“The Bachelorette”’s Hannah Brown Shares How 'Out of Control' Asthma Can Be: 'I Won’t Let It Stop Me' (Exclusive)

The 29-year-old reality star, who’s had asthma since she was 5, shares her lifelong struggles with the chronic disease

Hannah Brown was in midair on a flight to visit her fiancé’s Okla homa family in December 2022 when she was suddenly overcome by a coughing fit. “I could feel my throat closing up, like there were hair balls stuck in it,” recalls the 29-year-old star of the 2019 season of The Bachelorette, who knew from experience that she was having a severe asthma attack.

“I was shaking uncontrollably and trying to grab my inhaler — but I couldn’t take in the air.” Alarmed, her fiancé, Adam Woolard, alerted a flight attendant, who came to Brown’s aid with oxygen. She was finally able to catch her breath, but the plane had to be diverted to Dallas, where Brown was met with a stretcher. “It was embarrassing,” she says, “but I got so scared because what are you going to do on a plane?”

Brown is one of nearly 26 million Americans who are living with the chronic respiratory illness, which causes inflammation and a narrowing of the small airways in the lungs — leading to a range of symptoms, including coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath and a tightness in the chest.

“Asthma is a chronic condition that can be severe and life-threatening,” says Dr. Payel Gupta, a New York City-based allergist. “There can be periods in your life when you’re not affected by your asthma, but it doesn’t just completely go away.”

Related: Hannah Brown Recalls 'Declining in Health' After Being Diagnosed with Cancer at 11: 'I Had a Really Crazy Scare'

For Brown, who was diagnosed when she was 5 years old, coping with asthma has meant learning to anticipate when she might be most susceptible to an episode.

“I sometimes have to slow down or take a second to focus on my breath, because if I don’t, it can get to a place where it’s out of control — and an attack happens,” she says. “That’s the thing with asthma that’s so hard for me. It’s always a surprise. I never know when it’s coming.”

Brown grew up in Northport, Ala., near the football-crazed campus of the University of Alabama, where her parents, Robert, 63, a barber by trade, and Susanne, 55, own and operate two cosmetology schools. Brown started dancing when she was 2 and loved playing sports (softball was a favorite), but she was also prone to illness as a child.

“I was a pretty sick kid, catching everything going around school,” recalls Brown, who has a younger brother, Patrick, 26 (who also has asthma), and a half sister, Alisa, 41. “I feel like I spent most of my childhood in a doctor’s office, doing my homework and playing I Spy.”

After her mother noticed Brown was often wheezing, visits to her pediatrician and further testing with an allergist confirmed an asthma diagnosis. She was prescribed an inhaler and was told to keep it close during physical activity.

“That was just something I had to do if I was going to be active,” says Brown, who was just 9 when she experienced one of the worst asthma attacks of her life during a theme party for a school project on the Middle Ages. The event included some 400 candles, and Brown began coughing from the smoke soon after she arrived at the auditorium.

Related: 'Bachelorette' 's Hannah Brown Had Pancreatic Cancer at Age 11

“It was one of those days I didn’t bring my inhaler, because I wasn’t doing any physical activity,” says Brown, who wound up in the nurse’s office for more than two hours, where they were finally able to stabilize her breathing with a nebulizer. “There’s nothing worse than feeling that you can’t breathe or control yourself enough to calm down,” says Brown, whose triggers include pollen and seasonal changes, and respiratory infections like a cold or COVID, which can bring on severe attacks. “Especially as a child, that’s really scary.”

But asthma wasn’t the only childhood health challenge Brown faced. At age 11, she began suffering from painful stomach cramps, and when her general health began to decline, her pediatrician recommended a full body scan.

The procedure revealed an encased, malignant tumor on her pancreas, which doctors successfully removed in surgery. “They found it before it could fully attack the rest of my system,” says Brown, who went for regular checkups for several years after and remains cancer-free. “I got very sick with that, but I also got very lucky.”

By the time she was 15, Brown had started competing in beauty pageants — primarily as a way of earning college scholarships. “I cared about my schooling,” says Brown, whose talent as a dancer (“I danced every day after school — jazz, ballet, contemporary, anything and everything”) gave her an advantage at local pageants.

“It kept me very focused; I achieved my goals and learned the importance of hard work in anything that you do,” says Brown, who put her pageant days behind her and graduated from the University of Alabama in 2017 with a degree in public relations and communications.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

The following year, on a whim, she entered the Miss Alabama USA contest — and won. “I thought, ‘What the heck?’ and signed up two weeks before,” says Brown. Two months later, in July 2018, she got the call to become a contestant on The Bachelor. “I was pretty clueless — I couldn’t have told you how a rose ceremony went, so it was kind of a joke to me,” she admits.

Bachelor Colton Underwood sent her home halfway through the season, but she returned the following year as The Bachelorette. (She and fiancé Jed Wyatt broke up after it was discovered that Wyatt was already in a relationship.) “It was the wildest ride of my life,” says Brown, who hopscotched from her final rose ceremony over to Dancing with the Stars two months later — where she and her professional partner Alan Bersten took home the Mirrorball trophy that same year.

“It all changed my life, but that comes with highs and lows, for sure,” says Brown, who admits that her run on reality TV also took a toll on her mental health. “It’s great when you’re on top and winning, but we weren’t built to have millions of people’s eyes on us. And when you have those moments where you’re not your best, that can be really hard.”

Since then, Brown has returned to her southern roots—leaving L.A. behind and settling in Nashville, where she has found love away from the cameras with Woolard, 36, a private-client banker she met on a dating app in 2021.

On Aug. 24 Woolard surprised Brown with a ring and a proposal during a weekend retreat outside of Nashville with family and friends. “I did not catch on — and I loved the surprise!” says Brown. “Adam makes me feel loved and seen and accepted in a way I never have. He still has the ability to just calm me down and put me at ease.”

Which isn’t to say that Brown’s life has slowed down in any way. Armed with her inhaler, she recently won season 1 of Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test reality TV competition — where contestants face a series of grueling challenges similar to those required of the Army’s elite Green Beret units — beating out the likes of former NBA star Dwight Howard and ex-NFL wide receiver Danny Amendola.

Related: Hannah Brown Details Her Struggles with Sleep Paralysis: 'It's Super Scary'

“This was probably my favorite show,” says Brown. “It just reminded me how strong I am and what I’m capable of.” And when she’s not pushing through strength and workout sessions three times a week with her personal trainer, she’s sharing much of the rest of her life on her weekly podcast Better Tomorrow.

“Focusing on my mental health has been really big for me,” admits Brown. “I feel like I show up now in my relationships and my life and my career . . . and with my listeners, I feel like we can grow together.”

As busy as she is, Brown has also learned to manage her needs and prioritize her health. “Asthma doesn’t let me off the hook — it’s something I have to be aware of,” she says. “But I won’t let it stop me or keep me from pursuing the things that are important to me and the dreams I have to chase. I just chase them, one breath at a time.”

PEOPLE Health can be found in select doctors' offices across the U.S. For more celebrity updates and the latest health news, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE on newsstands or subscribe here.

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.