Anoushé Husain

Paraclimber, Ambassador since December 2017

We were so excited when Anoushé Husain got in touch to suggest she became an ambassador for EDS UK. To say she’s an inspirational woman is an understatement! She was announced as the winner of the 2017 Helen Rollason Award for Inspiration as part of the Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year Awards. She also won an Asian Women of Achievement Award for Sport in May 2017.

Anoushé is a paraclimber and world record holder. She was born missing her right arm below the elbow. Despite this and also having come through cancer, she says EDS is the thing that most affects her life today and drove her to want to use her public profile to raise awareness of the conditions and EDS UK.

Talking about her decision, she said “Even though I knew I was hypermobile since birth, we hadn’t linked the other symptoms to possibly being EDS and only got my diagnosis last year. The community that is EDS UK, the help and information they provided meant I could find peer support and get my head around living with yet another chronic health condition. I am choosing to become an Ambassador for EDS UK in order to raise awareness of the syndromes, both via talking about my own journey with it online but also talking to grassroots communities. I simply want to see people being diagnosed quickly so that they have a better chance of learning to self-manage themselves and can maintain a good quality of life. If me talking about EDS can help someone realise they might need to get checked, then it’s worth it.”

in a new short film released in 2019, she talked about climbing being her physiotherapy for her EDS . The film, called If I Can, shows Anoushé as she ventures away from the indoor climbing wall and into outdoor climbing. Anoushé talks about how EDS affects her and how she finds release in climbing.

If you live in or near London and have EDS or any other invisible or visible long-term condition or disability and you’d like to try indoor climbing, check out Paraclimbing London, founded by Anoushé in 2018.

A huge thank-you to Anoushé for being an EDS UK ambassador!

Members can read Anoushé’s story in the Winter 2017 issue of Fragile Links and you can find out more about her many achievements at: https://Anoushéhusain.com/