Bodybuilder and strongman DARRAN WINFIELDSTANESBY is using weights to hit back against cerebral ataxia.
back in 2000-2001 DARRAN WINFIELDSTANESBY was diagnosed with an extremely rare form of cerebral ataxia that has left him paralysed from the waist down.
But the former rugby coach is using the gym to hit back.
Cerebral ataxia affects the cerebellum, the part of the brain that tells every muscle what to do and when.
Eventually, the disease will take over his limbs, sight and ability to swallow.
“Keeping my muscles as toned and conditioned as possible will postpone the onset of muscle wastage,” says Winfield-Stanesby.“Basically, I’m fighting back against the ataxia.
” The fight began the moment Winfield-Stanesby checked
himself out of neurophysio and took a taxi to the gym. “I hadn’t been discharged at that point,” he says. “I still had the hospital wristband on.”
After 11 months in hospital, Winfield-Stanesby was extremely weak and suffering from full-body muscle spasms. “I wasn’t even strong enough to open the gym door; I just knocked until someone let me in,” he says. “I was so weak I used a broomstick for the first month. I curled it, pressed it, I did everything with it because that was my limit.”
After months of training and teaching himself to swallow whole food again, he had gone from strength to strength.
Now in the shape of his life, Winfield-Stanesby has been
crowned British wheelchair bodybuilding champion and
finished second at the World’s Strongest Disabled Man competition in Iceland last year.
His achievements are testament to the incredible work he’s put in at the gym—he certainly isn’t afraid of putting in the hard graft to stay in top shape.
