Inspiring people to lift weights to become stronger and healthier is the number one aim of Weight Training Is The Way.

The internet is bursting with inspiring gym stories of people who have transformed their physique and improved their health.

Awesome before and after pictures. Brilliant quotes. People looking unrecognisable to the way they were before.

These always deliver a dose of motivation to get us going in the gym.

But I’ve yet to hear of a more remarkable / unbelievable / incredible story than that of Tracy Cranstoun-Crozier.

Today, the 46-year-old mum, from New Jersey in the US, has a body made of iron and the strength to match thanks to weight training.

Rewind 15 years – and she was paralysed from head to toe following a stroke.

After a tough battle learning to walk, talk and strengthen her weak body again, Tracy was then hit with the devastating news she had tongue cancer. Medics said she likely wouldn’t be able to talk or eat properly again.

Tracy had a second massive fight on her hands. And with her toddler son Joseph depending on her, this was another one she wasn’t prepared to lose.

In an interview with Weight Training Is The Way this week, Tracy tells how she not only won the war with stroke and cancer but revealed how lifting weights played a “huge” role in her recovery.

 

As Tracy Cranston Crozier lay in her hospital bed, she cradled her newborn son Joseph. Holding him snug, feeling his soft hair and touching his skin.

It was the highlight of her life.

Fifteen months later Tracy was back in a hospital bed. This time she couldn’t move from the neck down.

The mum had been struck down with a brainstem stroke that left her paralysed from head to toe.

“It started with pins and needles in my feet,” she said. “I thought it was just a pinched nerve in my back and went to my chiropractor.

“By the time I got there my speech started to alter and my eyes were having difficulty focusing and my chiropractor directed me to the ER immediately.

“I waited in the ER for two hours, went to stand up and fell on my face. Finally realising it was serious, they rushed me in and from that time on I was admitted.

“I got totally numb from head to toe, couldn’t see straight, my eyes didn’t point in same direction, and I was getting spasms across my chest so tight it would restrict my breathing.”

Medics frantically did scans, checked for blood clots and tested Tracy for various illnesses such as multiple sclerosis and Gillame Beret Syndrome.

It was concluded that the 29-year-old had suffered a stroke. She was given high doses of steroids and admitted to a rehab facility to learn to walk, talk and feed herself again.

 

Toddler son Joseph was cared for by her mother and aunt while Tracy began her battle to regain her health. It started with learning co-ordination by ripping sheets of paper, taking steps with a walking aid, and then walking and talking slowly on her own.

Four months later she was home and making steady progress at returning to a normal life.

She said: “I fought long and hard to get all my abilities back. The toughest part was keeping my toddler son’s development going when he was very young, when at the same time I was learning to walk, talk and see straight again.”

That was all back in 2000 and Tracy thought her health nightmare was over.

Five years later her world collapsed again when she was diagnosed with tongue cancer – and doctors said she likely wouldn’t be able to talk again and would probably have to be fed through tubes for the rest of her life.

“I just felt like I’m not gonna let this cancer beat me. Stroke didn’t and I fought back, so cancer wasn’t going to either.”

Tracy revealed her reaction to being told the shock news.

“I got mad,” she said. “I just felt like I’m not gonna let this cancer beat me. Stroke didn’t and I fought back, so cancer wasn’t going to either.

“I was going to come through it – all because of my son. I do what I do to provide for my son. My best contribution to this world is going to be through him and he’s always my number one.”

Tracy underwent surgery which involved being cut open from ear to ear and her tongue being removed completely. To beat cancer, 84 lymph nodes also had to be removed, a feeding tube was placed in her stomach, and Tracy endured intensive chemo and radiation therapy for 14 weeks.

She said: “It was even more complicated after I went home because I was cleaning my floor and my surgical sutures broke when I was bending over and I almost haemorrhaged to death.

“I’m not a patient patient,” she joked. “But I learn the hard way and had a cuffed tracheotomy for two months and had to write everything on a little chalk board or use sign language to communicate.”

Complications meant Tracy was in and out of hospital and she was also faced with thyroid problems linked to her cancer treatment. Then came panic attacks, along with the constant difficulty swallowing and being speechless.

But Tracy was determined to overcome all of that to make sure her six-year-old son’s learning wasn’t affected by her own struggles.

After a slow return to health, Tracy turned to the gym four years ago to strengthen her body. The mum quickly found that lifting weights improved her mental health, boosted her confidence, and was the perfect escape from her troubles.

She became hooked, trained consistently, and her previous weak, ravaged body was sculpted into a rock solid ripped physique.

“Gym time is my therapy. It’s my war on my demons and my muscles are my medals.”

Tracy has since competed in gruelling endurance events such as Spartan Races and Tough Mudder, and last year competed in the NPC (National Physique Committee) amateur bodybuilding championships.

Training most days of the week in the gym because it’s her “therapy”, Tracy is now gearing up to compete in this year’s NPC championships.

Unbelievable achievements for a 46-year-old stroke survivor, cancer survivor, and someone who struggles to speak and eat every single day.

Tracy said: “They originally tried to make a new tongue for me out of a piece of my thigh but it didn’t take.

“Getting nutrients in to keep muscle is a huge task and so I have to drink a lot of meals.”

Tracy described the role weight training has played in her recovery as “huge”.

She added: “My gym time is my therapy. It’s my war on my demons and my muscles are my medals.

“I’m constantly changing it up to keep it fresh but I very rarely take complete days off as my gym time keeps me sane. If I’m not able to workout, I get down on myself.

“I find strength in the gym.”

“Someone needs you, someone loves you and you need to do it.”

A positive attitude in the toughest of times has also been crucial to Tracy’s transformation and she wants to inspire others who are struggling to rebuild their physical and mental strength.

“I try to appreciate and make the most of what I’m left with,”

“If I can help inspire someone else then that makes me feel better, knowing that I can contribute something to make this world a more tolerable place.

 

“My advice to anyone really struggling is to find a thread, a little speck of strength when you are at your worst and grab on.

“Hold on and make it into a mound, a hill, a mountain…it can be done, just keep moving minute by minute.

“Don’t let it overwhelm you. Don’t overthink it. Someone needs you, someone loves you and you need to do it.

“The feeling that you can will be unsurpassable. Pull it out wherever you can because it can be done.

“Then you show those around you how it’s done and pay it forward…we are all in this together.”