John G may finally receive the help he needs after the NDIS confirmed it’s working to review his funding rejection following a campaign by Daily Mail Australia.
John, a former engineer who can now only walk with crutches due to a major neurological disorder, has been waiting for NDIS assistance for the past four years.
The 36-year-old Sydney man’s heartbreaking life story and his rejection by the NDIS has shocked and angered millions of Australians, who want to know why he didn’t make the cut like the other 660,000 Aussies on the scheme.
In further good news, a good Samaritan has stepped in to offer his therapy services for free to help John ‘until he gets the support he deserves’ after reading about his plight on Daily Mail Australia.
Nicholas Karam, MD of Therapy 360 which has 20 years’ experience in the disability sector, has offered the organisation’s services free of charge to help improve John’s mobility, social engagement, physical issues and self-confidence.
Told about the offer, John expressed his thanks but was slightly anxious about physically attending a clinic, saying ‘just getting to and from will be the difficult part’.
However Mr Karam confirmed that a Therapy360 mobile team would visit John at his home in Ryde.
Mr Karam said he would also ask his contacts about whether a cleaning service could also be arranged for John’s home.
The NDIS is finally reviewing John’s rejected application and now a good Samaritan has stepped in to help John with his therapy needs as he waits for ‘the support he deserves’
John with his beloved siblings who are now mostly grown up but whom he says ‘have their own lives to live’ and make their way in the world just as he did
Mr Karam said gathering the evidence for an NDIS application alone can be overwhelming.
He pledged to help John under a no-obligation basis, noting that ‘there’s been big changes from where he was to where he is’ in the five years since John’s life went downhill due to his neurological issues.
Regarding John’s failed NDIS application, the scheme’s agency, the NDIA, said in a statement: ‘To date John has been deemed ineligible for the scheme based off available evidence.
‘The NDIA is currently working with John and his case manager, who is supporting him to gather additional evidence to support a review of the decision.
‘To meet access for the NDIS, a person must meet all eligibility criteria, including the NDIS eligibility’s permanency criteria.
‘The NDIA must be satisfied that all relevant and appropriate treatments have been explored, with a resulting permanent disability remaining.’
A letter from John’s doctor, written for the NDIS, confirms he suffers from Major Neurological Disorder and a depressive condition.
The letter states that the 36-year-old ‘has severe movement disorder which restricts his mobility’ and the death of his father left him ‘even more vulnerable’.
The doctor also stated that John’s conditions ‘should be considered permanent and maximally treated’.
John been a hard-working, proud civil engineer on Sydney ‘s biggest project before he became a self-confessed ‘shaking wreck’
John (black and white shirt) pictured as a young man at his grandmother’s birthday, had a fiancée, a great job and was physically fit before the neurological disorder took over him
As John has made plain from the start, since his plight became public after gardener Nathan Stafford mowed his overgrown lawn free of charge, his condition is permanent and he can barely walk.
He can’t clean, shop or properly care for himself.
‘It just s**ts me to tears because I’m a high-risk falls person,’ he told Daily Mail Australia.
‘I can’t jump on public transport because I might fall down stairs. I might twitch and hurt somebody else.
‘If I hold on to a cup of coffee, the bloke next to me might wear it.’
John has laid bare his life to Daily Mail Australia how he was a hard-working civil engineer on Australia’s biggest rail project before he became a ‘shaking wreck’.
John G with good Samaritan tradie Nathan Stafford, who cleared up the Ryde yard and championed the 36-year-old neurological disorder sufferer’s bid to be accepted on the NDIS
John (left) when he was making his way, working on the Sydney Metro project before a major neurological disorder stole his health (left)
As a young man, he practised Taekwondo and played rugby league in high school, before studying psychology and engineering, and being hired for the Sydney Metro construction.
He described with pride his ‘hands on’ work building the massive Metro tunnel, doing high risk crane, platform and rigging work as a fit and abled-bodied man with a large crew under him.
Now as Australia’s biggest public transport project is about to launch into operation, he can only look on from his living room.
‘I had the world at my feet, I was doing really, really well then (the disease) came like an onslaught – yeah, a freight train,’ he said.
Despite a promise from NDIS Minister Bill Shorten on Wednesday in response to inquiries on John’s behalf, he said he is still waiting for help to clean up his house
John fell sick five years ago, first with non-epileptic seizures then ‘a lot of falls’ and feelings of paralysis.
After his father George did, aged 70, last year, John’s illness worsened, as did his isolation and inability to keep his house in order, a depressing reality for the former ‘neat freak’.
From a person who dressed smartly, socialised, had a fiancée and hopes of having a family, John states, without self pity, ‘I lost everything’.
NDIS bureaucrats, however, still say he has to prove that his irreversible illness is ‘permanent’.
‘I’ve been told I’m not going to recover,’ said John who misses his active and physical life, still retains a sense of humour.
‘I just hope the (NDIS) noise will transpire into action, that’s all.’
Minister Bill Shorten did respond on Wednesday to Daily Mail Australia’s questions about John’s care, but John said he’d had previous reassurances and had ‘been waiting long enough’
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk