Matt Miller:
Never, Ever Quit
By Scott Taylor
St. James Seals swimmer Matt Miller
has something in common with
former Philadelphia 76ers and New
Jersey Nets centre Todd MacCullough.
They both have Charcot-Marie-Tooth
Disease.
Now, let’s not pull any punches here.
Charcot-Marie-Tooth is not a good
thing. After all, it cost MacCullough his
very promising NBA career. But like
MacCullough, it didn’t cost Miller his
life, nor his competitive spirit.
While MacCullough moved on to
become the World Pin-Ball Champion
(I’m not making that up), Miller hasn’t
given up his swimming career.
Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease is
one of the most common inherited
neurological disorders on the planet.
It affects approximately one in 2,500
people. It’s also known as hereditary
motor and sensory neuropathy or
peroneal muscular atrophy. It actually
comprises a group of disorders that
affect peripheral nerves. These are
nerves that lie outside the brain and
spinal cord and supply the muscles
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and sensory organs in the limbs.
MacCullough first noticed his
problem when he tried to go up for a
rebound in an NBA game and couldn’t
jump. For Miller, he noticed that while
his teammates and competitors were
getting faster, he could no longer keep
up. Then he had a seizure and his life
changed.
Matt started swimming in 2011 with
Coach Brett Goldhawk, who was a great
influence for Matt. During that season
he met the highly-regarded young
swimmer Rylan Brunette and they have
been swimming together ever since.
During the 2013-2014 season, his
parents noticed that Matt was walking
differently. He’d developed a high-step
gait, but as his dad, Bryan said, “We
just attributed that, and the fact he’d
become quite clumsy, to a rapid growth
spurt.”
Regardless of the changes, Matt
continued to compete as an able-body
swimmer that year and he even took
part in the provincial meet.
However, on June 29, 2015, Matt had
his first clonic seizure.
In July and August of
that year, he and his
family noticed that
he could not use his
thumbs properly.
“At this point,” said
Bryan, “he had lost
most of his fine motor
skills. I mean, try
buttoning a shirt or
tying a shoe without
the use of a thumb.
So on Sept. 5, 2015,
he had an EEG which
brought forward to all
of us, the severity of
the seizure.”
On Oct. 23, 2015,
Bryan and his family
met with a neurologist
and she concluded
that there was more
going on than just
the epilepsy. It could
indeed be Charcot-
Marie-Tooth or Frederic’s Ataxia. Since
that meeting, the Millers were advised
that Matt’s diagnosis was indeed
Charcot-Marie-Tooth.
“Matt was 15-years-old and had
just been diagnosed with CharcotMarie-Tooth, a degenerative muscular
disease, and at the time, I believed he
could still compete as a Paralympic
swimmer,” said his coach at the St.
James Seals, Ian Grunewald. “So after
a few discussions with Matt and a
little background work, we got him
classified as a Paralympic swimmer in
January of this year.”
The fact that he could still swim
competitively put a big smile on Matt’s
face. He went back to work in the pool
and in February, he was selected to
compete on the target squad for the
2017 Canada Summer Games.
In March, he competed in his first
official swim meet as a Para swimmer,
the Man/Sask Meet, where he won a
goal, two silver medals and a bronze.
This July, Matt will attend the 2016
Speedo Can-Am Para Swimming
Championship in Gatineau, Quebec,
and his new goal is to qualify for the
2020 Paralympic Games.
“Being classified as a Para swimmer
has allowed Matt to be competitive
in the pool and that has been a big
boost to his confidence,” said Bryan.
“He’s now got a smile on his face and
his mom is sure happy about that.
We try to remind Matt of a simple
quote: “In the middle of difficulty lies
opportunity.” Being registered as a Para
swimmer has definitely provided that
opportunity and Matt is grabbing hold
of it.” l