By Nadia Breen
A beauty queen from Co Down has opened up on ten years of raising awareness of endometriosis. Anouska Black is heading to the US next weekend to compete in the International United Miss beauty pageant in Orlando as Ms United Kingdom 2025. The 36-year-old uses her platform and voice to raise awareness for endometriosis after being diagnosed when she was 19. She told Be : “My platform is called Just Chat Endo. I had my first surgery for endometriosis three weeks after my 20th birthday. I had a teratoma tumour engulfing my left ovary, so I had to get scheduled for pretty urgent surgery to get that removed. Then came the confirmed diagnosis of endometriosis. “That was in 2009. I’ve had two more surgeries since then for endometriosis . It unfortunately spread all over my bowel, all over my pouch of Douglas, right up to my diaphragm, which is called thoracic endo, when it kind of reaches your lungs and your breathing. “I’ve been campaigning for endo for probably the past 10 years since I started pageantry. We’re given a voice, a platform to speak about something that’s close to your heart.” The mum added: “I found that having endo as a very young girl, all those years ago, when social media was kind of only kicking off, there wasn’t a lot of support. There wasn’t a lot of people talking about it, there wasn’t even Google. “Nobody really wanted to listen just to another ‘dramatic woman’ as I’ve been called. I think whenever I had started winning the titles, it was when people kind of started taking an interest.” The titles Anouska has been crowned over the years include Face of the UK Photographic, Miss Crown and Glory Ireland, Ms Crown and Glory UK, Royal International Miss UK, Ms Northern Ireland, and Miss Congeniality. The Dollingstown woman is now heading to Orlando on July 11 for the International United Miss pageant. She said: “I am so excited. I was completely done, I was completely retired. It’s so laid back, I was only crowned in March, some of the other UK Queens have had their title from like October, November time, so I only had four months to prepare, which isn’t a lot of time.” Anouska is also an ambassador for Just A Chat NI, a local mental health charity in Craigavon . She said: ” For me, the mental health aspect of having endometriosis and other chronic illnesses isn’t really talked about. The doctors kind of focus on the physicality of it, the surgeries. “But the mental health aspect that comes along with everything – of being in debilitating pain, or not being believed, or being put into medical menopause, your hormones being all over the place – that needs to be chatted about a lot more. The mental health aspect of just getting up and trying to push on, because it’s so invisible, not a lot of people see it. “They’ll see my beautiful pictures from a photoshoot that have been edited, and I have my hair done and my makeup done. That is not how I am 80% of the time. I look awful in bed in jammies, bags under my eyes, in pain.” She added: “I’m also a Project P. ambassador, which is giving out free and safe sanitary products. I’ve been giving them out to local schools, I’m actually going over to Craigavon Area Hospital today to give some into their maternity ward, and for women and girls that maybe are caught out unexpectedly, to save any embarrassment, and for those who can’t afford period products. “They are getting more and more expensive as the cost of living crisis goes up, and they are a necessity. Every girl in the world will get her period. I’m also doing that, which ties into the endometriosis as well, because obviously your periods can be very heavy, very unexpected as well. “I’m really trying to break the stigma around having your period and talking about any gynae problems as well. If everybody just has a chat about female health, I think the world would be in a better place. I think we鈥檇 be in a better position for female health here.” For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here and sign up to our Be lifestyle newsletter for all the latest showbiz, fashion, beauty, family features and more.