A seriously ill man whose application for NDIS funding was repeatedly rejected has finally won after Daily Mail Australia intervened in his more than four-year campaign for help.
On Tuesday morning, the day after his 37th birthday, John G. received an email confirming that he had finally been approved for NDIS funding to help ease his suffering.
John, who suffers from a serious neurological condition, admitted at his home in Sydney’s north-west: ‘This is the best birthday present I could ever have received.
‘The moment I heard it, it was a huge weight off my shoulders. I can finally get some relief.
‘One of the aides in (NDIS Minister) Bill Shorten’s office contacted me personally and said she would expedite matters following the (Daily Mail Australia) story.
“She was a sweetheart.”
John, a former engineer who now only walks with crutches and shakes constantly, has been waiting for help from the NDIS since 2019 after becoming ill with functional neurological disorder (FND) the year before.
John’s heartbreaking life story and rejection from the NDIS shocked and angered millions of Australians who wanted to know why he, like the other 660,000 Australians who applied for the scheme, had failed to make the cut.
John G received the news on Tuesday morning via an email from the NDIS, stating that after four and a half years he has finally been approved for disability benefits.
John said things started moving when an assistant in Bill Shorten’s office ‘personally contacted me and said she would speed things up’
Family have started to clear out John’s home, but he hopes that now that the NDIS has been approved, his home can be cleared properly and he can start a new life.
FND is not on the list of 49 diseases or conditions of the NDIS, even though his condition is permanent and he can barely walk.
His plight became public when kind-hearted gardener Nathan Stafford mowed his overgrown lawn for free, as John could no longer clean, go shopping or properly care for himself.
Daily Mail Australia questioned Mr Shorten’s office about John’s case earlier this month in an attempt to get his life back on track.
But his office insisted: ‘Someone must meet all the eligibility criteria, including the NDIS eligibility criteria. criteria for durabilityto meet NDIS access requirements.
‘The NDIS must be satisfied that all relevant and appropriate treatments have been explored, and that there is lasting disability.’
But John admitted he has since been told there was a “red tape with the paperwork” that was holding up his application even before the start of the Covid pandemic.
“I can breathe fresh air now,” he said. “Now I can get my life back on track with help.”
“I can get some help cleaning out this pigsty,” he said.
John lives among the piles of garbage scattered around his home because he is physically unable to pick it up or clean it.
Family members have helped him clean out his house and pack out the trash in preparation for his birthday, but he still lives in poverty.
“This is very embarrassing,” he admitted. “It’s not just my home, it’s me. I was dancing and having fun, playing pranks on people. I was a very energetic person.
“When people asked me how I was doing, I would say, ‘I’m on top of the world – I’d be better off in heaven.’ I used to spread optimism.
‘Now I don’t look good, I look completely different. I hope I can get some of that optimism back.’
John ‘danced and had fun, joked with people. I was a very energetic person’ before I got sick (left), but since getting FND he can barely walk and his standard of living has dropped
Since Daily Mail Australia broke John’s story – of how the proud civil engineer of Sydney’s biggest project became a self-confessed ‘wreck’ – he has been approached by friends and family from across Australia and the world.
As a young man he practiced taekwondo and played rugby league at high school, before studying engineering and being hired to build the Sydney Metro.
He dressed stylishly, was sociable, had a fiancée and led a team of fit and able-bodied men, like himself, who built the vast subway tunnels under Sydney.
But in 2018, John suddenly began experiencing non-epileptic seizures, followed by “many falls” and paralysis, which not only left John physically weakened but also socially isolated.
“My life fell apart,” he said. “And when my father died (last year) it was like salt on an open wound.
“I miss going out and I’ve basically spent the last 18 months on this couch. This room has become my bedroom.”
He indicated that he hopes to be able to go outside soon with help. He also said that his big dream is to travel with the new metro that he helped build himself.
John hopes that with help he will be able to travel on Sydney’s new metro, which he is proud to have helped build.
John (above as a teenager with family at his grandmother’s birthday) says getting the NDIS means he’s regained some of his optimism about life and ended his social isolation
“I’ve only been out once in the last 18 months for a cup of coffee,” he revealed.
‘Isn’t that what the NDIS is all about? Giving people with disabilities the chance to live better lives?’
John said he doesn’t yet know exactly how the NDIS funding will work before he makes plans for how it will be used.
But he said he would be vigilant about where his funding was spent. Like many Australians, he was angry to hear of “$4 billion that had been wasted”.
“I get angry when I hear it’s been used to buy a brand new car or go on vacation,” he said. “That’s not right.”