Donna Rose - Family

Content warning: This article includes discussion of challenging personal experiences and sensitive subject matters that some readers may find distressing. Support is available if you are affected by any of the issues raised.

For Donna Rose, family has always come first.

Long before she became a Saracens prop, a Wales international and one of the most popular personalities in the dressing room, she was a young girl growing up in a Traveller family in Ringwood, learning the values that continue to define her today.

"I got brought up with family comes first, loyalty, passion and protecting the people around you," Rose explains. "When I love, I love."

Those values were forged early. With a younger brother who was often bullied because of a speech impediment, Rose naturally stepped into the role of protector.

"I was always protective over him," she says. "I think that's just how I've always been."

Yet while she was looking after those around her, Rose was quietly battling challenges of her own.

Growing up, she often felt different from those around her. School was difficult and she was frequently labelled as the "naughty kid" rather than someone struggling beneath the surface.

"I got tarnished as the naughty kid, the one who was unteachable and not very academic," she recalls. "For a long time, I thought there was just something wrong with me."

School eventually reduced her timetable and sent her out to work. At 14, she was working in kitchens while also joining the Young Firefighters Association, one of the first places where she found a sense of purpose and belonging.

Behind the scenes, however, Rose was experiencing a prolonged struggle with her mental health. She battled self-harm and suicidal thoughts throughout her teenage years and into adulthood, often feeling unable to explain what she was going through.

"I knew I was different, but I couldn't control it," she says. "I just knew there was something wrong, but I didn't know what."

At 21, after attempting to take her own life, Rose was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder.

The diagnosis brought answers, but not immediate solutions.

"It was just something I knew I had," she says. "I didn't really understand it at first."

It would take years of counselling, therapy and self-education before she began to fully understand both the condition and herself.

Through that process, Rose discovered a mindset that continues to guide her today.

"I don't suffer with borderline personality disorder," she says. "I live with it."

Rather than defining her, Rose began to understand how some of the traits she had always viewed as weaknesses could become strengths.

"The loyalty in me makes me loyal to my teammates, my club and my coaches," she explains. "I started to realise that what I'd been through and how intensely I feel things could actually be my superpower."

Around the same time, another family was beginning to form.

Rose was introduced to rugby by friends Poppy and Bryony, whose father would regularly pick her up and take her to training and matches.

"My family weren't sporty and we couldn't really afford rugby kit," she says. "I used to wear hand me downs that were always too big for me."

What began as an invitation quickly became an obsession.

"I just fell in love with it," Rose says.

The physicality of rugby initially provided an outlet for emotions she struggled to process elsewhere, but over time it became something much more significant.

"It gave me somewhere I belonged."

That sense of belonging has remained central throughout her rugby journey.

Whether representing Wales or pulling on the Saracens shirt, Rose's connection to those around her is what drives her.

"The Saracens girls and the Welsh girls are like family to me," she says. "Being around them is already a bit of medicine."

Anyone who spends time around Rose quickly notices her ability to lift those around her. Often the joker in the group, she is a constant source of energy and positivity within the squad.

Yet her motivation is simple.

"I just want everyone to be okay," she says. "If everyone else is smiling, I'm smiling."

It is a philosophy rooted in the same values she learned as a child.

Family.

Loyalty.

Looking after others.

There is perhaps no better example of Rose's devotion to family than the ink on her skin. What began as a way of covering scars she no longer wanted to see has become a permanent tribute to the people who matter most in her life.

Today, family means more to Rose than ever before.

Becoming a mother has given her a fresh perspective on her own journey and the challenges she has faced throughout her life. It has also reinforced the importance of openness, honesty and emotional understanding within a family.

"For a long time, I didn't understand what I was feeling," Rose says. "I knew I was different, but I didn't know why."

Now, as she raises her daughter, she is determined to create an environment where emotions are talked about openly and difficult days are never faced alone.

"I want my daughter to know it's okay to talk about how she's feeling," she says. "Whether she's happy, sad, angry or struggling with something, I want her to know she can always come to me."

It is not about changing the past. Rose speaks warmly of the values her family instilled in her growing up: loyalty, resilience and protecting the people you love. Instead, it is about building on those foundations and giving her daughter the emotional understanding she spent years searching for herself.

"When you become a parent, you realise how important it is for your child to feel loved, supported and understood," she says. "I want her to know she never has to bottle things up."

For someone whose life has been shaped by family, loyalty and belonging, motherhood has simply given those values a new focus.

The young girl who once felt different now understands herself. The player who found belonging through rugby now helps create it for others. And the woman who spent years searching for answers is now helping ensure her daughter grows up knowing that whatever she is feeling, she never has to face it alone.

Because if family has always been at the centre of Donna Rose's story, motherhood is the chapter that brings everything together.

The values that carried her through her toughest moments, loyalty, protection, love and belonging, are now the values she hopes to pass on. Rugby gave her a second family. Becoming a mother has given her the chance to build one of her own.