Photography: Spiros Politis. Makeup: Sadaf Ahmad
my spleen in 2009 changed my life in so many different ways, all for the positive. I’m happy I got ill, because it forced me to push myself. For a few months after coming out of hospital I was worried about taking my top off because of what people might say. But once I came to terms with the fact that I’ve got a scar, I realised it’s a cool thing. It’s a symbol of where I came from and how hard I’ve had to work to overcome so many setbacks. It’s like a tattoo that tells a story. “That experience changed the way I feel about my body in a number of ways. I had to change my whole lifestyle because I lost my spleen, which is the organ that gives you your immune system. For a while I had to take all these drugs that made me feel so awful I wasn’t able to train. Against everybody’s will, I weaned myself off them. For a year and a half, I’d get ill every month but eventually I believe my body adapted. “Now I feel like I’m stronger than I would have been because I’m stronger of mind. It changed my perspective on being an athlete and a person. It’s not the journey I would have chosen before, but now I would never change it.”
“T
he scar down my abdomen defines who I am as a person. What I went through after rupturing
Diver, 23
Chris Mears