When Alison Drake was teaching in a primary school in Hong Kong in 2008, she learned that her father had just been diagnosed in the UK with stage four cancer – and did not have much time left.
The then-25-year-old was devastated, especially because they shared a close relationship.
“I was just always following my dad around since I was a little girl,” she recalls.
She began flying back and forth between Hong Kong and the UK – where she was born and raised – and found herself turning to running as an outlet for her feelings. Later, she discovered yoga and she credits both with helping her navigate the grief that came with her father’s illness and death.
She has found a way to use what she learned to help others: Drake is now a full-time yoga teacher who specialises in teaching children and teenagers. Her classes are focused on mindfulness and emotional regulation to help her students learn to process how they are feeling, something she used to struggle with.
For Drake, her father’s diagnosis left her simply going through the motions to get through each day. “I was on autopilot really, just trying to put one foot in front of the other,” she says.
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