How Brad magically rebounded in life

TEN years ago, Brad Manuel was given 12 months to live and was unable to even hold a toothbrush.

Brad Manuel has overcome degenerative neuromuscular disease to become an avid athlete and surfer, comedian, magician, a keynote speaker and small business owner.

AT AGE 17, Brad Manuel dreamt of becoming a pilot. That was until a workplace accident left him blind in one eye.

While changing a truck tyre with his father, a steel bar Brad was holding slipped and went through the side of his left eye, splitting it open.

"I had emergency surgery to save the eye tissue, and as it turned out my right eye was going blind as well due to the impact," he said.

"The retinas had detached.

"When that accident happened, there was a long period when I was actually blind for about four months.

"By the time the surgeries were finished, it took a few months to actually get something resembling some sight back.

"I had originally wanted to join RAAF, and become a pilot but they're not real keen on pilots who can't see," he laughed.

During his recovery in hospital, Brad's father gave him playing cards and coins to keep his mind off the pain. Brad taught himself sleight-of-hand magic tricks.

Brad Manuel has overcome degenerative neuromuscular disease to become an avid athlete and surfer, comedian, magician, a keynote speaker and small business owner.

Then when Brad moved to the Sunshine Coast two years later at 19, he turned this hobby into a career, taking his unique blend of comedy and magic shows around the region.

"I started working at some restaurants and pubs doing magic for them, and it's been my job now for 30 years," he said.

Now 49, Brad can lay claim to being an avid athlete and surfer, comedian, magician, a keynote speaker and a small-business owner.

Brad Manuel has overcome degenerative neuromuscular disease to become an avid athlete and surfer, comedian, magician, a keynote speaker and small business owner.

He has performed his magic around the world, and even taken his show to Las Vegas.

He loves making people laugh for a living.

"If that accident hadn't happened, I wouldn't have had this fantastic career," he said.

But everything changed for Brad again one night in 2009, when he was performing a show.

All of a sudden, inexplicably, he couldn't move the fingers on one of his hands.

He saw doctors, physios, naturopaths and other specialists who all said it was due to a pinched nerve.

But within a month, the symptoms progressed to his other arm and left leg.

"We then got a referral to a neurologist, who did all this testing, came back and said, 'Do you know what motor neurone disease is?'," Brad said.

Brad and his wife Bryony sought second opinions from neurologists who also suspected he had the disease.

He deteriorated rapidly and within three months, he couldn't even hold a toothbrush or open a car door, and his left leg had started to atrophy.

Finally, Brad had an appointment with a leading neurologist in Brisbane, who ordered an MRI scan of his brain, which would provide a definitive answer.

It was at this time that Brad narrowly avoided being blinded for a second time in his life.

"When you have an MRI, you fill out a form which asks have you ever had any metal in your body," he says.

Brad Manuel has overcome degenerative neuromuscular disease to become an avid athlete and surfer, comedian, magician, a keynote speaker and small business owner.

Bryony wrote that he may still have remnants of steel in his eye from the accident he had as a teenager, but they didn't know for sure.

"They put me on the table, said lie still so we can get an accurate reading and turned on the machine for about 10 seconds," Brad said.

At the last minute, a radiologist read the form, stopped the machine, and suggested an x-ray of Brad's head first, to make sure there was no metal.

The images showed there was dense metal in Brad's eyes, and he found out there were titanium clips holding his eyes together.

"The radiologist said the MRI is a big magnet, and if they had put in me in it any longer, the clips would have ripped through my eyes," Brad recalled.

Without an MRI to provide results, his neurologist concluded that Brad either had motor neurone disease or multifocal motor neuropathy (MMN): a disease that affects muscle.

"He said worst-case scenario, it's motor neurone disease, and the current prognosis is probably 12 months," Brad said.

"He said the other thing is MMN, which is under the umbrella of motor neuron but it's only your lower neurons that are affected. It's a degenerative condition that will progress over time.

"I said 'Well I'll take that one'."

Brad Manuel has overcome degenerative neuromuscular disease to become an avid athlete and surfer, comedian, magician, a keynote speaker and small business owner.

Assuming Brad had MMN, the neurologist recommended a drug treatment, administered by IV every three weeks for as long as the patient lives, but said that in Brad's situation, that might not even work.

"I said 'No, if you give me a month I'll come back and show you I've got movement in my hands'," Brad told him.

Every day, Brad tried to push his body as much as possible, to get some sort movement.

Finally, after five-and-a-half months, he could move his index finger slightly - enough to flick a coin.

The neurologist said the improvement was an anomaly, and still encouraged him to start the drug treatment, but Brad declined all medication and continued pushing himself to move on his own.

Ten years later, and against all odds, Brad has improved his condition and is back to doing what he loves: surfing every day, performing magic, and now sharing his story as a motivational speaker.

"There's no medical explanation as to why and how I'm able to do it," he said.

"Every day is Groundhog Day for me. I basically reboot my system every morning.

"Once I'm up and moving, I do some resistance exercises and go for a surf for a couple hours.

"If I'm at home, I'll go and climb Mount Coolum - always a minimum of three times in a row, or I'll do a 6-7km beach run and some weight exercises."

Brad said he realised just how strong and capable the human body was, and he tried not to let negative thoughts get to him.

"I'm a firm believer that's actually what has kept me in the condition that I am in," he said.

"I meet a lot of people who say, 'It's amazing what you're able to do, Brad', and I say, 'It's not amazing, it's just what I do and if I'm capable, then anyone's capable of doing this'.

"I've done everything that I wanted to do in a career. I've got three great kids, a beautiful wife, and that wouldn't have happened if I hadn't put that bit of steel through my eye when I was 17.

"As tragic as people might think that accident is, I wouldn't change it for the world."

But he added, laughing: "Would be nice to be able to see again properly, though."