Wales prop Donna Rose calls BPD her 'superpower'
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- Donna Rose, 35, represented Wales at her second World Cup last year and helped Saracens lift the Premiership Women's Rugby title in June, and credits rugby as the 'medicine' that drains the adrenaline fueling her symptoms.
- Rose was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder at age 21 after growing up in the traveller community, struggling at school, and getting in trouble with police when her mental health deteriorated.
- She has been capped 42 times by Wales, competed at two World Cups and four Six Nations, and won the PWR title with Saracens twice — achievements she says are inseparable from the anger she learned to control.
- Rose named Saracens teammate Marlie Packer and Wales' Carys Phillips as anchors of her support network, with daily check-ins from staff and medical staff at last year's World Cup helping her manage the 30-plus-person changing room environment.
- Eighteen-month-old daughter Margot has become part of Rose's support system, with Rose saying walking through the door to see her smile 'changes me completely' on her worst days.
- Rose now describes herself as 'an open book' about BPD, saying she speaks publicly so others with mental health disorders know 'that is not a full stop.'
Why it matters: Rose's profile reframes BPD — a condition often stigmatized and misunderstood — as a manageable trait rather than a defining limitation, using her visibility as a 42-cap international to push back on the isolation she says people with mental health disorders commonly feel.
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