Local woman challenges life-threatening medical condition
Local woman, Samantha Mollica is challenging her rare and life threatening condition in the Run Melbourne event on July 30th.
In 2013, Ms Mollica was diagnosed with exercise-induced anaphylaxis, which causes her to suffer an attack from physical exercise or anything which may elevate her heart rate.
The 28 year old woman from Rowville suffered her first attack on December 31st 2013.
“I remember feeling extremely hot and my face was bright red radiating heat. My pulse was beating super-fast” Ms Mollica said.
The ambulance team that responded to Mollica took over an hour to stabilise her due to her low heart beat and an inability to register her blood pressure.
In 13 months, Ms Monica suffered from 5 attacks, with the majority of the attacks occurring directly after exercise.
“I use to run every day, but after my last attack my allergist had directed me to stop as that appeared to be my main trigger” said Ms Mollica. “Exercise was such a big part of my life and I felt that [my] freedom to exercise like everyone else was taken away from me.”
Ms Mollica is set to complete the Run Melbourne event on July 30th. In order to give back to Monash Health Allergy, she has been collecting donations from supporters in hopes to raise $3,000 for the department.
“I wanted to give back to the department that has given me a chance to try and live a normal life again” said Ms Mollica.
With the constant mental hurdle of waking up each day and thinking about the possibility of an attack occurring, Ms Mollica said “I wanted to [complete Run Melbourne to] prove that I can do it and that my condition doesn’t define who I am.”
Ms Mollica began seeing Rise Health Group’s Exercise Physiologist Matt Pollard after her last attack two and a half years ago.
“Matt challenges me both physically and mentally [by] pushing me to keep achieving goals that at times, I don’t feel are possible” She said.
If you would like to support Ms Mollica and her funding for Monash Allergy Health, you can visit her donation page here.
