When Shirley Dos Santos started feeling too tired to cycle, she put it down to her age.

Then the Albany resident, who migrated from Zimbabwe eight years ago, began feeling sick after eating rich or high-dairy products and her weight started dropping – no matter how much she ate.

Matters came to a head when she had to leave her daughter’s birthday because the food she was eating made her sick.

Only then did she visit a doctor, who after a series of tests told her she had been living with coeliac disease.

She might have had the condition for years without knowing it.

"At the time I was diagnosed I was a working mother and I just thought that’s how life is.

"There was stuff I couldn’t do and I just put everything down to my age.

"It was only when I thought: ‘This is stupid, you’re not that old’, that I got diagnosed," she says.

Coeliac disease is a hereditary intolerance to gluten found in wheat, barley, rye and in some cases, oats.

It is estimated to affect about one in 100 people, but it is thought to be significantly underdiagnosed.

If left untreated, the condition can develop into bowel cancer, although it is normally expressed in diarrhoea, fatigue and abdominal pain.

By the time Mrs Dos Santos was told she had the condition in 2003, her haemoglobin count had dropped to 75 and she was considered severely iron deficient.

Despite learning her body was "starving itself", her diagnosis was a relief.

Knowing she had the condition meant she could rid her diet of gluten and end her fatigue, weight loss and frequent sickness.

She has improved so much that in December she ran her first half marathon and earlier this year completed a 100km cycle from Taupo to Rotorua.

Others who feel fatigued or find certain foods hard to eat should get checked, she says.

"If you wake up tired and go to bed tired, if you feel life is a bit of a drudge, don’t just accept it. Get checked."

Coeliac disease awareness week runs from May 24 to 30.

Source: stuff.co.nz