Thanks to the generosity of more than 330 people who donated $30,673 to an online fundraiser, Jonathan Andrews is back in Bradford and making progress in the fight for his life against an unknown illness, which conventional medicine has been unable to diagnose.
After almost three years of battling an affliction which affects his nervous system and left him bedridden by March of 2022, the 29-year-old and life-long Bradford resident is starting to see improvement by taking advantage of holistic techniques and therapies he learned while in Chang Mai, Thailand from mid December to May 1.
As a result, Jonathan says he’s experienced a “massive mental shift,” which has been mirrored by his physical improvement.
“When I came back from Thailand I was in a better head space and if you look at my body and the position of my head, my head is literally in a better position,” he said. “I went from basically trying to not die to now working towards how do I stand again, how do I get on my feet again.”
That’s compared to the previous winter which was “one of the most painful and difficult experiences of my life,” according to a post on the GoFundMe page, in which Jonathan explained he had lost the ability to stand or walk and spent almost all his time “in severe physical and emotional pain,” laying in bed.
While in Chang Mai, he underwent physiotherapy, aquatherapy, acupuncture, massage therapy and craniosacral therapy — which involves lightly massaging the head, neck and back to relieve tension — as well as the use of mushrooms like reishi, lion’s mane and cordyceps.
Those therapies were provided by specialists, most of whom travelled to a home rented by the Andrews, where Jonathan stayed with his father John, mother Laura, and family friend Kim Reichert, who acted as a personal support person.
While he found aquatherapy to be the most supportive, Jonathan explained that all the different measures came together in different ways, even if some of them had to be modified.
Previously a motivational speaker and author who advocated for men’s mental health, Jonathan wrote in his book, Man, You Know I Got You, about the importance of “meeting yourself where you’re at, before you take yourself where you want to go,” and that’s precisely how he approached some of the therapies, modifying them to meet his own physical limitations.
Just prior to the interview, Jonathan’s father was helping him through some of those exercises which involved lifting and moving his arms and legs in various ways.
“That is like a million times more than what I could do before I went to Thailand,” he said.
In addition to the specialists, Jonathan explained that he found the atmosphere in general to be helpful while in Chang Mai, where the whole community was focused on “clean living” and compassion with treatment costs about one-tenth what he found in Ontario.
His sister, Tara Andrews, organized the GoFundMe campaign on Oct. 23, which helped cover the costs of the therapies, services, and the 20-hour flight, which was actually delayed several times from the original anticipated departure of Nov. 24.
“I wouldn’t have been able to do it without the GoFundMe,” Jonathan said, adding that his parents “would’ve been willing to go broke and go bankrupt to help us,” but because of the fundraiser that wasn’t necessary.
“It was very hard on our family financially so we are just so grateful that there are people in this world that are willing to help and lend a hand,” Tara said.
While a health advocate in Ontario helped them apply for some funding, “the process was so slow” that by the time they found out they had been “declined and rejected” it was already January, according to Jonathan.
Still, he sees that as just one more example of how he was able to use “self compassion,” “self love” and “infinite patience” to help overcome his hardships, including the fear he might never get better or hit certain milestones such as getting married or having children.
“I was grieving that part of myself,” he said, adding that at times it even led him to contemplate ending his life.
Thankfully, Jonathan had the “love and care and commitment and devotion” of his family who consistently helped him every day.
That includes continuously pushing for more answers. Jonathan said last week the results of a neurological test found the presence of Epstein–Barr virus, streptococcus and other problems “in really high amounts.”
Despite previously undergoing more than a dozen different tests, Jonathan said no doctor in Canada recommended this one, and he wouldn’t even have known about it without holistic health coaches Carl Weston and Phil Fontilea.
Unlike in conventional medicine, alternative practitioners don’t always have a licence or other government approved credentials to signify who patients should be able to trust, but Jonathan felt confident in Weston’s track record with the CHEK Institute, which was founded by Paul Chek, a person Jonathan respects, who claims to have been practising holistic medicine for more than 40 years.
“Sometimes, if you’re not getting the answers that are helping you to progress and move forwards, you need to be willing to have an open mind and find out who else has expertise in maybe a different avenue,” Jonathan said.
Even within conventional medicine, Tara experienced the need to advocate for herself and find a doctor who could help her after she was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma in February last year.
In addition to running her own award-winning swim school, Beyond Buoyancy Aquatics, Tara also finished the last of 12 rounds of chemotherapy in September, and in January tests showed she is officially cancer free.
While she said she’s “very grateful” to be alive, the experience has left a lasting impression.
“It actually feels like it’s more difficult to live now than it was during my cancer treatments,” she said. “Cancer takes away your whole identity. You have to figure out who you are again.”
Tara acknowledged both siblings have “changed quite drastically,” from their experiences, something Jonathan compares to the lingering impacts from the pandemic.
“People are waiting for it to go back to the way it was, but it’s not going to be like that. It’s a new normal,” he said. “In a way, the pain that I’ve been through is cleansing and purifying of who I was as a person.”
Tara said she was able to persevere through her diagnosis and treatment after finding strength in her faith, focusing on her passion for teaching swimming and enjoying time with family and fiancé John Clark, with the two “very excited” to be planning their previously postponed wedding for this September.
While the timelines remain uncertain, Jonathan’s next goals are to be able to sit up on his own, then stand on his own and eventually start walking again.
Meanwhile, he’s looking forward to attending his sister’s wedding.
