10 years ago I started to experience problems in my everyday life, such as memory loss, random nerve pain, fogginess, confusion and suddenly being clumsy and constantly dropping things. I went from being a 40 year old workaholic with the energy of a Jack Russell puppy, to someone who was constantly exhausted and bed ridden with pain. After a while I couldn't work or safely live on my own.

I had to move back in with my parents.

I felt that I had lost all autonomy and low and behold depression and anxiety also moved in.

After 5 years of endless doctors visits, which all ended in no one believing my symptoms, I was finally diagnosed with a neurological condition called FND, Functional Neurological Disorder with the star symptoms being Ataxia, Dystonia and Spasticity, with a severe movement disorder thrown in for good measure!

Needless to say, since then there have been some incredibly dark times......... BUT, I was fortunate enough to be introduced to a Badminton group for people with disabilities. Through this introduction, I have found a way to get up out of bed every day and use my body and mind to fight against the quick deterioration that is associated with FND.

Out of all the physical pain and difficulty with my memory, the worst thing was actually the fact that nobody believed me, that they thought I was feigning symptoms. This was due to the fact that at the time I started to be unwell FND was practically unheard of in Australia.

I felt so alone and absolutley petrified as to what was going to happen to me.

I don't want anybody else to ever feel the way I did......

Therefore my plight is to educate and increase awareness of FND and hopefully to help in researching for treatments and even a cure!

Through Badminton I became a "somebody" I won a Gold Medal in the Women's Singles at the 2023 Para Badminton Oceana Tournament in Perth then in 2024 I won a Bronze Medal for Mixed Doubles at the Para Badminton International Tournament in Solo, Indonesia, and I realised that maybe I could turn my success into a platform to get my story and other peoples story out there.

My goal is to make a documentary about how FND impacts daily life, not only for me but the lives of the people that support me, and to highlight how unknown it is. I would also like to show the reality of having a disability and the hurdles that you are faced with just going about daily tasks. In no way is it to garner sympathy, but more to address the taboo nature of disability and to open the conversation.

The funds that we hope to raise will be put towards funding all aspects of making the doco and attending tournaments.

Unfortunately there is no financial aid available for Para Badminton.

I have been building a team to help put this story into a documentary, so far I have had the pleasure of meeting some incredibly generous and talented souls. The project most definitley has legs but we need funds to keep moving.

Badminton has literally saved my life. With FND, the way to combat the decline of the body is to keep moving, but it's hard. It's like climbing a mountain of unrelentless pain and having a brain you feel you can't trust on a daily basis. Having the documentary as an incentive is a fantastic way to keep motivated.

Any donations, no matter how small is greatly appreciated....... neurological conditions are often misunderstood and it can cause isolation or years of unnecessary struggle on the road to diagnosis.

Hopefully we can change this together.........

Come and join Team Misundersood!

Please copy and paste the link below to see more of Macka's Story.

Credit to Ruby Bartzis for creating this video for our journey

https://photos.app.goo.gl/2XtCVQzJbBk8DHVi6