When you are diagnosed with a potentially life-threatening condition, it is advisable to follow doctor's orders to the letter. For Rowena, managing her Type I diabetes from the tender age of nine was a cinch, until she became a rebellious, invincible teenager, embarking on a rampage of self-destruction and completely ignoring all doctor's orders. Cigarettes, alcohol and (eventually) drugs were welcomed into her life with reckless abandon, until one day her body gave her the middle finger. With her blood sugar levels spiralling out of control, Rowena found herself in renal failure and on the waiting list for a donor kidney. While on dialysis, and still smoking up a storm, vascular disease set in, and she watched with horror as her feet and legs began decomposing in front of her eyes. Now a double amputee with her health resting on a knife's edge every day, Rowena has journeyed to the deepest, darkest depths of everything and anything that can go wrong (and back again). Motivational speaker, successful businesswoman, and an inspiration to many, Rowena, with her candid sense of humour and uncontrollable zest for life, is living proof that it is indeed possible to rise up against the odds and lead a relatively normal life, provided your head and heart are in the right place.