Diagnosed at the age of nine with frontal lobe epilepsy, she managed her condition with medication until it deteriorated when puberty hit and her hormones started "kicking up".
"I wasn't able to get out of bed. I wasn't able to do anything for myself and couldn't really speak. My Mum was dressing me and showering me," she says.
Cooke was admitted to Our Lady's Children's Hospital in Crumlin where she remained for 10 months. Despite being involved in numerous medical trials she regressed, lost control of her back and hips, and by the time she was discharged she wasn't able to walk.
"I couldn't hold myself up and was in a wheelchair for about seven months but being a very stubborn person I wanted to prove to people what I could do.
"After a lot of physio I started jogging every day and I started to absolutely love the freedom."
Cooke now runs every day and says a missed session sees the tiredness and dizziness of her earlier condition return.
But running only alleviates her symptoms, it hasn't been a cure.
The raised heart rate brought on by running triggers more seizures than if she didn't run, but Cooke says it improves her general well-being which is a negative worth accepting.
Her neurologist, Dr Doherty, has also weighed up the pros and cons from a medical perspective.
"There are particular challenges with having epilepsy and long-distance running, but if you're walking you have those challenges too and I think the general benefits outweigh these risks," he says.
"If you took the average long-distance runner and measured all their health parameters against somebody who doesn't run you would find,
no matter what disease or disorder they carried with them, they're better off."
http://www.bbc.com/news/disability-38495513
