Must Read - CrossFit: Purpose & Belonging in the face of life’s untold challenges, a Truly Inspi

CrossFit: Purpose & Belonging in the face of life’s untold challenges, a Truly Inspiring Story.

CrossFit creates better lives. We have all heard, and will continue to, stories of phenomenal will, commitment and happiness brought forward by a commitment to better health and fitness within the incredible CrossFit community.

But not all stories are so easy to tell.

Carey Hulme, of CrossFit YO4, has one of those stories.

YO4 opened late December 2017 and the first person to ever step through the door was Carey. Intrigued yet wary, Carey was looking for positivity. What she found, and her story within it, should be heard by all.

Carey, now 61 years old, was faced with many more challenges than the stereotypical less than ideal lifestyle and lack of fitness new gym member. In fact making it to the gym for the first time took every ounce of courage and strength available.

Carey’s story goes further back than the year she has spent at YO4. There have been numerous battles with mental health, including ADHD diagnosed in 2012 & Asperger’s disease diagnosed in 2017, that make the typical social setting an almost insurmountable task. Focus, social interaction and difficult internal dialogue were a day-to-day part of what Carey was dealing with. I’m sure many of you reading this can relate to the difficulty of these challenges and how they can make you feel in any given scenario.

However, this is not Carey’s only challenge.

Carey is also facing an even bigger physiological battle, with cancer, specifically Malignant Melanoma, the most aggressive form of skin cancer. This, understandably, is something that nobody ever wants to hear. Having gone through a terrible miss-diagnosis six and a half years ago, with the correct diagnosis and major treatment 15 months later. She was then told the cancer had spread and was ‘advanced’ – 3 courses of immunotherapy, 2 courses of radiotherapy, countless surgeries and operations (plus the side-effects) followed and Carey is still fighting to this day.

That fight would likely have ended this January had CrossFit not come into Carey’s life as the thought of going back to the hospital again was just becoming too much! During March of 2018, a struggle with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) began ‘I tried to get help but nobody came I knew I was only getting worse’ Carey said, ‘ I couldn’t go out or use the phone, I slept & ate very little, spending all of my time doing puzzles to try take my mind away. I was completely isolated. I had to try and figure out a way to make myself better and I knew if I could get to Michael at CrossFit YO4 I would be safe.”

The thing that Carey wants everyone to understand is that this isn’t a sob story. This is a legacy. One that can hopefully reach people all over the world, whether challenged with mental health issues, personal mortality or the simple challenges of everyday life and have the kind of impact her courage and effort deserve.

Carey has embodied everything we aim for at CrossFit YO4: ef