Six-time Olympic medallist Dame Laura Kenny has revealed how cycling helped her with the trauma of a miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy.
Dame Laura said that it took her six months to be able to properly open up about what had happened to her.
Now, the legendary cyclist is using her own experiences to work as one of the UK’s top female motivational speakers in a role that allows her to support and inspire others.
In an interview with Champions Speakers, shared exclusively with GBNews.com she said: “For me, sport was my saviour. It was the only thing that made me feel normal.
Dame Laura Kenny turned to her passion to help her with her trauma
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“Lots of people say to me, ‘Oh, you're one of the toughest people I know.’ And I'm always like, 'am I though?' I just ride a bike in a circle, it's not that difficult.
“But then, you get hit with a set of circumstances that you don't necessarily want to be dealt with. And I'd actually say, I like talking, and I would say that that's always been my biggest tool throughout my whole career.
"Any issue that I've had, I've been able to speak to someone about it."
Reflecting on suffering an ectopic pregnancy, which happened in 2022, she said: “It was a scary circumstance to be thrown in. You go into hospital thinking you've got COVID, and then literally, within three hours, I'm on an operating table because they were telling me it could kill me.
“It was just a traumatic time. Jason, my husband, is also an Olympic cyclist, so he sees me at my best and at my worst. We don't really say, ‘I think you're depressed’, because they're not words that have ever been in our vocabulary until that moment.
“I became this shell of a person who, when I looked in a mirror, it wasn't me, it wasn't the person that I always am, this bubbly personality that everyone sees. Except I was on the outside.
“I got back on the bike because it was my normality. It was the only thing that was giving me the headspace to think.
“Because when I was at home, just the desire to have another baby was consuming me. And so every minute I was in the house, that's all I could think about.
“When eventually I was able to speak about it, I came to terms with it, mainly through my mum and dad and Jason's family and being able to talk to Jason.
“I think once I started opening up, all of a sudden my tool was my voice again. That's how I dealt with what I would call my biggest mental health issue that I've had throughout my whole career.”
Dame Laura Kenny opened up how husband Sir Jason Kenny and his family helped
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Explaining why she’s happy to open up about such a personal issue she said: “My main drive for coming out and speaking about [the miscarriage] in the first place was it's such a lonely experience when you go through it.
"And I didn't realise how many people it actually happened to until I'd actually started opening up.
“So my mum, for example, had actually had a miscarriage, but hadn't told me until I told her about us.
“You’re sitting there in hospital or wherever it happens to you, and you're Googling and you're Googling and you're searching for answers, and you're searching for anyone else that is in your same position, because ultimately, you want your happy ending. You want the happy story.
Dame Laura Kenny won six Olympic medals for Great Britain
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“And so I did feel a sense of responsibility. I'm very lucky that I have a platform. And I always think that social media is such it's fake, isn't it? It's just happy, happy, happy and that's not reality. That is not people's reality.
“I like to think that I am really honest on my social media, and I've shared everything from the get go.
“So it seemed natural for me to actually come out and open up about it. The response that I had was absolutely mind blowing and it had actually happened to so many people.
“That was the whole reason, really, because it started a conversation.
“It was to help anyone else to stop the loneliness that I'd obviously felt. If I could have just helped one person that would have been enough for me, but it was just about helping as many people as I could.”
Explaining how she is finding life after retirement she continued: “I sort of expected to get the 60 year old life where I'll be sat on the sofa in slippers, but that is far from my reality at the minute. But honestly, I'm loving every minute of it.
“I’m spreading my time now, like between having time with the boys at home and doing events like this, but it's been brilliant. I'm loving every minute of it.”
