Matthias

Posted - December 2018 in Community Members

cycling up the Gillies range in FNQ for my father’s Birthday

HSP. I wish it meant I had a Halal Snack Pack that I was eating and enjoying. But no, HSP is what I was diagnosed with in 2015. A lot of different people kept on asking me if I was okay because I had a limp when I walked. This was back in 2007. At first for a few years I didn’t notice anything at all. Even got looked at by doctors and a physiotherapist. They didn’t find anything so I kept on living my life. It finally got to the point where I noticed something wasn’t right with my legs.

A 30 min appointment with a fantastic Physio had turned into 2 hours with no idea what I had. Then onto the Neuro specialist for 18months of testing where I got the news. I was diagnosed with (SPG4) Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia.

Me working as a lead chef in Whistler Canada

My name is Matthias. I am 34 years old, currently living and working in Brisbane. I grew up in beautiful Far North Queensland where I loved the outdoors and getting out and about. I love photography, hiking, cycling, camping, water sports, traveling and cooking. I was a chef for about 12 years where I traveled the world and worked hard and made great friends. Now I am currently working as a pool technician in Brisbane. Took a while for me to get used to city life but really enjoying the change here with my girlfriend Kaitlin.

I have found living with HSP challenging as I loved being active and going on adventures. As a kid I made a few representative level teams to compete at state titles. So not being able to play sports as well as I knew I could, really affected me. I suffered a bit in my personal life and would get really angry. It got to a point where I was hating being this grumpy angry person and had to sort myself out. Getting through depression, for me, made me a better person and knew I had to almost reinvent myself, find new things that I could do that would make me happy and not think about my legs too much.

Me just practicing some bubble rings underwater after squad training

HSP scares me. But all I can do is stay positive about it and keep being active. Could not be happier being a part of the HSP community. I have found it comforting that there are other people out there with HSP that I can talk to.