Gendi Roberts Set for Half Marathon Challenge After Life Changing Surgeries

Gendi Roberts has spent her life overcoming major obstacles, from spinal surgeries to brain surgery and relearning to walk and talk. 

This Saturday, to mark just how far she has come with her recovery, 27-year-old Gendi will run 21.1km at the New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty Queenstown Marathon.

“It'll be a huge achievement. It's probably the biggest physical goal I've had in the last seven years, and after not knowing if I'd ever be able to do something like this again, let alone running, I’ll be pretty proud if I get to the end,” said Gendi.

Gendi was eight years old when she was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS), a group of connective tissue disorders. EDS symptoms include flimsy and hyper-elastic skin, unstable and hyper extensible joints, as well as fragile tissue and blood vessels. 

As she got older, Gendi’s symptoms worsened, and she was told by doctors that she’d need life changing surgery. To complicate matters further, the surgery Gendi required was not possible in New Zealand and very expensive. 

So, in 2016, Gendi’s friends set up a Givealittle page to help raise the much-needed funds for the surgery and subsequent trip to the United States. After raising more than $25,000 on the crowdfunding platform, Gendi travelled to Baltimore in January 2017 to have life-saving surgery.

Initially expecting to undergo just spinal surgery, Gendi soon learned that she also needed brain surgery because of her condition. She ended up having both the spinal and brain surgery done at the same time. 

"It was such a shock," she said. "It ended up being pretty big. Recovery was awful, there was about a month where I was completely out of it and in so much pain."

Following the surgeries, Gendi had to relearn how to walk, talk, and even swallow, spending about three months abroad. She says the whole ordeal ended up being 10 times more life-threatening than doctors had originally thought.

Gendi was able to return to New Zealand, but the trauma didn’t end there. Two years on from her US-based surgeries, Gendi found herself undergoing a second spinal surgery in Christchurch – something she describes as “character building”.

“Because my injury level was so high, C1 at my brain stem, I actually lost my swallowing after I had the surgery, and I had to relearn how to swallow and talk again in the days and weeks after that. Then because I had so much damage to my spinal cord, I lost most of my feeling, my reflexes were difficult, and so was movement. Relearning to walk, and all the coordination stuff after that took quite a lot of time. Then I went downhill again and had the second spinal surgery,” said Gendi.

“Still to this day I have some element of spinal cord damage from the original instability in my neck. I do have some proprioception issues, where my body is in space and doesn't always link up to my brain and I'm pretty uncoordinated. I still have issues with feelings in the back of my legs and don't really have feeling in parts of my arm. I also had a lot of bowel and bladder issues, stomach issues, all because of your spinal cord, brain stem, it's the start of everything. There’s always going to be ongoing issues, so I had to learn how to manage everything.

“It's only been in the last couple of years that I finally got back on top of everything again, and I've regained a lot of sensation and improved my coordination. It's taken years, though, to get to this point,” she said.

Whilst the surgeries have been major, and the recovery and ongoing complications arduous, Gendi says the results have been life changing – in a good way.

“It's been a long journey over the last few years. We were fundraising for my spinal surgeries to get to America and that was back in 2016, I was pretty unwell,” she said. “Then I had that spinal surgery and that completely changed my life for the better. It was everything I needed or more. 

“In the end, I had another surgery two years later because the bone fusion had failed, we had to redo everything as I was getting symptoms again. Then it's only been over the last two years where I’ve finally managed to get back to better than I ever have been. The surgeries were just completely life changing.” 

As a marker of her newfound health, Gendi decided she wanted to run a half marathon to prove to herself what her body is capable of despite everything it’s been through.

“The Queenstown half marathon was something I wanted to do because finally I've got to a point where I'm the healthiest I've been in a very long time,” said Gendi. “It's nice to have something competitive, I've never, ever run before in my life. I'm finally at that point where I thought I could actually get to the finish on the day. I guess it was more proving to myself that I can still do the hard things after the last few years and just allowing my body to hopefully do it.”

Having done little running prior to signing up for the La Roche Posay Half Marathon, part of the Queenstown Marathon, Gendi began training in May and has enjoyed every minute of it so far.

“I went travelling for a little bit and came back and just wanted a goal to work for the rest of the year. I actually signed up for the half marathon having never gone for a run, and then started from there. It's been really fun, but really hard,” she said.

“I think the best part about it is the social side, getting your friends and going out for those runs together. Then it's just been managing the body because as well as the ongoing spine issues, I have the genetic condition where I dislocate quite a lot – we've been holding everything in so far so touch wood it can last another week.”

This Saturday will be a celebration for Gendi, a celebration of the new lease on life her surgeries have given her and a celebration for all those who have supported her along the way.

“My whole story came from everyone fundraising to get me to America, it's been a huge team effort to even get to this point, so I'm very grateful to everyone who was involved in the story from the beginning,” said Gendi.

Gendi Roberts has spent her life overcoming major obstacles, from spinal surgeries to brain surgery and relearning to walk and talk.

This Saturday, to mark just how far she has come with her recovery, 27-year-old Gendi will run 21.1km at the New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty Queenstown Marathon.

“It'll be a huge achievement. It's probably the biggest physical goal I've had in the last seven years, and after not knowing if I'd ever be able to do something like this again, let alone running, I’ll be pretty proud if I get to the end,” said Gendi.

Gendi was eight years old when she was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS), a group of connective tissue disorders. EDS symptoms include flimsy and hyper-elastic skin, unstable and hyper extensible joints, as well as fragile tissue and blood vessels.

As she got older, Gendi’s symptoms worsened, and she was told by doctors that she’d need life changing surgery. To complicate matters further, the surgery Gendi required was not possible in New Zealand and very expensive.

So, in 2016, Gendi’s friends set up a Givealittle page to help raise the much-needed funds for the surgery and subsequent trip to the United States. After raising more than $25,000 on the crowdfunding platform, Gendi travelled to Baltimore in January 2017 to have life-saving surgery.

Initially expecting to undergo just spinal surgery, Gendi soon learned that she also needed brain surgery because of her condition. She ended up having both the spinal and brain surgery done at the same time.

"It was such a shock," she said. "It ended up being pretty big. Recovery was awful, there was about a month where I was completely out of it and in so much pain."

Following the surgeries, Gendi had to relearn how to walk, talk, and even swallow, spending about three months abroad. She says the whole ordeal ended up being 10 times more life-threatening than doctors had originally thought.

Gendi was able to return to New Zealand, but the trauma didn’t end there. Two years on from her US-based surgeries, Gendi found herself undergoing a second spinal surgery in Christchurch – something she describes as “character building”.

“Because my injury level was so high, C1 at my brain stem, I actually lost my swallowing after I had the surgery, and I had to relearn how to swallow and talk again in the days and weeks after that. Then because I had so much damage to my spinal cord, I lost most of my feeling, my reflexes were difficult, and so was movement. Relearning to walk, and all the coordination stuff after that took quite a lot of time. Then I went downhill again and had the second spinal surgery,” said Gendi.

“Still to this day I have some element of spinal cord damage from the original instability in my neck. I do have some proprioception issues, where my body is in space and doesn't always link up to my brain and I'm pretty uncoordinated. I still have issues with feelings in the back of my legs and don't really have feeling in parts of my arm. I also had a lot of bowel and bladder issues, stomach issues, all because of your spinal cord, brain stem, it's the start of everything. There’s always going to be ongoing issues, so I had to learn how to manage everything.

“It's only been in the last couple of years that I finally got back on top of everything again, and I've regained a lot of sensation and improved my coordination. It's taken years, though, to get to this point,” she said.

Whilst the surgeries have been major, and the recovery and ongoing complications arduous, Gendi says the results have been life changing – in a good way.

“It's been a long journey over the last few years. We were fundraising for my spinal surgeries to get to America and that was back in 2016, I was pretty unwell,” she said. “Then I had that spinal surgery and that completely changed my life for the better. It was everything I needed or more.

“In the end, I had another surgery two years later because the bone fusion had failed, we had to redo everything as I was getting symptoms again. Then it's only been over the last two years where I’ve finally managed to get back to better than I ever have been. The surgeries were just completely life changing.”

As a marker of her newfound health, Gendi decided she wanted to run a half marathon to prove to herself what her body is capable of despite everything it’s been through.

“The Queenstown half marathon was something I wanted to do because finally I've got to a point where I'm the healthiest I've been in a very long time,” said Gendi. “It's nice to have something competitive, I've never, ever run before in my life. I'm finally at that point where I thought I could actually get to the finish on the day. I guess it was more proving to myself that I can still do the hard things after the last few years and just allowing my body to hopefully do it.”

Having done little running prior to signing up for the La Roche Posay Half Marathon, part of the Queenstown Marathon, Gendi began training in May and has enjoyed every minute of it so far.

“I went travelling for a little bit and came back and just wanted a goal to work for the rest of the year. I actually signed up for the half marathon having never gone for a run, and then started from there. It's been really fun, but really hard,” she said.

“I think the best part about it is the social side, getting your friends and going out for those runs together. Then it's just been managing the body because as well as the ongoing spine issues, I have the genetic condition where I dislocate quite a lot – we've been holding everything in so far so touch wood it can last another week.”

This Saturday will be a celebration for Gendi, a celebration of the new lease on life her surgeries have given her and a celebration for all those who have supported her along the way.

“My whole story came from everyone fundraising to get me to America, it's been a huge team effort to even get to this point, so I'm very grateful to everyone who was involved in the story from the beginning,” said Gendi.