KELLY’S SOBER PROMISE
NEARLY KILLED ME!
Kelly has suffered from alcohol addiction, but after three years of sobriety, the singer recently opened up about her life and what she wants moving forward. “2019 has been one hell of a year. In many ways it has been amazing especially in terms of self-growth. In many ways it has been gut-wrenchingly difficult,” Kelly, 35, shared on Instagram. “However, through all the good and bad it has been incredibly educational for me.
“I have come to the realisation that I constantly put the needs of others before my own. I allow myself to be put in situations that make me feel uncomfortable for fear of upsetting someone else. Not forgetting the amount of times I co-sign the bulls–t of others.
“It’s time to put myself first, stop taking on other people’s s--t and be the badass sober woman I was born to be.”
A SPIDER BITE TRIGGERED YEARS OF HELL FOR NAOMI
Atiny bite from a white-tailed spider hiding in an ugg boot changed Naomi Lambert’s life forever. The 38-year-old from Adelaide, South Australia, was putting on a pair of the fluffy slippers in 2008 when the venomous creature nipped her on the foot, triggering a year-long ordeal spent trapped inside her own body.
The seemingly innocuous bite turned into a bacterial infection, which eventually developed into a sinister, paralysing disease.
“It’s hard for me to remember that time in my life because it was an absolute nightmare,” Naomi tells New Idea.
“I hadn’t been very well, and my immune system was quite depleted anyway. The bite on my foot just wasn’t getting any better. I knew something wasn’t right when I went to get out of bed, and I was just ... so weak. I tried to lift up a bandaid, and it felt like I was lifting 100 kilos.”
The charity founder was also struggling to lift her head off
the pillow a few weeks after the bite when she was finally admitted to hospital.
Naomi was then taken into the ICU after her breathing became so shallow it stopped altogether. “I couldn’t do anything. I was on life support for weeks. And paralysed,” Naomi recalls.
“There were doctors coming in and talking over me and I could hear them, but I couldn’t even respond. I heard one doctor say to my mum and dad: ‘She may never walk again’.
“I was having panic attacks inside, but I just couldn’t communicate.
“There’s nothing you can do apart from lie there all day.”
After a few weeks of hell, doctors finally diagnosed Naomi with Guillain-barré
“I HEARD ONE DOCTOR SAY TO MY MUM AND DAD: ‘SHE MAY NEVER WALK AGAIN’”
syndrome, a very rare and complicated condition where the immune system attacks the nerves and is triggered by a bacterial or viral infection.
The white-tailed spider bite was far more than a painful nip on the ankle – it sparked a chronic disease and wreaked havoc on her body.
It took an entire year of careful rehab before Naomi could get back on her feet. She had to learn to walk again and struggled to perform even the most basic tasks.
“I was like a baby learning to walk again. It was so hard. I had muscle wastage as well,” she says.
“My feet felt so heavy. I had to learn how to get in and out of the car ... to brush my hair again and brush my teeth or even hold a pen.”
Living with the rare Guillain-barré syndrome means Naomi’s immune system could crumble at the slightest ailment. Her body cannot even withstand vaccinations, but daily dosages of steroids helped build the strength she needed to get back to her daily life.
“I think it’s just unlucky,” Naomi says with a sigh. “But looking back, I think, ‘Oh my God, how did I actually survive that?’ I’m still here.”
While Naomi’s health problems have plagued her for
more than a decade, she’s turned her own pain into something beautiful.
After learning she couldn’t have children and having a hysterectomy at age 33, Naomi started a charity named the ‘Cool to be Kind Project’.
Her project has seen thousands of ‘Kindness Cards’ being sent all over the world, inspiring people to be a little bit more caring and thoughtful.
“We show people that we all have the opportunity to build our best lives. To pay for someone else’s coffee, smile or simply take the time to ask how they are,” Naomi says on her charity’s website.
“Through kindness cards, the 52 weeks of kindness challenge, launching programs in workplaces, blogging and collaborating, we have officially gone global with kindness cards being found all over the world.”