Jennifer Tape-Samson has to deal numerous barriers every day, but she's not letting any of them stop her.
The Chatham mom and hospice nurse lives with chronic pain and fatigue due to fibromyalgia and also suffers from severe anxiety and depression.
Despite all of those challenges, Tape-Samson has qualified to compete in an international competition -- the Obstacle Course Racing (OCR) World Championships in London, England on October 20, 2018.
It's just the latest step in her transformational journey over the past few years, which includes losing 105 lbs by exercising and eating healthy.
"I started doing five kilometre runs that were kind of obstacle courses, and I found out that I was really good at them, so I just kept going to them," said Tape-Samson, adding a top-five finish at a recent Mud Hero event in the Toronto-area still came as quite a surprise. "I just kept doing my own pace, my own thing, and the next day I looked at the stats and it said I came in second place for women in my age group and I just about had a heart attack."
After finding out how she finished in the Mud Hero race, Tape-Samson looked into the world championships in England -- that's also when she found out she qualified for the international competition.
"I just thought, here I am some small-town girl, I have a lot of barriers and I'm just a regular mom and I can go and represent Canada and people with chronic illnesses -- it's just an amazing thing," said Tape-Samson. "I call myself a fibro-warrior, you just work through it... people will say 'I can't run,' but I always tell them, 'Anyone can run, you just have to learn to run the way that you can.'"
The latest challenge Tape-Samson is facing, is covering the costs of her trip and her entry into the competition.
To do that, Tape-Samson has set up a GoFundMe page with a goal of $3,000 to cover things like her flight, her accommodations, and her tickets for the event.
You can find more about her journey by clicking here.
