How this 76-year-old kokum is fighting grief and loss with kettlebell kickboxing

Four years ago, Iva Geddes-McNabb would take walks to pray and cry for those she had lost.

Geddes-McNabb's son Lionel died from a heart attack in 2013, when he was 39 years old. She lost her husband to cancer a few months later. Then in 2016 she lost Matthew, a grandson she raised who ran marathons, to stomach cancer at the age of 26.

Geddes-McNabb, now 76, said she didn't know how to grieve so many deaths, but she did know her family wouldn't want her to be sad. She decided to find something that would help her.

She tried a few workout classes, but felt they weren't for her. Then one day in 2019 she tried out a kettlebell kickboxing class happening in the next community over, Daystar First Nation.

A Kettlebell Kickboxing Canada studio based in Regina was hosting the class on the First Nation. After one session, Geddes-McNabb knew she needed it in her life.

"I felt balance in my life," she said. "I didn't feel lonely. Something came over me and a spark went off."

Despite having had her left hip replaced twice, Geddes-McNabb signed up for classes in Regina.

When she first made the trip from her home in George Gordon First Nation, about 114 kilometres from Regina, she had a hard time keeping up with the others in the class. She couldn't even do a burpee or a jumping jack at first. She questioned whether she had made the right choice.

"There was doubt in my mind, but I felt I had to prove myself," said Geddes-McNabb. 

With encouragement from her class, she pushed herself and didn't give up.

Geddes-McNabb now commutes three days a week to attend kettlebell kickboxing training.

When she first started she was swinging a five-pound kettlebell. Now she is up to 30 pounds. She said her grandson joins her as well.

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