EDMONTON -- A health scare three years ago has motivated an Alberta woman to be stronger than ever before.

“I nearly didn’t make it – put it that way,” Sherrie Kapach from Redwater says.

Complications during a routine surgery left the then 47-year-old fighting for her life.

Over six weeks, she need four more surgeries. Then there was four months of recovery, at the end of which she still couldn’t lift a five-pound weight.

“I basically just started from scratch,” she recalls.
“I decided that life’s too short and you have to go for what you believe in and what you want and achieve what you want to be in life.”

In two years, Kapach went from struggling to lift a heavy book to earning silver in her first bodybuilding competition.

With nationals in Toronto this December, the grandmother of three spends between 1.5 and two hours in the gym six days a week.

“To be able to make it this far from where I was?

“It’s determination.”

Kapach sat Thursday in sixth place to be named Ms. Health & Fitness 2020 – for which voting was scheduled to end Thursday evening – but said her focus is to inspire others as a life coach in the future.

“If I can help one person, that’s just what my goal is.”

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Darcy Seaton