Our Woman of Steel becomes poster girl!
DROGHEDA woman Natalie Kelly (right) has become a poster girl for those facing a battle in their lives.
The AIB worker from Dyer Street has made the front cover of the Irish Runner magazine for October/November and inside she tells her own story of how she overcame a rare and life threatening infection as a baby that could have prevented her from being able to walk.
She went through a number of operations and had two spinal rods inserted in her back to ease the pain and also allow her to walk straight.
‘I remember the days of agony in intensive care when they turned my body every few hours. I was only 12 but I would send my parents down the corridor so they didn’t hear my screams,’ she stated.
After passing her exams, she got a job as a bank clerk - but at midday on her first day in the job she found herself looking down the barrel of a gun.
‘Everybody in the bank ran for cover but of course my stubborn gene kicked in and I stayed put and tried to face down the raiders.’
She survived that and 16 years later is part of the team at AIB in Drogheda.
When she got married, she went through IVF five times before the arrival of her children.
But her life took another twist in recent years when she came across the story of a young boy called John.
He needed a new wheelchair to get about and Natalie was taken with his plight as he reminded her of her own fight down the years.
She decided to run a marathon as fundraiser and joined up with Team Carrie in Dunleer and the rest was history. She achieved her goals and raised the money needed for John’s new chair.
During that marathon run, she passed Crumlin Hospital and felt that her journey has come full circle.
‘I wondered what onlookers would think if they knew this little five-foottwo woman running past had big steel rods in her spine and was once told she would never walk,’ she adds.
So far, a new wheelchair for John has been secured as well as funding for appointments with a specialist.
‘ This experience has changed me forever.’