Robert-Dimitrie Chiurlea, United Kingdom
This week GKR Stories hears from Robert-Dimitrie Chiurlea who returned to karate after serious life changing surgeries in 2023 and hasn’t looked back.
In 2016, I had a kidney transplant and then six years later in 2022, I underwent heart surgery. Over time, and as a consequence of these two major surgeries, I started to gain weight and continued to experience health problems so in 2023, I made the decision to do something about it.
I had previously trained and achieved my black belt in Shotokan-Fudokan karate approximately 25 years ago and enjoyed it, so I started looking for a martial arts club close to my home. One day whilst shopping I noticed an information stand for GKR Karate, and I stopped to share my story with the Sensei there. He was very open and helpful with my queries, so I enquired about joining. I officially started in May 2023, and now train at my local dojo for between 10 to 20 hours every week.
From May to September, I was in the dojo nearly every day, and my Sensei gave me plenty of encouragement and the courage to aim high. He told me I will be a medallist one day, I will have my health back and I will live a normal life.
In September 2023 at my first GKR Karate national competition, I won my first four medals, 2 gold and 2 silver. From September till June 2024 I have won 8 medals in total from competitions in the UK. In August last year, I travelled to Australia to compete in the World Cup and also competed in the UK Nationals later in the year.
Before I started training with GKR Karate, I was taking twenty-one different medications every day. Since that time, my health has improved to the point where I have so far been able to reduce this by one-third. I can run 1/2 mile now without stopping whereas before I couldn’t walk 20 metres.
Training with GKR has helped to improve the quality of my life in more ways than one and helped me rediscover a health and vitality I thought may never return after my surgeries.
We want to hear your story
We’re inviting members to reach out to us and share how joining GKR Karate has been instrumental in crafting their personal tales of inspiration, transformation, or courage.
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