill their goals and desires. A woman who has her health has a million dreams; a woman who does not have her health only has 1 dream. I am here to help her fulfill that 1 dream so she can then focus on making her million dreams come true.

If you want to have a chat about how I can help you achieve a dream then contact me at sarah@sarah-brenchley.com.