Seven years ago Izzy Tait was in Dundee’s Ninewells Hospital feeling very weak after a rare brain condition left her suffering epileptic seizures and paralysis on one side of her body.
Initially it left her struggling to walk and suffering from depression, leaving her unable to leave the house for three months.
But today the 42-year-old Dundonian is proving to be tougher than ever as Izzy has just been crowned Scotland’s Strongest Woman!
The mum-of-four scooped the coveted title after winning the 2023 Ultimate Scotland Strongest Woman competition at Grangemouth Sports Stadium on July 2.
“It was amazing to win, but I worked really hard for it,” she said.
“It hasn’t been easy and it’s had its challenges along the way.
“But it has been worth it. I can’t believe I am now Scotland’s Strongest Woman!”
Being a young gran and strongest woman
But how does it feel to be a young gran-of-two and Scotland’s Strongest Woman?
“My mind management couch has been saying to me: ‘World’s Strongest Granny!’, which is funny.
“But to be honest it’s not something I have actually thought about.
“It is pretty cool though to be a young gran and Scotland’s Strongest Woman.”
From her stint in hospital, through her long recovery to now becoming a weight lifting champion, it hasn’t been an easy road for Izzy.
But she hopes her experience will show others what can be achieved.
“I hope my title win inspires others and shows that anything is possible if you put your mind to it.”
Here she tells us her story of her incredible journey to becoming Scotland’s Strongest Woman and why she decided to start competing – despite having ongoing difficulties with her health.
Izzy’s brain injury
Izzy ended up spending three weeks in Ninewells Hospital in Dundee in early 2016 after she sustained a brain injury in an incident while on a night out in August 2015.
She suffered a bleed on the brain at the time, but hadn’t realised the damage caused until a number of months later.
Izzy explained: “It wasn’t until January 2016 I started to have really bad headaches.
“I woke up one morning with a bad headache and had gone into the kitchen to get some painkillers and the next thing I knew I woke up and I was in hospital.
“I thought I had had a stroke because I had lost feeling on the right side of my body and my face on that side had drooped too.
“One of my kids had found me after I collapsed and called my mum. She then phoned an ambulance.
“I had headaches and blurred vision after the incident but I didn’t think it was anything serious. I have always had problems with migraines so I had put it down to that.”
Diagnosis of brain condition and epilepsy
After a series of tests and scans, she saw a neurologist and it was confirmed Izzy had brain separation syndrome.
“It is basically when your brain stops sending the proper signals to your body, causing one side of the body to mis-fire.
“I would have blackouts and temporary paralysis in my right-hand side, which would come and go.”
“They think this also resulted in me developing epilepsy.
“My seizures are still not under control.
“At the moment I am having around 10-15 seizures over a two-day period.
“But I got new medication six weeks ago so I am hoping this will make a difference once it kicks in.”
Izzy also struggled to walk initially and had to use a crutch to help her move around.
“I had really bad depression at this time too and I just didn’t want to leave the house.
“I didn’t go out for three months. But I got help from a psychologist at Ninewells which helped me a lot.
“I was given coping mechanisms and meditation to try. I was really struggling to get my head around what had happened.”
What made Izzy take up weight lifting?
After spending two years recovering, in 2018 Izzy decided it was time to start living life again.
And the young gran revealed it was her family which prompted her to make changes to her lifestyle.
Izzy said her children Connor, 24, Kieran, 21, Kyla, 15 and Sophie, 10 are her biggest supporters.
She also has two grandchildren – Jude, 5 and Millie, one and a half.
“My son had his first baby and my daughter was still very young – they made me realise I couldn’t continue the way I was,” Izzy said.
“I knew I had to get better for them and they were my motivation for doing it.
“So in April 2018 I decided to join a gym.”
First time in a Dundee gym
Izzy was 37 at the time and had never set foot in a gym in Dundee before.
Her aim was to build up strength in her right hand side and it wasn’t easy to begin with.
“I couldn’t lift anything at all at the start and I had help from a personal trainer. I had to work really hard at it.”
Izzy began doing body weight only exercises to start with before lifting weights of around 7.5 and 10 kilos.
She started off going to the gym twice a week and gradually built it up.
Six months later she was attending four to five times a week.
“I remember seeing a guy doing deadlifts in the gym and I didn’t know what it was!
“I just thought that looks really cool, I want to try it.”
Izzy soon discovered she had a natural ability to lift really heavy weights.
“When I did my first deadlift I lifted 120 kg and it just went from there.”
Now Izzy, who trains at Dundee Strength Unit, can deadlift an incredible 252 kg.
Izzy’s first weight lifting competition
Izzy signed up for her first weight lifting competition five years ago.
“I decided to do my first charity competition in 2019 in Fort William and came third.
“I had the bug for it after that.”
Since then, Izzy has taken part in more than a dozen competitions and in 2021 she decided to enter Scotland’s Strongest Woman for the first time and came second.
Scotland’s Strongest Woman 2023
For this year’s competition, Izzy took part in five different events with the overall winner being decided on points.
One of the challenges saw Izzy managing to lift a 70kg weight and pressing it 18 times in 75 seconds!
She also had to lift five large boulder stones, with the weight varying from 80kg up to 130kg, which she had to place on top of barrels.
Izzy also lifted 250kg in the maximum deadlift event and this was the heaviest weight she lifted on the day.
She said: “In total I managed to score 37 points across the five events and the second-place competitor had 32.5 points, third place had 23 points.
“There were eight ladies competing altogether and most of the girls were in their 20s and 30s.
“I was the oldest competitor there by at least ten years!”
More weight lifting competitions
But there is no time for Izzy to rest on her laurels after her big win, as she has more competitions coming up this year.
She is heading to London next month from August 11-13 to compete in Europe’s Strongest Woman, organised by the official Strongman Games.
And at the end of year, she is planning to travel to Charlestown, America to compete in the World’s Strongest Woman contest.
Would Izzy recommend weight lifting to others?
Izzy recommends anyone wanting to try weight lifting should give it a go.
“Just do it. Go in, pick up that weight and see what you can do – you will be amazed!
“It’s incredible what it can do for your mental health as well as your physical health.
“Going to the gym boosts my mood and makes me feel good.”
Despite the ongoing challenges Izzy has with her seizures, she wouldn’t change what has happened as she might not be the person she is today.
“I sit and wonder would I have ever gone to the gym if this hadn’t happened to me?
“And the answer is probably not. I had never thought of going to a gym before.
“I now appreciate my body a lot more.”
She added: “Sometimes it can take something awful to happen to you, to make you go out and grab life with both hands.”
