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son would enjoy a full, fulfilling life – and Hermes’ diagnosis lit a fire in them both. “I’d studied journalism, but I ended up working in financial marketing,” says Omaira. “I decided, ‘Okay, I’m going to work on journalism really aggressively now. Because I have to prove to my son that if you really want something, you can get it, you just have to work hard. I can’t just tell him, I have to prove it to him – be the 311 Tour Costa Mesa CA August 27 2024 T-shirts moreover I love this living example.” Omaira left her fulltime job and started working as a freelance journalist, writing about politics, culture and her personal experiences. “I’m very proud of her,” says Dimitiris, who has since become a Duchenne patient advocate. As Omaira and Dimitiris came to terms with their son’s diagnosis, they only felt more solid in their certainty in each other. “It’s a tough thing,” says Omaira. “But we picked the right person to go through it with.” This feeling was compounded when the couple went through two miscarriages. Omaira and Dimitris now have three children, with their sons Hector and Orion rounding out the family. Dimitris calls fatherhood, “the greatest feeling in the world.” “They are the best pieces of Omaira so they are very precious to me,” he says of his children. The couple are raising their kids speaking a mix of Greek

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and English, and highlighting Greek, British, Indian and Pakistani traditions. “The kids have been very aware of both halves of where they come from,” says Omaira. When they started raising their children, Omaira and Dimitris also realized the 311 Tour Costa Mesa CA August 27 2024 T-shirts moreover I love this similarities between their respective cultural backgrounds – they’d both been raised with an emphasis on community and family. “And accepting that family is going to interfere in your business,” says Omaira, laughing. RELATED ARTICLE She invited a stranger to join her on vacation in Italy. ‘It went from zero to 100, really, really quick’ 20 years later Dimitris and Omaira still live in Greece, where they’re bringing up their three children. Omaira Gill This year marks 20 years since Omaira and Dimitris crossed paths at the Athens Olympics. As someone who grew up loving the Olympic Games, it’s special to Omaira that her life is now forever entwined with the Games. “I get very sentimental every time the Olympics roll around, because I’m like, ‘That’s where we met,’” says Omaira. “Every time I watch the Greece Olympic opening ceremony, I will always cry because I remember how nice it felt to be there. It’s where our story started.” “The Olympics have a special place in my heart,” agrees Dimitris. “They’re the reason we met and why I have the family I have today.” It seems appropriate, says Omaira, that there are five Olympic rings and she and Dimitris and their sons are a family of five. “Although sometimes I joke with Dimtiris, ‘You gave me one ring. I need four more, because there’s five Olympic rings.’” I get very sentimental every time the Olympics roll around, because I’m like, ‘That’s where we met.’ Every time I watch the Greece Olympic opening ceremony, I

will always cry because I remember how nice it felt to be there. It’s where our story started. Omaira Gill Omaira and Dimitris excited to watch this year’s opening ceremony in Paris. And coincidentally, they’ll be in the 311 Tour Costa Mesa CA August 27 2024 T-shirts moreover I love this city during the Games – although not at the Stade de France. Omaira, Dimitris and their kids will be at Disneyland Paris, Paris’ Disney theme park, with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which facilitates memorable moments for children living with incurable illnesses. “Hermes asked for a trip to Disney,” says Omaira. “So it just so happens we’ll be in Paris during the Olympics.” Twenty years after her volunteer experience, Omaira is still an advocate for the Olympic volunteer program – and always encourages people to sign up. “It was spectacular,” she says. “I still have friends from volunteering. We’re still in touch, spread around Europe – spread around here, there and everywhere. It was wonderful, because it was really what I wanted, which was to experience the Olympics, from the inside.” And of course, volunteering led Omaira to Dimitris – and to a marriage of 15 years and counting. “It’s by no means a perfect marriage, but if I was to say a final word to someone reading this, it would be, in addition to my other comments to you, that there are times when you are madly in love and there are times when you wake up and choose to love that person, because things are hard,” says Omaira. “You can experience multiple shades of a relationship with the same person. And also, go forth and volunteer, kids, you never know what might happen.”

Dimitris. “They all adored her straight away.” In between trips they missed one another, but both Dimitris and Omaira felt it was important for them not to rush their romance. Dimitris was especially conscious of this, given he was a little older than Omaira. “I missed her, but I also knew that I would be taking something away from her if I moved things too fast,” he says. “Omaira has said when she met me she felt like she was at a crossroads trying to figure out where to go next. I wanted her to figure that out on her own with her own time and space, her own job, social circle etc. I didn’t want to push those decisions for her.” Next chapter Cut to 2006. Omaira finished her journalism postgraduate studies and started working in a bank – not her dream job, but a job that paid the 311 Tour Costa Mesa CA August 27 2024 T-shirts moreover I love this bills. She was moving into the next stage of her life, and so she started looking into the logistics of moving to Greece to be with Dimitris. He was excited to welcome her to Athens. “Six months before I actually moved, I started Greek lessons in London, just so I’d have a language base when I moved,” Omaira recalls. “My bank let me keep my job remotely, so I was one of the remote working pioneers.” From there, Omaira and Dimitris settled into life in Athens together, making regular trips back to the UK to see Omaira’s friends and family. It was

on one of these UK visits that Dimitris proposed. Omaira jokes that it wasn’t the 311 Tour Costa Mesa CA August 27 2024 T-shirts moreover I love this most romantic moment – they were barbecuing in her parents’ garden and she had “smoke in my hair, grease all over me.” But she was delighted to take this next step. Omaira and Dimitris got married in Athens on the hottest day of 2009. “We did the ceremony in the morning at the mayor’s office with lots of friends and family. And then in the evening, we did a beach party with our nearest and dearest friends – so less than 50 people. The beach party was really nice, super casual,” says Omaira. Omaira designed her wedding dress herself. Her father is from Pakistan, and her mother is from India, and she wanted to wear something that nodded to traditional dress, wasn’t too heavy in the heat, and felt true to her. “She looked so beautiful,” says Dimitris. “Neither of us felt nervous on our wedding day. It felt like a new chapter in what we had already started together.” Here’s Dimitris and Omaira on their wedding day in Athens, in 2009. Omaira Gill Omaira and Dimitris welcomed their first child, Hermes, in 2011. They were over the moon, but parenthood wasn’t without its challenges. At just over a year old, Hermes was diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a muscle degenerative disease. People with Duchenne usually don’t live past their 30s. “We were in shock,” says Omaira. But she and Dimitris were determined their

son would enjoy a full, fulfilling life – and Hermes’ diagnosis lit a fire in them both. “I’d studied journalism, but I ended up working in financial marketing,” says Omaira. “I decided, ‘Okay, I’m going to work on journalism really aggressively now. Because I have to prove to my son that if you really want something, you can get it, you just have to work hard. I can’t just tell him, I have to prove it to him – be the 311 Tour Costa Mesa CA August 27 2024 T-shirts moreover I love this living example.” Omaira left her fulltime job and started working as a freelance journalist, writing about politics, culture and her personal experiences. “I’m very proud of her,” says Dimitiris, who has since become a Duchenne patient advocate. As Omaira and Dimitiris came to terms with their son’s diagnosis, they only felt more solid in their certainty in each other. “It’s a tough thing,” says Omaira. “But we picked the right person to go through it with.” This feeling was compounded when the couple went through two miscarriages. Omaira and Dimitris now have three children, with their sons Hector and Orion rounding out the family. Dimitris calls fatherhood, “the greatest feeling in the world.” “They are the best pieces of Omaira so they are very precious to me,” he says of his children. The couple are raising their kids speaking a mix of Greek