Dubai: Nikki Bradley is taking on the world, one step at a time. And for the 29-year-old Irish woman, every step she takes in a painful reminder of her greatest challenge.
At 16, Bradley was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer — Ewing’s sarcoma — in her pelvis and hip. As a result, she’s had two hip replacements, both of which have failed. In a month’s time, the fitness addict will learn whether she will lose her entire right leg. Even with that hanging over her, Bradley is determined to make the most out of life.
How rare is her condition? She’s just one of ten people globally to have endured the double hip replacement and treatment for Ewing’s.
Visiting Dubai this week to spread her message that positive thought can overcome anything, she’s planning her next big adventure — scaling a glacier in Iceland in early March.
“I’d really love to be able to do the zip line across the lake at Dubai Mall,” she told Gulf News. Although she will spend the rest of her life on crutches. In January, she scaled Ireland’s snowiest mountain — and that was after she abseiled down the side of a cliff-top lighthouse.
“I set up an awareness campaign called ‘Fighting Fit For Ewing’s’ in 2013 after receiving news that I would remain on crutches permanently,” she said. “Instead of falling apart I decided to take my life back. Too many years had been wasted while I waited to get better. I was done waiting. That meeting with my consultant was what gave me the motivation that I needed. A couple of weeks later, Fighting Fit For Ewing’s was born.”
The campaign is centred around fitness and physical challenges. The purpose of participating in challenges is to highlight the importance of exercise for rehabilitation and she is living proof that it actually works.
Before she exercised regularly, she relied heavily on painkillers.
“I suffered from chronic pain and thought that medication was my only option. I hated it. I am a healthy person and always felt that I was damaging my organs with such strong medication,” she recounts. “Within a couple of months of vigorous exercise I was off all painkillers for the first time in ten years. I also learnt a huge amount about myself and my inner strength — something I was unaware I even had!”
