Crows club champion Mark Mickan fights Parkinson’s with exercise, meditation — and footy

TWELVE months on from his Parkinson’s diagnosis becoming public, Mark Mickan is involved in football six days a week while embracing regular exercise and meditation to fight the disease.

Mark Mickan talks to St Michael’s players at the quarter-time huddle on Saturday. Picture: AAP / Morgan Sette

• Mark Mickan reveals he’s fighting Parkinson’s disease
• I’m focused on footy, not Parkinson’s, says Mickan

TWELVE months on from his Parkinson’s diagnosis becoming public, Mark Mickan is involved in football six days a week while embracing regular exercise and meditation to fight the disease.

A year ago this week, news broke that Mickan — the Crows’ inaugural club champion and West Adelaide’s 2015 premiership coach — was battling the nervous system disorder.

The 57-year-old former ruckman says living with Parkinson’s is a constant challenge but he has made lifestyle changes to help him reduce symptoms, such as the tremor in his right hand and foot.

Lethargy can be another symptom so he is keeping busy coaching St Michael’s College’s First XVIII and his son Fletcher’s Henley Sharks’ under-11 team, as well as assisting the SANFL state squad — his first roles since parting ways with the Bloods in August.

“The Parkinson’s, you’re always fighting it,” Mickan says.

“I feel at least as good as I did when I got diagnosed because at least now I’m medicated and know I have to do certain things to maintain my health and keep the symptoms from developing.”

Mark Mickan in the quarter-time huddle with St Michael’s players on Saturday. Picture: Morgan Sette / AAP

Mickan has used daily exercise, a healthy diet, medication, mental stimulation, rest and even transcendental meditation since being diagnosed in September 2016.

The meditation he has been practising involves closing your eyes and repeating a mantra to relieve stress. For Mickan, it has also helped him to sleep better by calming his tremor, which sometimes keeps him awake at night.

“I learnt it (transcendental meditation) a number of years ago, rediscovered it and started practising it again because I thought it would help my condition and I think it has with my rest,” he says.

“Before I was doing it, I was getting a lot of broken sleep.”

Eating well has never been an issue for Mickan but before being diagnosed his exercise regimen was “a bit spasmodic”.

Now he works out for up to an hour most days, either walking, lifting light weights or riding a road bike he has set up on a stand in his converted home gym.

Mark Mickan with his wife Callie and children Fletcher, 10, and Spencer, 6. Picture Matt Turner

“(Exercise) both makes me feel better and more energetic and plays a part in slowing my symptoms, particularly my tremor,” he says.

Mickan’s new football roles also keep him active and he is out watching or coaching every day except Monday.

He has St Michael’s and SANFL state trainings on Tuesday, Fletcher’s Auskick sessions at Fulham North Primary on Wednesday, his college team again on Thursday and Henley’s under-11s on Friday.

On Saturday, Mickan watches Fletcher play for Fulham North Primary then coaches St Michael’s, while Sunday features him in charge for Henley’s matches.

“I’ve got more football sessions per week than when I was coaching Westies,” says Mickan, an 85-game AFL player with Brisbane and Adelaide.

Mickan in action for the Crows against Carlton in 1992.

“I’m really enjoying my involvement in football at a different level.”

Mickan is also part-time relief teaching at St Michael’s and giving expert commentary for the SANFL, where he gets to watch games without the stress of coaching.

His neurologist reckons it is likely he had early symptoms of Parkinson’s for six or seven years, including during his SANFL coaching tenure.

Mickan has not had a sense of smell for about a decade and that can often be a symptom.

Quelling his tremor via deep-brain stimulation surgery, where probes are inserted into the brain, is an option Mickan may consider. But for now, he feels he is going OK.

“I’ve had wonderful family support, great support from St Michael’s College, from West Adelaide ... and Parkinson’s SA has been great as well,” he says.

“When I think of people with far more debilitating situations than what I have, I regard myself as actually very lucky.”