HAVING WON A Precious Award, honouring female entrepreneurs of colour, Janet Mohapi-Banks was riding high with her cake design business. She was a main supplier for weddings at The Ritz Hotel in Mayfair and was set to do her first event at The Savoy. However, behind closed doors and in between the champagne-flowing cake consultations, she was being held to ransom by her stomach as she had started vomiting every day with no apparent cause.
Unexpectedly throwing up in trains, restaurants and the homes of clients, it wasn’t long before Janet’s nauseous symptoms were forcing her to close down her acclaimed business. However, the sickness was fated to rage on as doctors struggled to fathom what was causing her daily vomiting.
Following various tests and having been referred to several specialists, Janet was eventually diagnosed with a condition so rare that it didn’t even have a name. She was informed by gastroenterologists that she was suffering from a digestive disorder similar to gastroparesis—a debilitating condition whereby the stomach falls into paralysis and is unable to empty itself, essentially starving the body of food. Most importantly, they found that no electrical signals were reaching the stomach from the brain.
“I ate foods depending on how they would taste on the way back up. Chocolate and bacon were great, cheese and bread not so much,” Janet jokes. As with so many rare disease sufferers who are left at the mercy of their condition, Janet was forced to adapt and find her own coping mechanisms, saying, “I would carry around nappy sacks everywhere I went just in case.”
This story is from the March 2020 edition of Reader's Digest UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the March 2020 edition of Reader's Digest UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
EVERY SECOND COUNTS: TIPS TO WIN THE RACE AGAINST TIME
Do you want to save 1.5 seconds every day of your life? According to the dishwasher expert at the consumer organisation Choice, there’s no need to insert the dishwashing tablet into the compartment inside the door.
May Fiction
An escaped slave's perspective renews Huckleberry Finn and the seconds tick down to nuclear Armageddon in Miriam Sallon’s top literary picks this month
Wine Not
In a time of warning studies about alcohol consumption, Paola Westbeek looks at non-alcoholic wines, how they taste and if they pair with food
Train Booking Hacks
With the cost of train travel seemingly always rising, Andy Webb gives some tips to save on ticket prices
JOURNEY TO SALTEN, NORWAY, UNDER THE MIDNIGHT SUN
Here, far from the crowds, in opal clarity, from May to September, the sun knows no rest. As soon as it’s about to set, it rises again
My Britain: Cheltenham
A YEAR IN CHELTENHAM sees a jazz festival, a science festival, a classical music festival and a literature festival. Few towns with 120,000 residents can boast such a huge cultural output!
GET A GREEN(ER) THUMB
Whether you love digging in the dirt, planting seeds and reaping the bounty that bursts forth, or find the whole idea of gardening intimidating, this spring offers the promise of a fresh start.
Under The GRANDFLUENCE Suzi Grant
After working in TV and radio as an author and nutritionist, Suzi Grant started a blog alternativeageing.net) and an Instagram account alternativeageing). She talks to Ian Chaddock about positive ageing”
Sam Quek: If I Ruled The World
Sam Quek MBE is an Olympic gold medalwinning hockey player, team captain on A Question of Sport and host of podcast series Amazing Starts Here
Stand Tall, Ladies
Shorter men may be having their moment, but where are the tall women?