Judy Humber has a British title shot lined up for later this year
Judy Humber sensed her dream move to Thailand wouldn't go entirely smoothly when greeted with the sight of hazmat suit-clad soldiers spraying the streets with disinfectant.
The Scottish kickboxer's arrival coincided with the country being put into strict lockdown, and the challenges have kept on coming.
A two-week loss of hearing, emergency surgery, and still waiting for her first fight, it has been a five-month test of endurance.
But having quit her job as a PR executive in her home city of Aberdeen to pursue her Muay Thai career, the 24-year-old isn't ready to throw in the towel.
"The dream was to come out and fight full-time, but literally the day I got here everything closed," Humber tells BBC Scotland.
"There were actually people at the airport from certain countries getting turned away because they hadn't had their visas organised before they arrived. So walking through the airport I was a bit concerned that I wasn't going to get in.
"When I arrived at my apartment the streets were dead, and being spayed. It has been a severe approach they have taken in Thailand which seems to have paid off, we have very few cases (of Covid-19).''
'I literally couldn't hear'
As Humber began to settle in to life at the Boon Lanna Muay Thai gym in Chiang Mai, she gradually began to feel unwell.
Thinking nothing of it, the Scot continued to push her body to the limit in training. When the pain become became intolerable, though, she knew something was seriously wrong.
Chronic sinusitis resulted in her temporarily going deaf and requiring urgent surgery. A return home was out of the question because of the pressure the flight would put on her eardrums.
"It was intense, it was almost two months and it kept getting worse," says Humber.
"I didn't realise how bad it was until that point before surgery where I literally couldn't hear anything. The pain and pressure were so intense, it was like being on a plane where you have not popped your nose or ears.
"Being out in Thailand on your own, you don't have someone seeing you every day to notice the difference, so it snuck up on me and then suddenly was really bad."
Humber, who hopes to resume training in the next few weeks, has no regrets about making the move to Thailand.
She has already defied the odds in her Muay Thai career, having returned to the ring in April last year, a little over 12 months after fracturing her skull playing football for Cove Rangers.
And with a British title shot scheduled for later in 2020, Humber says the adversity she has had to overcome has fuelled her determination.
"Having setbacks just makes you push harder. If I can get through all these things, a fight seems like the easy thing."
