Doctors of semi-professional soccer player, Matt Dimbylow, believes he developed Parkinson’s disease at the young age of 36-years-old due to a head injury he sustained playing the sport, reports Mirror.
There was a specific game where he collided heads with another player, giving him whiplash. They believe this accident caused brain trauma. Dimbylow experienced extreme fatigue, muscle spams and pain, and he grew a loss of feeling on the left side of his face before realizing something really serious was wrong.
Since Parkinson’s disease is often diagnosed in patients at older ages, it was even more difficult for him and his wife Emma to accept. Not only was he very young, he had two little daughters and was afraid of what this change meant to their lives. He had to go on medication to help aid his symptoms, and while they showed promise at first, overtime they were’t sustainable.
Dimbylow often depended on fitness and exercise to keep him afloat and feeling good. It was often very helpful for him, and doctors were also extremely impressed in how well he’d be doing from exercise alone.
While his future completely changed, he was still eager to get back to the game he loved. He decided to give it another whirl, yet this time for the Great Britain Paralympic team, and he successfully made the roster and competed in the 2008 and 2012 events. He has found peace in the sport and being active once again.
