Full video

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[Applause]

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doing gymnastics with a chronic illness

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can be really difficult

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my body causes me to have

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life-threatening allergic reactions to

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seemingly nothing so sweating or crying

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can be a trigger

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i've nearly died from laughing too much

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with my friends

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but i love being able to fly through the

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air and flip and twist and spin

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it's just something that feels really

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free to me

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[Music]

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[Applause]

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[Music]

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my name is natasha coates and i'm an

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elite disability gymnast

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i was number one in the uk for four

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years running

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i have won 22 british titles and

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38 british medals

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[Music]

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i started gymnastics when i was eight

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years old at my local recreational club

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and i've been doing gymnastics ever

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since

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my condition didn't become severe until

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i was 18.

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one day i went into final flight to

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shock it was completely out of the blue

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nobody knew what

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caused it mass activation syndrome is a

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rare condition that affects your immune

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system

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so when you get stung by a nettle you

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get a raised itchy bump

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that's from histamine which is released

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from the mast cell

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my body does that when there's no

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trigger

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i can be sat in my room doing nothing

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nothing's changed and those cells just

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switch and release all those chemicals

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which send me into anaphylactic shock

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so just as somebody who had a nut

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allergy if they ate peanuts their throat

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would swell their tongue would swell

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they struggle to breathe because your

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airway's shutting and you feel like

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you're gonna suffocate to death and

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that is a real possibility with this

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condition there are some

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that are caused by triggers so i know

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things such as getting too hot or too

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cold can cause a reaction

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certain foods can be an issue strong

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smells

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strong emotions can be a trigger i'm

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literally allergic to everything

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corniche seemingly fitting

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training when i became unwell

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i still wanted to carry on i just wanted

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to adapt to it

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there can be a lot of contradicting

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points between having mass activation

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syndrome and

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gymnastics my diet is quite restricted

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i'm quite malnourished with iron and

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things like that

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sometimes the exercises can be really

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really hard but

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i enjoy building up my strength and

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seeing an improvement in myself

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unfortunately it takes me quite a lot

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longer than everybody else that's

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able-bodied

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but that almost makes the victory that

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little bit sweeter

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sometimes i do push myself too far and i

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regret it and i end up paying for it

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i have lost count of how many times i've

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been in hospitals

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it's way over 500 times it works out on

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average every two weeks

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it's got to the stage where most of the

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staff know me by my first name and only

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them by their first name

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thanks to social media i've been able to

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get in contact with people that have the

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same condition

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as me most of them are in america and we

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have this lovely little group

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of about four or five of us i'm the only

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one from england and we

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are constantly joking about my accent

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between us and they really are like my

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sisters

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unfortunately a couple of years ago one

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of the girls taylor passed away

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she'd been quite unwell

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[Music]

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it was really hard um

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not just to lose my best friend but

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the reality of the condition that i'm

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living with

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because as much as you can try and make

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it as light-hearted as possible it is

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life-threatening and

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the chances are it will kill me one day

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seeing the pain that i went through when

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she passed and knowing that one day

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all the people that i love and care

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about are going to feel that same pain

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really hard thing to carry and sometimes

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i want to cut myself up from the world

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so when it does happen

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it doesn't hurt them but i need them i

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need my friends and

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they need me i've had many conversations

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with them about it because we're very

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open

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they're just happy that i'm happy with

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what i'm doing and i'm really blessed to

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have them

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[Applause]

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it's not the medals that count for me

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it's the experience

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i love to go out and perform and show

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people that just because you're ill

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doesn't mean your life has to stop

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[Music]

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hey everybody my name is drew bibi and

4:40

i'm here in my terrible

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home studio that i've made during

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quarantine

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