Just a few years ago, Peter Grant was fit and healthy.
He worked full-time in a job that paid up to $2000 a week, he’d ride his bicycle for up to 40 kilometres at a time and would run about 10 kilometres on most days.
But that all changed when the 62-year-old Hoppers Crossing resident was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis three years ago.
A diagnosis of severe lumbar scoliosis soon followed, as did multi-level disc degeneration. Soon after, doctors advised he resign from his job and focus on his health.
He began to shed weight – more than 30 kilograms – and lost close to four inches of his height.
He now walks with a walking cane.
His torso has been twisted and bones in his feet and hands are curving.
Unsurprisingly, depression and anxiety have also kicked in.
Doctor reports seen by Star Weekly back up Mr Grant’s claims that he struggles with even the simplest of tasks – buttoning up a shirt, holding a pen or even standing too long.
He has been told that he will most likely be confined to a wheelchair by the age of 65.
He also takes more than 20 different types of medication a day for his illnesses.
But despite all that, and letters from three different doctors and specialists saying that he can never work again, he is being forced to live on $270 a week, with his application for a disability pension refused by Centrelink.
Mr Grant disputed the knock-back, but a tribunal knocked it back again, claiming his chronic illness was not bad enough to warrant a pension.
“If I could work, I would,” a tearful Mr Grant told Star Weekly.
“I’ve always worked … do you think I’d give up a high paying job for a pension?
“My body is eating itself away. I can barely walk, and doctors have said I can never work again … but I’m forced to apply for jobs and go to interviews.
“I cry so much, but I can’t help it. I go to the supermarket, and I start crying … even that’s hard.
“I’m not me anymore.”
