She is called ‘ninja nan’ but 75-year-old Ede Smith has little embarrassment to hide over this name. This karate-mad elderly woman is in no mood to give up the sport and doesn’t even allow rheumatoid arthritis and knee replacement comes in the way of her passion.
“I am gaining my strength back. I am getting my ability back. It gave me everything I was looking for in a sport. Having been sporty all my life,” said the woman who is just 5 ft 1 in tall.
‘Ninja nan’ has even won medal and a brown belt in the sport. She acknowledges that karate helps her to keep physically fit and mentally alert. Ede can break boards with bare hands and even flip men thrice her weight. “It teaches you discipline. It also teaches you how far you go with your body,” she said. Ede’s aim is to get the black belt and she will “strive very hard” to reach that goal.
