Lockdown low
After playing for England Ladies and Great Britain, Nichols headed into a recreational league.
Initially fun, the low standing of the sport at Britain’s ice rinks meant a lot of late nights for the now-working woman.
“I remember playing a game with midnight face-off away in Romford (Essex, more than 100km from where she lived) and getting home at five o’clock in the morning,” says Nichols, who also cites the increasing degradation of the rinks as another factor for her decision to stop the sport.
Yet it was two additional aspects – one expected, and one really not – that finally curtailed the hockey playing: the menopause and COVID.
“It all just hit me like a steam train if I’m honest,” says Nichols now.
“I tried going training and I was having sweats on the ice and coming over all dizzy and I didn’t know what was happening to me,” says Nichols of the peri-menopause that started when she was around 48.
“I had every symptom under the blooming sun. I had flushes, palpitations, the lack of motivation. I mean, brain fog, I still get a lot.
“I mean, it was really the menopause that stopped the ice hockey when I look back now because I was just struggling so much. I did love playing, I loved the team, you know, the banter. We used to have a lot of fun,” says Nichols of the mixed team in which she played, mostly the only woman.
But then COVID hit, proving the final nail in the ice hockey-playing coffin.
During various lockdown periods in the UK, team sports were off limits, ice rinks were closed, and for the first time in years, Nichols found herself stuck at home while trying to manage her menopause symptoms.
“I would cry, I wasn’t sleeping, all these symptoms that were just horrendous and then with COVID as well, I was so low, which wasn’t like me.”
Seeking help from the doctor resulted in treatment with HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy), making a huge difference. A snowball effect had begun.
“Getting the help and feeling better, then obviously you feel better to actually do something about the exercise and get back out there.”
What Nichols turned to was her first love – BMX – but little did she know where that first step in digging out her dusty old world championship BMX bike, which she’d nearly disposed of numerous times over the years – would take her.
