Woman runs 500k to raise awareness for Endometriosis

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Some days Amber Bryant can barely get out of bed, crippled with pain due to her Endometriosis. But, determined to raise awareness about the disease which affects one in seven women, the 28-year-old from Adelaide decided to run 500 kilometres back to her hometown in the outback New South Wales.

Transcript

00:00Hobbling to the finish and gritting through the pain, Amber Bryant is embraced by friends

00:10and family in Broken Hill after a gruelling 500km run from Adelaide.

00:14I've got shin splints both sides, lots of burns from tapes and tough skin sprays, definitely

00:21never been this sore.

00:23Temperatures in the 30s tested the runner to her limits.

00:26So the weather was 10 degrees hotter than what it was meant to be, so that left us with

00:30only a 7 hour window to run in and all of those hours were in the dark.

00:35She was hospitalised with dehydration and had some near misses with trucks, forcing her to

00:40swap the road for a treadmill, but she was determined to clock up 500km, a feat she did

00:46in 9 days.

00:47Her body, even though it's a bit worse for wear, her getting through is obviously a testament

00:51to her hard work and mine.

00:53The pain worth the outcome, raising awareness for endometriosis, a debilitating condition

00:59she was diagnosed with in 2023.

01:01They just told me that it was just being a part of being female and so I dreaded going

01:08to the doctors because I thought they felt like I was making it up.

01:12While one in seven women like Amber have endometriosis, it can still be very difficult to diagnose accurately

01:17without surgery, something staff at the University of Adelaide are hoping to change.

01:22Because at the moment the scans are generally only available in quite specialised practices,

01:27which does limit the access to people.

01:29Establishing an ultrasound training program to help clinicians better identify the disease,

01:34which can cause crippling pain and infertility.

01:36And we're hoping with earlier diagnostics we might be able to not just alleviate some of

01:41the symptoms but also help prevent some of these effects that go on further.

01:47Increasing awareness one step at a time.

01:49M

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