Nonna Marta

Summer in Poland or summer in England?

That's a very tricky question! Now I prefer cold to heat. Since I have my disease I feel hotter than I did before but funnily enough, ever since I was a little child I wanted to travel to Mongolia, Norway, Canada, Alaska and Kazakhstan. These are not hot places!

Where's your top cold county to travel to?

Mongolia

Reckon you'll cycle there?

If my condition gets better then yes. I was diagnosed with a tumour and Graves disease at the same time. It's all been going on since 2022.

2022? And you kept quiet?

Yeah, it's happened already, the tumour has gone, and life goes on.

Before it was a rollercoaster because I had such a traumatic experience with this tumour and the healthcare… I felt like I had no help. They did a biopsy and for ten months I heard nothing, Graves was also somehow still not discovered. So I was angry, I was depressed, I was losing my mind. I thought, 'if I don't leave I will end up in the psychiatric ward.' Honestly I was that close.

But you were a very normal person going through an incredibly traumatic thing on your own.

Yeah absolutely. I was incredibly lucky for the specialist who removed my tumour. Super fucking lucky. After that surgery, I was so relieved that it felt like the Graves disease gave up and I was in remission. I was high on life! I didn't need anything, I was just so happy to be alive. After a year or so it caught up with me again when I lost my job. The doctors kept telling me to avoid stress.

Did you not want to put the weight of it on your friends?

For so long, I didn't know what was going on with me. Covid happened and most of my friends left the UK. Eventually I found new friends and connected with old ones. All in all, that time was really lonely.

Are you good at avoiding stress?

No! I'm the most anxious stressy person!

From what I know about you, you run head first into stress.

I'm not surprised I'm sick from some stressed-related illness. That's why I tell everyone to please go to therapy, go talk to someone, go swimming, fucking whatever. Try to chill out or don’t care so much about things you can’t control?

How long has therapy been going on?

Not that long, like 2 months. It's good! It's too early to say I'm good though. That's why when people ask me how I am, I'm like 'yeah'. I want to say something good but I deal with so much shit that at the same time I'm like 'yeah it just is'.

There's no simple way of asking someone how they are. Maybe smaller questions like 'how's your morning or how's your breakfast?'

Yeah more precise questions please!

Are you taking your health more seriously now?

Yeah I am. I go yoga now instead of pulling 100k long offroad rides. I have a great partner now as well. I'm learning how to communicate my boundaries.

I don't really understand my boundaries.

It's like we all have them but we don't know how to execute them. When I exucute them I feel like a dickhead. I feel like maybe I'm being selfish.

It's quite fun being a dickhead though. Embrace it. The question I really wanted to ask you was, can you juggle?

But what? Life I can, but not real physical things, haha.

How tall are you?

I'm tiny, 158cm or 5.2!

What?! You seem so much taller.

It's all the shoes and loud voice.

How do you think it makes people view you?

They're like 'oh cute' at first sight. Then they get to know me and their view changes. My friends call me Nonna because I'm like this eccentric grandma. I like to take care of everyone but in my own way.