Riona Kelly has come a long way in the past 3 years.
In 2015 a spinal stroke left her paralysed from the waist down, and doctors told her she was unlikely to ever walk again.
Now, she is walking again, and in a happy relationship with ex-Rugby League player Keith Mason -the personal trainer who helped her learn to walk again - she is the co-owner of a film production company and a successful charity that helps thousands of people with mental and physical disabilities.
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After she suffered the stroke, she was understandably left very low in hospital, but she resolved to turn her situation around and make a success out of her situation.
She established her charity 'Go Pink' and has never looked back.
She told LADbible: "Go Pink was set up nearly two years ago. I came out of hospital and there was nothing for me. I had a few physios that got me to a certain level and I didn't get any further.
"If you wanted a specialist spinal physio they charge about £140 per hour. There was no gym that I could go to that had specialist equipment I could train with"
"No personal trainers wanted to work with me, but somebody recommended that Keith did a little bit in his spare time.
"That's how I ended up training with Keith."
The two struck up a relationship and together they run the charity, as well as their film production company KM Productions. They also act as ambassadors for other charities including Para-dance, and Wakefield Trinity Physical Disabilities Rugby League.
Since finishing his Rugby career, Keith has acted in Peaky Blinders, has starred alongside Mickey Rourke in Skin Traffik, and is currently writing his first script - Rugby Blood.
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He's recently landed his first lead role in Harry Masters, filming in Norway this year.
These are big steps, but arguably the biggest ones were taken by Riona recently on the stair master.
She has recently re-mastered climbing stairs, defying the doctor's predictions.
She gives Keith a lot of the credit for her success - not only as a personal trainer.
She continued: "What's nice is that I've come from lying in my hospital bed, finding out I was paralysed, not really knowing what I was going to do with my life and how I was going to turn this around, then turning it around and making it work, meeting an amazing guy.
"I thought I was never going to walk again. But I learnt how to walk again.
"Most people think "how did you bag a hunky rugby league player?" - for me that's quite shallow.
"Society would say because I'm disabled a 'normal person' wouldn't like me, but he has shown the total opposite. He doesn't even see my disability.
"As far as he's concerned he fell in love with the woman in the chair. He just sees a fighter."
She is by no means fully recovered, and will suffer for the rest of her life with her disability, but her relentless positivity has seen her make strides that most would have thought impossible.
"It's only my legs that don't work - everything else works!
"Yeah, I've got problems with that - nerve problems, other medical problems, but so what.
"He's shown me that I can go on to do whatever I want to do. You want to model - you can do it, you want to set up your own company - you can do it, you want to be a motivation speaker - you can do it.
"Everything I've said I want to do, I'm doing it."
Through their charity work they help people with physical and mental health problems through fitness and wellbeing. Keith also gives seminars and motivational talks to try to improve men's mental health.
After working hard to attain a second chance at life from a pretty bleak position, Riona says she is now committed to helping others start on a journey like hers.
She said: "My life is now incorporating as much positivity into people as I can. Showing them that you don't need to give up - it doesn't matter what you go though, you can still have a really happy and good life.
"If I can get around as many places telling people and showing people that then hopefully it helps change people's mindset."
"From where I was - in a bed - to where I am now, it's amazing"
Featured Image Credit: Riona Kelly/Go PinkTopics: News, Charity, Fitness, UK, woman