Fighting Back: Ellie Williams battles Meniere’s Disease through boxing

D. Suggs

When you contact Ellie Williams by phone prepare to leave a message. Williams might not answer your call. It’s not because she doesn’t want to talk, in fact she loves to talk. Williams suffers from permanent hearing loss due to the effects of Meniere’s disease, the main symptoms being the aforementioned hearing loss, tinnitus and loss of balance due to vertigo. On the symptoms from the disease, Williams, 50, simply says, “All of it super sucks.”

Meniere’s disease can occur at any age and it wasn’t until Williams was in her 40’s that she was diagnosed with the disorder in 2012. It rocked her world while also being a relief. “I couldn’t go to the grocery store because of all of the sensory overload,” she says. “I everything I could over the counter to get rid of the headaches and nausea, but nothing was working.”

Doctors ruled out multiple sclerosis and brain tumors and narrowed it down to Meniere’s. “The doctors ran test and it was hard to hear but a relief all the same. There was a reason Williams was feeling sick all the time.

Theses days the tinnitus, better described as ringing in one’s ears, might be the toughest part for Williams, not to demean vertigo by any measure, because it can sometimes interfere with what she loves most and that’s boxing. The sweet science just isn’t as sweet without the use of one’s hands. Williams came to the sport by both happenstance and necessity, she wanted boxing to help get her back in shape but also was looking for mental respite from the day to day work that is living with Meniere’s disease. “You have a choice, either you can get up and have a good day or you can have a bad day,” says Williams, “the first time I ever stepped in a gym for anything was on my 46th birthday.” Needless to say that was a good day.

She continued, “Boxing was the first thing that I liked more than smoking.” Williams admitted that she was out of shape and started running in 5ks and mud runs in order to lose weight and get in shape. “I had to have a goal,” she said. A birthday present to herself, a personal trainer, turned into what has been four-plus years of boxing bliss. Williams trainer worked on getting her in shape through traditional and non-traditional methods, she worked on her flexibility and hand-eye coordination, natural gifts she never knew she had and figured  if she did, were lost to Meniere’s.

“I started boxing because I wanted to get my life back,” said Williams one afternoon following her regular visit to Veterans MMA in Perry. Williams spends a lot of time at the gym, both boxing and teaching the sport to area kids as young as six years old.

In 2015 her personal trainer just so happened to be a professional mixed martial artist and was leaving the business to turn pro full-time, Williams would need a new trainer, a new place to train. “I was 46 years old, out of shape, had no core strength and slowly I got fit and lost the weight,” said Williams about her initial training experience. Where was she going to continue what she described as major progress.

Through recommendation from her personal trainer, Veterans MMA and retired United States Marine John Brown became the answers to both of those questions. Less than a year later Williams would be boxing professionally as a licensed USA Boxing Masters Division (40 and up) fighter. What a difference a decision makes. “We started out just working on hand-eye coordination so I could just be able to go to work without puking,” said Williams of the boxing training with Brown that helped with and continues to help with the effects of Meniere’s. “Meniere’s is like flying a plane at night without the moon over the water helping to divide the sky from the sea,” explained Williams. That’s basically how I am a lot of the time.”

Boxing has the unique ability amongst sports, a lot like running and swimming, to train not just the muscles but the mind and senses. Williams still needs to take breaks from being around bright lights, loud sounds (traffic does not help) and must take her medication, “I’m basically in trouble if I don’t take it,” she says, but has found a new life inside the squared circle. About Brown she says, “He’s not only my coach, but he’s my best friend. His training is the main reason I’m functioning.”

Williams fought her first professional opponent in June of 2015 and has fought all over the country since then including in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and at the famed Gleason’s Gym in Brooklyn, New York. She quit smoking, given up caffeine, has been on a smarter, more healthy diet in order to maintain her 110-pound fighting weight (Williams is a generous 5’2”). Williams fought twice in 2015 and 2016 and a career-high four times in 2017. “Coach always says, ‘Adversity introduces every man and woman to themselves’, he says that constantly and I agree,” said Williams.

Boxing introduced Williams to her true self and the two have failed to part ever since. She is now a registered USA boxing coach and ring official along with the work she is doing at Veterans MMA as a coach. “The best part is teaching the kids,” said Williams. “Teaching kids from as young as six years old to teenagers, what they are learning today should be able to sustain them tomorrow and that’s what it’s about.”

One Monday afternoon Williams picked up one of the teenage boxers she has worked with at the gym to give him a lift in order for him to help her teach a class of younger kids. As has been the case with Meniere’s, she would soon not be feeling well enough to close out the class. The kid, someone she had worked with over the past few years, took over the class and handled it like an old pro according to Williams. “He never missed a beat and took care of the entire class,” she said. “It was a proud moment.”

“The competition of boxing is great, but to see a kid get a whole new level of confidence is amazing.”

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