A brave Meath teenager who was born with a rare genetic disorder that left him wheelchair bound has been hailed a medical miracle by doctors who told him he would never walk with his condition.
Conor McAuley, 18, from Mornington was diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), a rare muscle wasting disease that affects one in 3,500 male births, when he was just three and a half years old.
Despite pleas by doctors to give up hopes of walking, determined Conor beat the odds and is believed to be one of the only people in the country with his condition who can walk unaided.
The heroic youngster, who admits that he struggled to come to terms with the condition growing up and even thought he could reverse it, says he is "not sure he would be here today" if a devastating freak accident hadn’t forced him accept his disability.
Using social media to create motivational videos, the inspirational young man says he is now on a mission to let other disabled teenagers know that “they are not alone.”
He said: “When I started secondary school I was trying to fit in with the other kids and I was embarrassed to talk about my condition.
“As a young kid with this a disability you feel like an outcast, you feel empty and lost because you just want to be treated like everyone else.
“You want to say I have a disability, it’s a part of me but it is not all of me.
“I went to an all boys school where most of the lads played sports and there I was someone who couldn’t run or jump or climb.
“I was taking steroids as well and that was tough because you have mood swings and they made me get really angry and frustrated. It was a dark time."
Conor, who has just completed sixth year and lives with parents Tanya and David as well as twin sisters Aoife and Caitlin (21), began to resent having to use a wheelchair and says he “pretended it wasn’t there”.
He explained: “I was in a wheelchair as a young child and doctors told me I’d never walk by myself but I didn’t listen, I worked hard and started walking independently.
“I needed the chair sometimes as my body weakened but I didn’t want anyone to know I had a disability so I refused to use it.
“I even thought I could reverse my disability, I was just in denial, I didn’t want to believe that this was my life, I just couldn’t give in.
“I had a really tough period of time where I really struggled mentally.
“I went to counselling and I started taking medication to get my mood back on track and I feel like I’m in a good place now.”
The Meath teenager was dealt a huge blow in 2017 when doctors told him that he should give up on ever walking again after breaking his leg, but strong willed Conor defied the odds and got back on his feet.
He said: “I fell on a foot path and broke my leg in 2017 and I couldn’t walk for four months.
“After working so hard to walk in the first place, it was devastating.
“I remember one of the doctors told me to give up on walking all together and in my head I just couldn’t accept that, I couldn’t sit down and just be defeated.
“After that I had four or five months of rehabilitation and eventually I got up on my feet again.
“The doctors couldn’t believe that I was walking, they said it was a miracle, even now they are amazed when I go for check ups, they say that I shouldn’t be able to walk with the condition never mind breaking my leg on top of it.
“I even started going to the gym and lifting weights, something else I was told I could never do.
“I’m actually really grateful for that accident because I was in such a bad place in my mind that I don’t know if I would be here today if I didn’t break my leg.
“I needed to accept that the chair was going to be a part of my life and I don’t think that I would have if I hadn’t been forced to.
“Now I know it’s there if I need it and that’s okay.”
Conor hopes to make a difference by sharing his journey on social media with other disabled young people.
He said: “I’m just using my social media platforms to share motivational videos and positive messages about the condition and stories about my daily life.
“Growing up there was no one like me that I could relate to.
“If I can just help one person to know they are not alone it will be worth it.”
See www.conwheels.com for more.
