There aren’t many 69-year-olds who partly retire to concentrate more on CrossFit.

But that’s Queenstown osteopath Kasia Lukaszewicz, who’s just retired after having practised locally since January 2000.

She’s regularly trained and competed in CrossFit since becoming hooked on the fitness craze five years ago.

“And then, having a physical job and a physical hobby didn’t really gel together very well, so I was perpetually tired either from work or from CrossFit or from just a combination of both.

“I just thought, ‘well, this is very silly and I’ll burn out’.

“And because I’m 69, I don’t want to work forever and ever.”

Hailing from then-Communist Poland, Lukaszewicz escaped to London by paying an Irishman to marry her so could stay there — she never saw him again.

She graduated from the College of Osteopathy in London and  practised there for five years before she and husband Kris decided to travel to New Zealand or Australia on a working holiday while their two kids were still young.

Queenstown osteo Jacqui Driver needed to move to Invercargill, so she selected Lukaszdewicz to run her clinic.

Three years later, the latter bought into the business, then after about 20 years, she took on business partner Sam Wright who’s now taken over her share.

Lukaszewicz says she’s thoroughly enjoyed both her work colleagues and patients who’ve often become friends.

“You’re not just doing the physical stuff, you also serve as a counsellor because very often what’s going on is closely connected to the mental health of people and what they’re going through.”

  • Kasia Lukaszewicz originally practised in Queenstown as ‘Katrina O’Neill’ as she was sick of spelling out her name — O’Neill was her husband-of-convenience’s surname and Katrina was an Anglicised version of Kasia. She reverted to her married Polish name about two years ago — “people these days are much better about foreign names”.

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