Inspirational Lana will never give up her dreams

By Ciara del Grosso Bates

LANA Salome Kurasidze was very lucky. At 20, she had something many people would be envious of: youth and beauty.

A decade later, she’s still a beautiful young woman but feels very lucky – and grateful – just to be alive.

Diagnosed with a usually fatal cancerous brain tumour, Lana, now living in Ballymun, went from a busy life and working three jobs to being paralysed and told she might have months to live.

After multiple surgeries and treatments, Lana was saved, but her life was changed forever.

What happened next, and her journey from just being alive to actually living again, is all down to hard work.

Before her illness, Lana was full of life, pursuing a career in modelling as well as working in a beauty supply shop and part time in a nightclub as a hostess. 

She had come to Ireland from Riga, Latvia, for a classic reason- “crazy, stupid love”.

She followed a boyfriend here and although they later parted ways, by then she had fallen in love with Ireland.

Her illness forced her back to Riga, but she has since returned to Dublin permanently.

Her illness was an incredibly dark time for Lana, but she pulled through the worst of it and has fought hard to get her life back.

She told Northside People she keeps pushing herself “understanding that if I sit and cry, it surely won’t help!”

Lana says it has helped her appreciate the little things in life.

“It definitely has changed me, but in a positive way! I became smarter, my values have changed.”

She’s poured every ounce of strength into physio and working out at the gym, and although she still suffers from severe ataxia, she remains determined.

Local photographer Michael Hayes says he worked with Lana on some photos and was inspired by her attitude. He told her his office had some steps, and an upstairs bathroom, but she insisted she would be fine with just a little help. 

Afterwards, Michael said, “she has impressed and influenced my life by her absolute courage” adding that anyone who meets her would feel the same.

 “She greets every day with a smile,” he adds.

Although it might not look like that now, Lana wasn’t always into fitness or the gym.

“I became fitness addicted after my treatments were finished and I was told by doctors that the maximum I will gain from my rehabilitation is the ability to sit in the wheelchair.” She said.

At the time, Lana was only able to lie in bed, and had gained a lot of weight – she weighed 15 stone, and the former model was determined to slim down and gain back her independence.

Having defied the doctors’ original expectations, Lana keeps setting herself new goals.

Her long-term ambition is to walk unaided, and along the way, to help change attitudes towards disability. 

“I keep improving and keep fighting for my final goal to get back on my feet. I’ve already reached a lot, compared to what I had in the beginning.” 

Lana says she’s lucky and thankful for what she has, but one of her challenges isn’t physical, but in people’s minds.

Often, she says she doesn’t get equal treatment, and feels like people look at her like an “exhibit in a museum”. 

In her wheelchair, when she’s with a companion, she says people automatically talk to the other person – even if Lana started the conversation herself. 

“It’s annoying, like I’m some cabbage in the wheelchair, but the wheelchair is just an aid!” she says, “It’s about personality, please don’t judge others by an aid.

“I’m the same human as anybody else- I want love and good attitude the same way.” 

Lana’s still determined to pursue her passion for modelling, but the reasons behind it, as with many things in her life, have changed. 

“Before, I was doing it just for myself” she says.

“Now I want the world to see that life doesn’t have to end after a disability.

“I want to be a positive example to others and show that nobody should give up, no matter what happens in their life!”