Charles Ledger: How Alastair Clarkson helped in my battle with Guillain-Barre syndrome

Having spent the final day of his school camp in Melbourne training at Richmond Football Club and watching a production of 'Hamilton', the 17-year-old was turning his thoughts to the Christmas holidays and the potential for a huge year ahead.

Midway through a three-year scholarship at The Scots School in Albury and considering his study options beyond Year 12, the highly-rated footballer was also looking forward to putting himself in the sporting shop window with the Murray Bushrangers and pushing for senior selection at Wangaratta Rovers in the Ovens and Murray.

But the popular student and talented backman was about to face the biggest fight of his life.

"I went to bed like any other night," Ledger recalled.

"I woke up in the early hours of the morning and I was in the worst pain I'd ever felt.

"I felt really sick and needed to vomit but I couldn't move my legs and struggled to get up.

"I was pulling myself along the furniture.

"I'd worked out the day before and thought 'surely that's not what this is from' because I work out all the time and nothing like this had happened before.

"I laid in agony in bed until the next morning, when two of my mates helped me get down to the school bus.

"I didn't know what was happening."

What was happening was the onset of Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare disorder where the body's immune system starts attacking the nerves.

Things were only going to get worse for Ledger.

"Mum met me at the Glenrowan Macca's and I couldn't move well enough to get off the bus," he said.

"The pain I was going through, from the waist down, was unbelievable.

"I got into the car and explained everything to Mum.

"I'd spoken to her on the phone but she didn't realise how bad it actually was because I had probably downplayed it a bit."

Ledger's mother, Kim, drove him straight to hospital in Wangaratta where a nurse transported him to the emergency department in a wheelchair.

Feeling 'clueless' as to what was going on inside his body, Ledger quickly sensed the shock and worry among the medics as they began to assess him.

"They weren't saying much to me," he said.

"I think they didn't want to stress me out by how worried they actually were.

"The Wang hospital were awesome; they pretty much just said 'we're airlifting you to Melbourne because we don't have the facilities to take care of you here' and they told me I'd be in better hands down there."

It was 1am by the time a heavily sedated Ledger was stretchered into the air ambulance.

"I don't remember heaps but I just remember being like 'what's going on?'" he said.

"You never think anything like that is going to happen to you, you see it on TV shows and the news so that was quite a scary experience.

"When we arrived in Melbourne, I was put from the plane into an ambulance and taken straight to the ED at The Royal Children's.

"Every bump on the road was agony.

"It was terrifying because I had no idea what was going on.

"You never think 'I'm going to have a syndrome' but my life was turned upside-down pretty quick.

"When it's that serious and you're getting airlifted, you go 'am I going to die?'

"I just didn't know so I was going along with it.

"At that time, I wasn't thinking too much because the pain was so bad but I did ask the question: 'Am I going to die?'"

By now, the paralysis had spread further up Ledger's body.

He had no reflexes in his legs or arms and when he lost the ability to swallow, the neurology team on Cockatoo Ward prepared to intubate him.

Ledger underwent extensive testing and through nerve conduction studies, a firm diagnosis of Guillain-Barre syndrome was confirmed.

In addition, Ledger had a staphylococcus infection in his blood and was suffering from massive muscle breakdown as a result of an extremely high creatine kinase enzyme count.

But in his hour of desperate need, Ledger received what he and Kim described as exemplary care, while his manager from Bunnings, Sue Stanton, travelled down the highway with a care package and a card signed by all of his colleagues.

The next visitor to walk through the door of his ward was a little more high-profile, however: Alastair Clarkson.

"It was a bit of a surprise," he recalled.

"Mum told me the day before that Clarko was coming to visit me.

"There was some player management interested in me and I was meant to have a meeting with them but I obviously didn't show up so they rang Mum and she had to explain to them everything that had happened.

"They got in contact with Alastair and he agreed to come in and speak to me.

"Brayden George came with him - I'm mates with Brayden and he's now at North Melbourne - and I couldn't believe it.

"It was so surreal when Clarko walked through the door.

"I just remembered laying there, seeing him walk through the door and I was like 'wow, this is cool.'

"He had GBS a few years ago so he knew what it was like and my mood, after spending time with Clarko, lifted so much.

"Just to talk to him, it wasn't even about GBS or about footy, just talking to him in general was awesome and he was so good."

Ledger began to respond positively to a course of antibiotics but still he didn't have the use of his legs.

"They'd come around every morning with the hammer to check my reflexes but early on, there was nothing," Ledger said.

"He would hit me with the hammer and just no reaction at all. That was tough.

"So the day when it finally worked a bit, I was so happy.

"Despite how well they'd cared for me, I just wanted to be home.

"It's tough being down in Melbourne in hospital and being stuck there in a bed, not being able to do much.

"It was my last-ever school holidays so I wanted to be like any other kid and hang out with friends and family and have some fun."

While Kim stayed by his side in hospital, Ledger's siblings Clancy and Georgie were looked after by Mick and Jane Butko in Albury to help them finish the school year.

It was an emotional return home when Ledger was finally discharged and able to walk through his own front door in Wangaratta.

"That was really important," he said.

"Because it was so close to Christmas, that meant a lot more.

"To have everyone rally around me and to see people I hadn't seen in almost a month, all the support I got from friends and family was really overwhelming."

Ledger's road to recovery was aided by North East Health's 'rehab in the home' team and he also flagged the support of Trish Thomas, the leader of inclusive education at Scots, as well as the Ronald McDonald charities.

But no-one walked closer to Ledger during the dark days than mum Kim, just months after it had been he who cared for her in the wake of a traumatic horse-riding accident which put her in a wheelchair with multiple breaks in the pelvis and lower spine.

"We're very close," Ledger said.

"She's awesome and would do anything for me.

"For her to be in a wheelchair after what happened to her and for me to have to care for her and look after my two siblings and to keep everything going, it was really hard.

"For it to get completely turned around and for her to be pushing me in a wheelchair, now that I think about it, it's a bit funny, but at the time, it was just 'what is going on?'"

It didn't take long for Ledger's thoughts to turn back to football and when he could play again.

As his prognosis brightened, the goalposts shifted and at one stage, Ledger was targeting a comeback in round one.

But he hit a wall and wisely applied the brakes after consultation with Bushies physio Todd Bird, instead making his comeback for Rovers' thirds against Albury on May 13.

"That day was awesome," he said.

"The club made it really special for me.

"One of the coaches, Pete Rourke, took some videos at training on Thursday night of the boys in the leadership group and they recorded some messages saying how happy they were to have me back.

"Pete talked about what it meant to have me back and how, if that didn't inspire the boys to try hard and do anything for their team-mates, nothing would.

"That was a really special morning."

Kim, Georgie and Clancy were in the rooms too - but the best was yet to come.

With the Hawks on their way to victory over Albury, the opportunity presented itself for Ledger to roam forward in the last quarter.

"My best mate, since I was about six, Will Ashton, took a mark on the 50 and he looked at me," Ledger said.

"I ran past him, he gave me the hands-off and I kicked a goal.

"That was special, it's my favourite footy moment ever.

"For all the boys to get around me and celebrate like that, it wasn't because we'd just kicked a goal, it was because I'd kicked a goal after everything I'd been through."

All of life's simple privileges, which we take for granted every day, mean so much more to Ledger now.

"You look at people walking and it's normal but when I was in hospital and I couldn't do it, that was like 'wow, this is really hard,'" he reflected.

"Watching footy and to not be out there was hard, just watching all my mates having fun, running around, doing what they love.

"That made me want to get back there even more.

"You take it for granted and when you get back, that's a great feeling, to know you've achieved that.

"It makes you want to try harder and do your best."

Ledger will choose between physiotherapy or project management when it comes to a university course, in the meantime having accepted a work experience placement with Buildcorp in Sydney later this year.

His ambitions on the football field, meanwhile, have not been limited by Guillain-Barre syndrome; merely tailored.

Inclusion in the Ovens and Murray under-18 side to face the Goulburn Valley at Albury Sportsground last weekend - only his second competitive run since being hospitalised - was further proof that Charles Ledger is on his way back.

"The goals have changed a bit," he said.

"During the off-season, I was very keen, this is my big year, draft year...

"I know I wasn't on the radar but you can put in the work, impress and go far.

"I was planning and hoping to be playing Bushies and ones this year with Rovers but those goals have definitely changed now.

"I just want to be out there having fun in the thirds and if I start to hit some form towards the end of the year, that would be awesome, to maybe play some seniors or Bushies footy.

"I haven't written the year off and if something else happens and some opportunities come up, like interleague has, that would be awesome."

Ledger, now 18, is a sports prefect and ambassador for The Scots School this year and is back studying five days a week.

Fatigue remains a challenge but given the resilience we've seen already, he'll meet that head-on too.

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