Strictly star secretly suffering with condition for years before ‘wake up call’

Strictly Come Dancing star and Olympian Montell Douglas has revealed she secretly battled a health condition for years before a wake up call which saw her hospitalised.

The Gladiators star, better known to fans as Fire, has been dealing with agonising pain from dysmenorrhoea for years and for the majority of her sporting career.

Her entry into sport came from her passion as a child, having spent her younger days out climbing trees and on a skateboard. ‘We were just outside all the time and physical activity was a place for me to express myself,’ Montell told Metro.

‘I just loved being active and was a really, really active child, and my parents gave me the freedom to be able to do every niche sport that I wanted to do.’

While she didn’t think she’d necessarily become an athlete let alone an Olympian, and even had her sights set on being an air hostess and getting to travel the world, Montell threw herself into sports, playing in an all-male football team as a teenager before transforming into Team GB sprinter and bobsleigh athlete.

But throughout her life and career, the 39-year-old has been dealing with severe pain from dysmenorrhoea (severe period pains) that she initially kept hidden, not realising how critical it was until an incident three years ago.

‘I cannot remember not suffering,’ Montell, who was speaking to Metro on behalf of Holland & Barrett, began.

After getting her period for the first time as a teenager, and calling herself a ‘late developer’, Montell struggled with immense pain.

‘When mine came, I hid it for a long time because I didn’t really know what was going on and I remember being in diabolical pain from the beginning.

‘Obviously people say that you’re going to be uncomfortable, but what I did notice was that I was severely in more pain than other people.’

As an athlete, she had the mindset of carrying on through the pain, so took it as part of her normal life.

But it quickly became debilitating, and Montell was forced to stay home from school because she’d be doubled over in pain.

‘It really bothered me because I felt like I was failing at life,’ she said. ‘I was always in a lot of agony.’

The pain also caused challenges with playing sports, but despite the difficulties, it wasn’t until she was until later in her life that she thought of her pain as a serious problem.

‘People had been palming me off for a long time, but I have had medical attention [since].

‘I had an episode three years ago now where I was hospitalised. I was in my house alone, I was in severe pain, doubled over, and it wouldn’t go away.

‘It made me really dizzy and pass out, and intermittently while I was waking up again and conscious, just in agony, I was on the phone to the hospital to try and get me an ambulance to A&E.’

Montell was admitted into hospital and was also suffering from dehydration when the medical professionals remarked how much pain she must be in.

‘That was a wake-up call. It’s not normal, I shouldn’t really be hospitalised,’ she said.

There was another time she also recalled during training with a former coach where she was running up to 30m for a drill before walking back.

‘I was doing a drill and when I was walking back, I was in so much pain that I was lying on the floor in the foetal position between reps,’ she said.

Her coach told her to stop and sit down, but Montell revealed she felt like she had needed that permission to even stop.

‘I couldn’t train and mentally, emotionally, I was drained and the fatigue was unreal… it was almost impossible because you’re fighting that battle of your body saying you need to rest and you saying you need to work, they just don’t align.’

For a long time, Montell managed the pain of dysmenorrhoea through contraception, but was only recently diagnosed.

‘They were always saying, “You’ve got heavy, painful periods,” but they never gave it a term and we never spoke about anything – they never spoke about all the underlying issues that are going on in my body,’ she said.

She didn’t know why she was suffering from more pain than other people or why her periods would last longer than other female athletes or friends she was around.

‘I didn’t realise that mine were so severe,’ she admitted.

Now, Montell is able to manage pain through the implant, but knows this may not necessarily be a long-term solution.

‘Having that wasn’t really out of choice, it was like, “This is the best option and you have to do something”.’

One doctor explained it to Montell as being caught between a rock and a hard place and having to have the implant as a way of combatting the pain.

‘I had to pick my battle and that’s why it’s under wraps now and I can manage,’ she said.

‘That was the best alternative for me at the time with my training, lifestyle and for my well-being for me to function at the moment.

Nonetheless, she has to live with the constant fear that if she has her implant removed, she’ll go back to living in agony.

She said: ‘The main thing for me was the pain and being able to function in my daily life and for it to not impact life.

‘And at the moment, it doesn’t, because of those things but the moment that changes, it will have a big impact.’

She added: ‘It’s not even just about training, it’s about being able to get out of bed and feel like a normal human.’

As well as suffering from dysmenorrhoea throughout her life, Montell has faced several more setbacks and injuries over her career.

She suffered a herniated disc at the age of 14 and was even warned that she may never be able to walk again after one particular nasty accident from high jumping before she turned to sprinting.

She also ‘regularly’ tore her hamstrings, explaining: ‘One season I tore it three times on my left side, and the next season I tore it three times on the right side.

‘When you have sciatica nerve pain, you can misfire and you’re more prone to having injuries because of the way your body operates at the time.

‘Because I had severe sciatica, due to this bulging disc in my spine, it meant that although I was trying to run fast and perform at a high level, my firing wasn’t quite always there, and I would misfire and pull hamstrings.

‘I had about six tears in the space of two years which is just wild, they were chronic tears.’

After gaining her strength again, Montell was dealt another blow and suffered a career-threatening injury which left her needing knee surgery.

‘It was a very difficult surgery and I couldn’t walk for three months… I had to learn how to walk again because if you don’t use it, you lose it.’

Following two more surgeries, she transitioned into bobsleigh but for her first year, competed in opposite seasons for athletics during the summer months and bobsleigh in winter, leaving her with no chance to rest in between.

She then suffered another severe injury, revealing: ‘I pulled my hamstring off the bone and completely ruptured it, so that was the end of the season for athletics with only seven months until the winter Olympic Games, because they run back to back.’

‘That was a real tough time,’ she added, saying she had surgery to reattach it before ‘clawing’ her way back to making the team.

At one point during bobsleigh training, Montell went to a doctor in tears after suffering from pain in her neck.

He told her: ‘You look like you’ve broken your neck.’

Though Montell had never broken her neck knowingly, she’d had several bones in her neck injured over time with bone spurs growing back and reattaching leaving extra bone in places.

After being informed of the reason for her neck pain, she realised it must have come from her years as a high jumper.

‘Most of the time, the body is just trying to get back to where it was,’ she added.

Somehow, she’s still fighting in the arena as a Gladiator – but that hasn’t come without its own share of danger either.

‘I’ve ruptured all of the ligaments in my ankles, every single one has gone,’ she revealed.

‘The last one went in my first series of Gladiators on the first day of training.’

She added: ‘There’s nothing to blow up anymore, you’re not rupturing any ligaments, you’re damaging your joints, they’re aggravated but I’ve got no ligaments in there.

‘That’s the smallest part because I’ve had those big surgeries.’

Following research by Holland & Barrett, it’s been revealed that 65% of the nation suffer from joint, bone and muscle pain, with 40% of the 2000 Brits surveyed saying the pain can affect their work, 30% their mood and 26% their confidence.

17% of those surveyed started to notice joint aches and pains in their 20s, but 1 in 4 people have felt inspired by shows like Gladiators and Strictly to get moving.

Despite all the immense pain she’s experienced, Montell rose to the challenge of Strictly last year, where she was partnered with Johannes Radebe.

‘It was very challenging,’ she admitted. ‘It was very aerobic, completely not in my ballpark, and I’ve got a lot of muscle but it requires a lot of flexibility and muscle doesn’t help me be flexible.

‘There were so many things that we were up against, especially in the initial stages of the show, so knowing that it was going to be difficult… I was realistic about what it was going to take, but even so, I didn’t envision what it was going to look like.’

She continued: ‘The one thing I realised I had which I didn’t even think about was the mindset around work, around working hard and things being difficult and learning new things.

‘I’ve learned new things multiple times, so I know what it feels like when you’re learning a new thing and you’re not getting it and it’s frustrating and you’re in pain.’

‘It’s not easy to learn something new but it’s definitely not easy to be judged on it,’ she went on.

‘You want to do yourself justice and have that sense of achievement for yourself, so I really worked on centring myself and feeling like, “How do I want to feel about this, regardless of what happens?” and that was my North Star.’

H&B’s expertly trained team is supported by scientists and physiotherapists and are on hand instore and online to provide tailored advice and solutions, a FREE 15 minute consultation can also be booked with a Joints, Bones and Muscle expert: hollandandbarrett.com. 

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