My first brush with Guillain-Barré Syndrome was when a mate of mine, Fred Porter, got it and was put in intensive care in Cairns Base Hospital for four months. I can remember thinking 'My god! What sort of disease is this.' It flattened and almost killed one of the fittest men I have ever known.

It was about four years later; I woke one morning with my legs feeling a bit shaky. I didn't think much of it and went on with work on my property. By lunch time my legs were getting wobbly and I thought it was an old football injury coming back but by that afternoon I thought "I'll give them something to be shaky about," and I went to the pub for a few beers.(This was Friday)
I was only there a short time before my wife came to tell me our property was on fire. By the time I got there it was well ablaze. I had to catch a horse and get the cattle out of the paddock but I couldn't get on the horse. I had to put him in a drain in order to get on him. By the time I organised a grader and water cart, my legs were getting very weak.

My wife and I fought the fire until 2am but it got the better of us. By this time my legs were like two tree stumps. By the next morning I could just walk and that's when I thought, 'this is not going to go away'.

As this was the first time I had visited Dr Power's Surgery when I told her that I thought I had GBS, she looked at me and I think she thought she had a ripe one here! When I told her about Fred she ran some tests and organised for me to go to the base hospital where they ran more tests and diagnosed me with GBS.

From there it was off to the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane. After three days the use of my legs had completely gone and my arm had started to lose power. It was the most frightening time of my lifeas every day I could feel myself going down the shute and knowing what Fred had gone through. Fred had died twice but it was his will to live that got him through. I didn't know if I could muster up the courage for this.

My wife would come up every day and try to keep me in a positive attitude. It was after the sixth plasma pheresis treatment that I could not handle any more pain. Five out of the six treatments caused extreme pain to the point where evn my hair was feeling like it was on fire. After this I thought I would try natural products and vitamins to boost my immune system which I believe to this day helped me to overcome this terrible disease.

It was about a week later that my left eyelid started to work and I started to get some power back in my arms. This was the begining of a whole new life for me. Before this illness I thought I was bullet proof and did not apprieciate the beautiful things that are all around us. After eight months in hospital I returned back to my property and I refused to ever get back in that wheelchair. My stint in the wheelchair taught me to appreciate how strong willed are the people that are confined to wheelies for the rest of their lives. This illness not only changes our life but the lives of our carers and family. For some the pressure and changes are too much. So we must be considerate to the carers as their lives are turned upside down as well.

It has been eight years since I got crook and I have learnt so much.
1. Never to take life for granted as we don't know what is ahead.
2. Admire all the beautiful things around us. There are so many things that interest me now that I never noticed before.
3 I always try to keep my immune system strong with natural products and vitamin B12 supplements. I came out of all this with one leg that doesn't work very well but I believe that is a small price to pay because I am still alive and enjoying the hell out of life.
Old saying;
"Live every day like it is your last and one day you'll be right".