Our Headmaster, Peter Ducasse, accepted the ALS Ice-bucket Challenge from his Head of School, Tom Webber and Deputy Head of School, Jono Smithers.
Funds raised will go to Old Hiltonian and ex-Sharks scrum-half Ryan Walker.
Ryan Walker was born on the 5th of October 1978 in Pietermaritzburg and grew up on a beef and dairy farm in Mooi River.
He attended Merchiston Preparatory School as a young boy and then moved onto Hilton College where he completed his schooling in 1996. Ryan enjoyed his time at Hilton and excelled on the sports field, playing for both Hilton XV and Natal Schools XV at scrumhalf as well as being school prefect.
After school Ryan studied a BCom through Damelin, while playing rugby from 1997 to 1998 for the Blue Bulls under 21 side, as well as participating in the Vodacom Cup for two seasons. He also played for Landsdowne Road, Ireland, where his team became the All Ireland under 20 championship winners.
In 1999 he moved to Natal, representing the under 21 side as well as College Rovers for a season. From 2000 to 2001 he was appointed the Natal Wildebeest Vice Captain and represented the Natal Duikers and the Natal Sharks 7-a-side, which he captained.
For the seasons of 2002 and 2003 Ryan played for the Natal Sharks in the Currie Cup and Super 12 competitions. In the 2003 and 2004 seasons, he left the Sharks to join Leeds Tykes, representing the team in the UK Premiership and Heineken cup competitions.
Ryan really enjoyed his rugby, but decided that he wanted to pursue a career in other fields.
Ryan is now 35 and lives in Nottingham Road with his wife Paula and two-year-old daughter Molly. They have a new baby arriving in June. He farms in Mooi River on the family farm.
In April 2012 Ryan was working on a dairy farm when he became very ill. A GP presumed that this was a result of a tick or spider bite. He began taking antibiotics, but by day four his headaches, nausea and stiff neck became so bad that he collapsed and was rushed to St Anne's hospital in Pietermaritzburg. After three days, many blood tests and a lumbar puncture he was diagnosed with Bacterial Meningitis.
After 10 days in quarantine and intensive treatment Ryan was discharged from the hospital. The recovery was slow and he was very weak for 6 weeks. Ryan began to have fasiculations (twitches) in his biceps and triceps while in hospital, but had no other symptoms until September 2012. "We were told that the tremors in my arms would go away once I had fully recovered, but they never did and have progressed to my legs, particularly my right side and my back".
"I began to get clumsy and lose my balance and found going downstairs challenging. I also began to get wasting and weakness in my right hand. I'd trip and fall over easily." Being an active person and sportsman, Ryan found this very disconcerting and sought medical help. In an attempt to trace the symptoms back to a cause he sought further advice from doctors, with the only reasonable explanation being a tick borne disease.
He then sought the advice of a neurologist, Dr. Wolpe in July 2013. He was admitted into hospital for five days and had extensive blood tests, nerve tests, M.R.I and more lumbar punctures. All the results came back clear. Ryan then went for his follow up appointment with Dr. Wolpe four weeks later who told him that he had Motor Neuron Disease, commonly known as MND or ALS, and that there was no treatment available and that the prognosis was two to five years.
Not willing to accept this diagnosis, Ryan's family doctor, Dr. Grant Lindsay decided to treat him for Lyme disease (to eliminate the possibility) and he went through four months of intravenous and oral antibiotics. But the symptoms continued to slowly get worse.
On the 18th February Ryan had a second opinion with Dr. Jody Pearl at Sunninghill Hospital in Johannesburg. She did further blood tests for MND mimics but results showed nothing significant and she made the same diagnosis of Motor Neuron Disease. Ryan is currently awaiting a plan from Dr. Jody Pearl who is investigating available treatment options both locally and abroad. (http://ryanwalker.co.za/)
The Ice Bucket Challenge, sometimes called the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, is an activity involving dumping a bucket of ice water on someone's head to promote awareness of the disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and encourage donations to research. It went viral on social media during July–August 2014. In the US, many people participate for the ALS Association, and in the UK, many people participate for the Motor Neurone Disease Association, although some individuals have opted to donate their money from the Ice Bucket Challenge to other organizations.
The challenge dares nominated participants to be filmed having a bucket of ice water poured on their heads and then nominating others to do the same. A common stipulation is that nominated participants have 24 hours to comply or forfeit by way of a charitable financial donation. (Reference: Wikipedia)
News supplied by Hilton College.