Dundee mum turned to powerlifting after escaping abusive partner
Izzy Tait has nerve damage in her brain after a blow left doctors fearing she may never walk again
Last updated 5th Jul 2021
A Dundee mum who suffered a brain injury after being struck by her former partner is telling us how powerlifting 'saved her life.'
Izzy Tait has nerve damage in her brain, doctors feared she may never walk again
It would leave her having frequent blackouts and she we would wake up without feeling down her right side.
But her recovery was aided soon after she first walked in to a gym three years ago.
"The more I trained, the stronger I got and the less and less frequent they blackouts occurred. I'm now at the point where I don't have any affects from that side of it anymore," she said.
"I had really bad anxiety and was suffering from depression, leaving the house was a struggle for me at that point.
"I had quite an abusive relationship for a number of years, went through some horrible times. It took all this to happen for me to wake up and realise it had to finish.
"When I first went to the gym it was to gain functionality back, down my right side. I'm now so much more mentally able to deal with situations, things that are going on in life.
"I can cope with things a lot better, before it was a mess. I couldn't deal with anything so I didn't deal with it, I used to let it mount up until it got to the point it was unbearable."
The 40-year-old will enter her first professional strongest woman contest this weekend and has also been asked to represent Scotland in a UK-wide competition next month.
She spends around 3 hours in a gym, four times a week and can deadlift 250kg as well as lift 130kg stones.
Izzy wants to show other women they don't have to follow social norms.
"Men are praised for getting bigger, women get bigger and they are shunned upon. If we love doing it, why not?," she added.
"So many people look at you and think 'oh you look physically bigger' because you were three stone smaller and ask if that's okay.
"Of course it's okay, what you look like doesn't define who you are as a person."