‘I was a professional dancer and personal trainer, but after health problems I can barely leave the house at 28’

A dancer who would pretend her shoulder dislocating was part of a routine and had to give up her “dream” career because her joint condition made her feel like “the Tin Man”, before a further diagnosis which usually affects those “aged 65 and over” forced her to quit her job as a personal trainer, is launching a podcast to help others with disabilities.

Meg Hall-Trainor, 28, started dancing at the age of four and performed around the world on cruise ships, at holiday parks, and even at Lapland as “Twinkle the Elf”.

The Bexley, south-east London, resident said dancing “shaped” her life and identity growing up, but when she was diagnosed in 2016 at the age of 21 with joint hypermobility syndrome – which causes pain and means her joints have an unusually large range of movement – Meg was told she would be severely disabled if she continued dancing.

“It is literally like I’m the Tin Man,” Meg told PA Real Life, comparing herself to the stiff, rust-prone Wizard Of Oz character.

“My joints will seize up, especially if it’s cold, and they’ll pop out of place… it’s almost as if they need oiling.”

Meg continued to dance for three years but in 2019 decided to become a personal trainer because weightlifting had helped alleviate her pain and strengthen her joints.

However, in April this year, Meg started to experience “excruciating pain” in her back and was struggling to walk, with health professionals believing she might be experiencing paralysis.

This led to a week-long stay at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in London, and a diagnosis of multifidus fat infiltration, which has caused muscle in her back to degenerate.

Meg is now unable to walk without crutches and says people stare and give her “dirty looks” in public. She can no longer cook or leave the house unassisted, and says sleep is difficult due to her pain levels.

Now she wants to shed light on her health conditions and is in the process of launching a podcast, Stop Moaning, to help others with disabilities feel less alone.

Ultimately, she would love to have her own documentary series to interview people with disabilities and discuss mental health challenges.

“I can’t live like this… and the scary thing is, what job can I realistically do?” Meg said.

“My life has just completely changed: I was literally a fully booked personal trainer at the beginning of March and now I can barely leave the house.

“I’ve set up a studio to launch my podcast as I want to speak to as many people as possible and raise awareness (of my conditions), as I’ve never seen someone younger with a crutch.”

Since she was child, Meg wanted a dancing career and her ultimate goal was to work on cruise ships.

The trained actor and performer has worked at holiday parks in Yorkshire and Essex, dancing up to 10 hours a day; on Carnival cruises, travelling around the US and the Caribbean; and at Lapland in Finland where she played an elf called “Twinkle” and mushed huskies.

However, while working at Cayton Bay Holiday Park, near Scarborough in 2016, Meg started experiencing intense pain and was diagnosed with joint hypermobility syndrome.

“Doctors said, ‘If you don’t give up dancing, you will end up severely disabled’, but I didn’t really understand the condition,” Meg said.

“I was in denial (about my diagnosis), and I think that was evident, so I just carried on dancing.

“My shoulder would dislocate in shows, but I’d just make it part of a dance move and put it back.”

By 2019, Meg knew she could no longer continue dancing and decided to qualify as a personal trainer because she had been weightlifting for several years.

She later secured a job at Nuffield Health Fitness and Wellbeing Gym in Covent Garden, which she described as “absolutely fantastic”.

By March this year, she was fully-booked, weight training five to six times a week, and had even completed a 15k Tough Mudder race – but a “twinge in her back” in April changed everything.

Meg went from leg pressing 200kg at the gym to not being able to walk within a matter of days and she ended up spending a week at Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

“The pain was getting worse and worse and worse. I ended up in a wheelchair, I was screaming in pain, and I couldn’t go to the toilet,” Meg revealed.

“I was on morphine, co-codamol – literally nothing was touching the sides for this pain at all. I’ve never felt anything like it.

“I’ve had my appendix out and that was literally nothing (compared to this).”

After being referred for private treatment, Meg was diagnosed with multifidus fat infiltration and told: “People who usually have the condition are aged 65 or over.”

Despite undergoing two procedures, having physiotherapy and acupuncture and wearing multiple morphine patches, nothing has provided relief.

Since she will have the condition for life, Meg made the difficult decision to stop personal training, which she said was “gutting”.

“At that time, I knew personal training was going to be my life, and having to re-evaluate everything, my mental health just crashed,” she said.

“I can’t even pick up anything off the floor, I can’t do washing, I can’t cook, I can’t walk unassisted, I have no freedom, none.

“I cannot leave the house unless somebody’s with me, I can’t make plans because I just don’t know how my pain is going to be, and I’m not sleeping at night because of the pain.”

Meg, who now uses walking aids from a company called Cool Crutches and Walking Sticks, hopes she will soon have a remote-controlled implanted device that sends nerve signals up and down her spine to help ease the pain.

In the meantime, Meg is preparing to launch her own podcast in the new year called Stop Moaning to “bring awareness to disabilities”.

Through the podcast, she intends to share her extraordinary journey and eventually feature guest speakers, with the ultimate goal of helping as many people as possible.

“(My message is), be proud of yourself and the journey you’ve been on – whether that’s mentally or physically,” Meg said.

“Focus on today, focus on this morning, focus on this minute. Each feeling does pass and it’s not forever.

“Even though your condition might be forever, the feelings aren’t.

“You will have days where you probably don’t even want to exist, or you feel like you’re just existing, and that’s OK. Don’t put so much pressure on yourself to do everything.”

To find out more about Meg and her podcast, visit her Instagram pages here instagram.com/meghalltrainor or here instagram.com/stopmoaningpod.

For more information about Cool Crutches, visit: coolcrutches.com.