Michael Candy

Location: Mitchell Park, SA

Challenge: Ankylosing Spondylitis

Website: facebook.com/michaelcandymc75

Michael Candy is a Guitarist from Mitchell Park, Adelaide in South Australia. He lives with a condition called Ankylosing Spondylitis, a degenerative back disease which progresses slowly over time.

Michael says "I started learning guitar when I was ten years old in primary school. Back then in 1985 I started learning chords mainly. I was the only left handed guitarist in the class and the guitar teacher refused to teach me left handed guitar. So I persevered and changed to right handed. In High school I learned the classical guitar. I really wanted to learn rock and lead guitar, so I could shred like the guitar gods, but the music program didn't cater for that style."

When Michael finished Year 12, he left school and headed into the workforce. He got a job working in a sawmill. He started working there when he turned 18, along with joining a local band and played quite a few pub gigs as their bass player.

Four years later when Michael was 22, he was on a motorcycle and on a summer night in December of 1997, he says "I was almost killed when I was run over by a car and a trailer full of furniture."

Four years after that he was diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis, after waking up with back pain every morning and couldn't work out why. So he has had this disease for almost 13 years. He says "As the disease progresses, they say my ability to play the guitar will reduce. I am determined to prove them wrong. After reading so many stories on here of Can-do-musos, I have come to the conclusion that nothing can stop you from achieving what you want to."

Michael Candy - Garth Brooks' "Much too young to feel this damn old"