Hyderabad: Farzana Begum's tale is filled with grit & perseverance, and if one has to describe her journey of fading into obscurity to hogging the spotlight by helping as many women to become physically and mentally fit as "Survival of the fittest".
Farzana, who hails from port city Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, has made fitness available to many women. She provides free training to women who can't afford it. She gives many tips on lifestyle to women through a WhatsApp group and conducts global workshops based on 'Woman and Wellness'.
After knowing that women suffer from low bone density, low muscle mass, and other severe health issues, there was no looking back for Farzana since she started strength training in 2017. Achieving several feats with the help of her perseverance, she became an inspiration to many women. She became a US certified functional trainer from Total fit, a certified personal trainer and a nutritionist from GMSA, a Kinesiology Therapist from Movfit, a certified coach for runners from Fit India Trust, according to a report.
Her life was on a high untill the mother of two girls was diagnosed with life-threatening cancer in 2017.
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After being diagnosed with cancer, she battled the deadly disease hard as doctors performed surgery on a tumour on her spine. But, post-surgery doctors informed her that the tumour was big and had moved to the chest and another surgery has to be done after the recovery of her spine. And after her second surgery, the gritty 40-year-old has started training women in Visakhapatnam. But again, she had a big hurdle to cross as in 2019, her rib was eroded due to the growing disease inside her body, she had to undergo another major surgery.
It was after her second surgery, she was diagnosed with High-grade Lymphoma (Blood cancer). Despite, facing brickbats in life, she moved ahead and only looked to inspire more women & make them fit. Gradually, Farzana has added strength-to-strength by enduring the overwhelming hurdles in life.
In the process of battling cancer, her hair withered, her eyebrows shelved, she looked pale and became extremely weak but all these couldn't shake her confidence and desire to live. She defied all the odds on her way to fight blood cancer to live a life that she wanted to.
One would wonder, what could be her source of inspiration. It's her mother, who died because of not being health conscious. "My mother couldn't take proper care of her health & died at 50. After that, I took up this profession. I want women to focus on fitness," Farzana said according to a news agency.