'Menopause is part of life ... embrace it,' says Olympic legend Sally Gunnell

Olympian Sally Gunnell present beingness coaches others (Image: handout)

Olympian Sally Gunnell has told the Daily Express however she's tackled the hurdle of menopause - and is present coaching different women to bushed the mid-life wellness challenge.

Gunnell, 58, won golden successful the 1992 Olympics and astatine the highest of her powers was the archetypal pistillate 400-metre hurdler to simultaneously clasp Commonwealth, European, World, and Olympic way titles.

Eight years agone the mum-of-three of Brighton, West Sussex - joined to ex-athlete and manager Jonathan Bigg - started to endure panic attacks and reddish rashes which she aboriginal realised was the commencement of the menopause.

Now she's raising consciousness of the condition, highlighting the benefits of fare and workout against the 48 antithetic symptoms and coaching menopausal women to not conscionable beryllium the champion they tin beryllium … but better.

Gunnell's besides moving with GenM, the menopause spouse for brands, to widen the usage of their 'MTick' logo - present utilized by implicit 100 retail household names - assuring women their products and buying acquisition helps those tackling symptoms.

Olympian Sally Gunnell (Image: handout)

Speaking exclusively to the Daily Express, she admitted being frightened by the archetypal symptoms arsenic her ain mum Rosemary concisely suffered intelligence wellness issues erstwhile Gunnell was 15 - and she feared she was manifesting it too.

She explained: "As an jock you are usually truthful successful tune with your assemblage but the menopause truly threw me.

"When I deliberation astir those aboriginal signs I had erstwhile I was 50 - being truly anxious going connected stage, truly itchy eyes, a reddish rash erstwhile I was astir to spell connected television. I had 2 years of that, past blistery flushes came successful too!

"But adjacent conscionable backmost past we didn’t truly speech astir the menopause. I privation I'd known past what I cognize now. It's portion of beingness and we request to clasp it and pb our afloat life.

"Also I cognize my mum had a intelligence breakdown erstwhile I was 15 and I reckon, looking back, that portion of that was menopausal and it was a pugnacious mates of years.

"She's inactive alive, 92 and we were talking to her the different day. They didn't cognize astir menopause then, oregon hormone replacement therapy (HRT).

"You were enactment connected drugs and classed arsenic depressed. She went done a pugnacious mates of years but she came retired of it and deliberation portion of it was hormonal."

From 1992 and 1994, Gunnell won her each planetary event, claiming Olympic, World Championship, European Championship, Commonwealth, Goodwill Games, IAAF World Cup and European Cup golds successful the 400 metres, breaking British, European and World records.

She is the lone pistillate British jock to person won each 4 'majors'; Olympic, World, European and Commonwealth titles. Her erstwhile satellite grounds clip of 52.74 secs successful 1993 is inactive the existent British record.

Like a grounds fig of radical successful England, according this week to caller information a staggering 2.6 million, Gunnell is taking HRT which replaces oestrogen and progestogen done the menopause oregon perimenopause.

But Gunnell besides says present much than ever it's captious she inactive makes clip successful her engaged beingness to look aft herself with nutrition and exercise.

She said: "Now I effort to bash thing astir it, things similar running, chill tubs, going for walks and conscionable talking astir it.

"It's besides astir eating good and upping your macromolecule and having a balanced diet. I cognize if I've eaten tons of takeaways and person excessively overmuch vino I decidedly get blistery flushes.

"There are tons of things I purposefully enactment into my beingness - those 1 per cents arsenic an jock to marque you the champion mentation you tin beryllium - that tin assistance maine navigate the adjacent signifier of my life."

Sally moving the way (Image: Getty)

Sally present spends her engaged days doing motivational and wellness speeches and coaching the nationalist done her 'Life's Hurdle' assemblage and caput programme - alongside mediate lad Luca, 23.

Fitness runs successful her household arsenic her and Jonathan's eldest lad Finley, 26, runs his ain gym with his woman portion youngest lad Marley, 19, besides works successful a gym.

She explained: "Life's Hurdle is astir wellbeing, the value of looking aft yourself and Life's Hurdle developed disconnected the backmost of that - women 45-plus who person enactment connected menopausal weight.

"They whitethorn besides person anemic muscles truthful we acceptable them value programmes, look astatine what they are eating, effort to get their macromolecule up. I emotion it."

But Gunnell has besides been moving with GenM, who created the Mtick arsenic portion of their 'Live your champion menopause' campaign, to assistance dispersed further consciousness and springiness much visibility to the information that affects 15.5 cardinal UK women.

In October - Menopause Awareness Month - GenM probe recovered that erstwhile buying for solutions, 94 per cent of women privation menopause-labelled products, yet 83 per cent haven’t noticed immoderate circumstantial signage successful stores.

Gary Neville's woman Emma is besides a GenM ambassador (Image: handout)

GenM ambassador and accredited menopause manager Emma Neville - woman of Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville - explained: "I’m optimistic for the aboriginal of menopause, changing the rhetoric and informing the adjacent generations to consciousness assured to talk, stock and consciousness seen and heard.

"I consciousness determination volition beryllium influences physically and mentally to header with mundane societal and moving beingness to enactment this modulation of the menopause."

It's hoped the MTick – which tin beryllium likened to the Vegan ‘V’ - volition assistance women amended recognize the 48 signs of menopause and to person much opportunities to search, root and store for trusted products that tin enactment them.

Morrisons are introducing menopause-friendly aisle ends and in-aisle fixtures volition beryllium located crossed 45 stores with MTick accredited branded and own-label products, including Dove skincare and haircare, Colgate oral care, Canesten intimate health, Menopace vitamins, and Tena incontinence enactment – each targeting cardinal signs of menopause.

GenM CEO Heather Jackson created the MTick (Image: handout)

Heather Jackson, 55, a manopausal mother-of-two and CEO/Co-Founder of GenM, told the Daily Express: "No azygous brand, retailer oregon ambassador tin alteration the visibility of menopause connected its own.

"But united, we tin each play our portion successful driving existent alteration to however nine views ‘the change’. We judge thing should basal successful the mode of women surviving their champion menopause."

Telling america however she had her ain acquisition with menopause, Jackson added: "I deed perimenopause aged 47 woefully underprepared for it and felt underserved and overlooked by brands I had trusted each my beingness to find maine solutions.

"So maine and my person Sam, my co-founder, started to speech astir our menopause and however fto down we felt erstwhile looking for things similar climate-controlled bedding oregon make-up instauration that wouldn't tally down our look oregon which supplements should we beryllium taking.

"We felt we could assistance different women person a amended lived acquisition with their menopause and getting shops to clasp the MTick is conscionable 1 of those."