ABOUT ME
My lived experience and unique mentoring services now offer hope for others to realise their own personal success stories, achieving and exceeding their NDIS goals.
I have always led a healthy, active lifestyle. After topping my class in a degree of visual communication in 2003, and enthusiastically embarking on a new chapter in my life, my world came to a grinding halt. What I had imagined to be just a regular winter virus, triggered a sporadic immune response which was later diagnosed as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
Being diagnosed with a condition that has no cure, effective treatment or promise for leading a complete and fulfilling life, left me predominantly bed ridden for the best part of a decade. Crushed, not only by the debilitating lack of energy, but also the lack of awareness and stigma surrounding Chronic Fatigue, I was confronted with a choice. To be beaten, or to take small and calculated steps, day-by-day, in an attempt to regain my life. I chose the latter, spending every waking hour learning how to make the most of every moment. I delved deep into meditation, nutrition, sleep therapy, psychology, strength and mobility training and much more in the search for a balanced and holistic approach to living.
With no professional support, living below the poverty line, and I, myself, being the recipient of a disability pension, I managed to pull myself out of what I feared to be a life sentence, and achieve things I couldn’t have dreamed of.
Through determination and strict discipline, I was able to slowly regain my health and build the momentum required to get the best out of my life. Having lived such an extraordinarily challenging situation, equipped me with the life skills, but more importantly, the empathy, to offer fundamental assistance to highly functioning people living with a disability.
My disability has become my success and now I support others to find theirs. Gerard Ramsay-Matthews
