Krystal DeMaid to do Marina run wheelchair bound after FND diagnosis

When a fall triggered a mystery diagnosis that left her paralysed from the waist down, a Qld woman’s life was turned upside down. Now, she’s smashing stigma by joining a marathon “run” … in a wheelchair.

Krystal DeMaid will take on the Marina Half Marathon run in her basketball wheelchair on Sunday, June 1. Photo: Luke Lay

Krystal DeMaid was halfway through finishing her veterinary course at university in 2019 when she lost vision and passed out, hitting her head on the dorm room floor.

When she woke up, she couldn’t lift the left side of her body.

Later that year, Ms DeMaid’s lost her sight again, hitting her head a second time and triggering an “almost full body paralysis”.

While her previous condition of Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) which caused her to faint in the first place was known to her, it was a neurological disease that bore out of the fall that still remains a mystery to her today.

Ms DeMaid said she always suffered from disabilities, though FND remained a mystery to her.

Functional Neurological Disease manifests when the brain and body don’t talk properly resulting in unexplained and random seizures, movement disorders, pain, tremors, speech, vision and hearing problems, extreme slowness and fatigue, and loss of the sense of touch.

“I’m still not quite sure what brings it on. The few people I’ve met who have it all kind of have different things that seem to have brought it on,” she said.

While the diagnosis was life-altering, a lack of understanding her diagnosis was what sparked a need for change in Ms DeMaid’s life.

“There’s a lot of people that don’t know what it is or have very negative views on it because it’s not kind of as clear cut as a lot of other disorders are,” she said.

Krystal DeMaid was the first woman to complete the Marina Run last year.

“I’ve had a few people think that I’m faking it because it’s not an easy kind of disorder to understand.”

This Sunday, Ms DeMaid will be taking on the Mackay Marina Half Marathon run wheelchair-bound in her bid to break the stigma surrounding FND and other disabilities.

“To cross that finish line will help show me all the hours of training and all the hours of putting the hard work into what I’ve been doing over the last six to 12 months,” she said.

“It kind of all comes together in that moment.”

Behind the scenes, Ms DeMaid spends hours rehabilitating and strengthening her body through stretching, muscle therapy and even electric therapy to help maintain the muscle mass that she has left.

“They don’t see how much therapy and how much work I’m putting in to try and keep my body in the condition that it’s at now,” she said.

“Now, the top half my body works quite well. I still have issues with my left side, but my legs have no functional movement in it at all.”

Last year she became the first ever woman to complete the race in a wheelchair and she said she’d already seen real change in the community.

Ange Meyer, Krystal Demaid and Melissa Dooley at the Mackay Australia Day Gala. Picture: Michaela Harlow

“To get out there and see how many people who’ve gone from being unsure of seeing a wheelchair in an event such as the Marina Run to now being really supportive of it … the fact that more people of different ability levels are starting to get involved as well is amazing for me to see because it shows everyone that anything is possible,” she said.

“It’s amazing to me to see the growth in the community.”

Originally published as Krystal DeMaid to do Marina run wheelchair bound after FND diagnosis