I never look at Andy with a disability.
We all have our own issues, everyone has something.
The relationship between Lee and Andrew puzzles people.
They're not each other's type.
(laughs)
Andy doesn't speak clearly sometimes,
and Andy's walking up the hill at Kokoda
and he's tripped over, and for the first time in five and a half years,
I hear Andrew swear at me with a very clear voice.
"Lee, you **** idiot!"
It was an arrested labour - nothing was happening.
I knew we were in deep trouble.
The worst trauma I've experienced.
Watching for 20 minutes waiting for the first breaths to begin.
He learned to read early. Much earlier than a "normal" child.
One of the greatest events of his life was
when he was notified that he was accepted to transfer
from Woden Special School into Lyneham High School.
He celebrates the date every year
and that's a bit more important than his birthday.
Andrew's currently studying a masters degree in disability studies.
For a few years we felt that is motor function was deteriorating.
We were told to accept that that's what it would be.
We went to one of the early people
who believed in the concept of neuroplasticity.
We were regarded as crazy then,
Ten years ago as a scientist you would have got
kicked off a stage for thinking that brains were plastic
as an adult with a physical disability that is lifelong
like cerebral palsy.
Lee Campbell, personal trainer. I was in the army as a physical training instructor.
Played a bit of football with the Sydney Swans.
Meeting Andy five and a half years ago,
he rocked into the gym and said 'can you help me?'
You know, he'll throw around jokes that only Andy can throw around,
that people will go, 'my god, did that just come out?'
Use those legs!
First meeting Andy, his physical capacity was
if you scaled it out of 10, probably 2 1/2 or 3.
I wasn't in a hurry to get to know Lee.
(laughs)
I wanted a vision that went beyond improving his strength.
Getting ready for your next little adventure Andy,
which is the Great Wall of China, we've got to get those legs strong.
We'll train up to five or six days a week, pre-event,
Andy, stand up straight! You've gotta look up!
Some people think it's too fierce.
How many times do I tell you?
If it's just the emotional or mental block, rather than a physical block,
I won't accept it.
Andy, ten more!
Andy thought it would be easier to take his own life
and end it because of the difficulties that he may cause
to his family and those around him.
That's a tragic thing to think.
Lee finally convinced me to go with Andrew on one of his physical challenges.
Well the next challenge is The Great China Wall.
I realised that Lee wasn't just a pretty face.
He had a vision for actually fixing some defective brain function.
And he had heard of pioneers in neuroplasticity.
Lee doesn't talk as if he's got that sort of focus.
He's very blokey.
(laughs)
But he can apply an idea that an academic comnes up with.
For me, it's about getting Andy functional.
This looks like boot camp to me.
By repeatedly doing the same task
you're getting what we call cortical excitability,
so you're lighting up sections of the brain.
It's like you take it from a gravel driveway to a smooth freeway.
When Andrew’s mum was diagnosed with cancer
this greatly increased his obsessive anxiety.
Andy's rocked in from his weekend to training one morning,
I said Andy how was your weekend?
He said, yeah, good, good yeah. Probably not so good.
I said oh why what happened?
He said, well, Mum died.
And that was it, he was just straight onto the rower.
You just think, wow, you know.
How amazing is this guy?
From about the middle of 2014,
there has been steady improvement in his condition.
You watch Andy pull a sled with 20 or 30 kilos of weights in it,
he stands up, his posture is corrected.
His finer motor skills now are getting refined.
He can hold things, he can cook, he can do his buttons up.
Keep going. How good is that.
His physical capacity now is a 7 or a 8.
His confidence, he’s up there.
He’s 12 out of 10 that kid.
We originally thought you could only change as an infant
but now we know you can change life long.
The nervous system is still plastic enough at Andrew's age
to achieve movements that had been thought to be hardwired early on.
Before Dave just saw this as a clinical problem.
All of sudden his son doesn't have a disability or dysfunction.
We've been able to mould them back together as a father son relationship.
Without that support around him,
who knows where he may be?
You’re doing it much easier than Kokoda, Andy
so something must be working.
Head up, that's why you gotta look up.
Come on, let's go.