‘You give an inch, it takes a mile’
Eddie Meechan has been handed a life sentence in a random and cruel twist of fate. Now a new Loading Docs documentary reveals the dedicated father’s stoic battle to survive in the face of a deadly disease. Lane Nichols reports.
HI think there are people worse off than me. I’m still breathing. I can still talk to my family and friends and watch the
All Blacks.
ow does one face one’s own mortality? In the case of Auckland father of three Eddie Meechan, it’s with dignity, courage and a determination to keep fighting as long as he can.
However, the former stevedore and competitive athlete knows he’s on borrowed time.
“I know it’s going to happen. I try not to think about it too much. I’ve thought about it a bit more lately. You feel the changes in your body. It’s going to fail.”
Meechan spent 35 years working on Auckland’s Jellicoe and Freyberg wharves until illness robbed him of his career in October 2019.
The once burly port worker began feeling dizzy while opening containers. “I thought I could just carry on but it just got worse and worse. It was very physical and I would have been a liability.”
Meechan was once a vivacious family man who played representative rugby for North Harbour, tackled triathlons, loved mountain biking and watching the All Blacks take on the world.
But the 63-year-old can now barely stand. He is frail and speaks in a nearly inaudible whisper — his daughter Keely translating his words for the Herald at their Northcote home.
In one of life’s cruel and random twists, Meechan has been diagnosed with Multiple System Atrophy (MSA), a rare, degenerative neurological disorder which afflicts an estimated four people in every 100,000.
The disease causes gradual damage to nerve cells in the brain. It affects movement, balance and parts of the nerve system that control basic functions such as breathing, speech, digestion and bladder control.
Sometimes known as Parkinson’s evil cousin, the condition is terminal, usually within seven-10 years of symptoms, and there is no cure.
Since being diagnosed, Meechan’s health has deteriorated and he’s had several stints in hospital. He suffers severe dizziness from erratic changes in his blood pressure and heightened bouts of laughing or crying that he cannot control.
Although he’s developed a speech impediment that makes some people think he is “dumb”, he remains an avid reader, enjoys documentaries and knows most of the answers on The Chase.
His wit and humour remain sharp.
“I’ve had more tests than Richie McCaw,” he quips, adding, “Foster should go”.
Learning you have a terminal illness is perhaps the ultimate reality check. Doctors first suspected he had Parkinson’s before eventually pinning down Meechan’s MSA diagnosis in May 2019.
Asked how he reacted to learning he had a terminal disease, Meechan is stoic and philosophical in equal measure. “It confirmed what I was feeling. I was more upset because [wife] Jo was crying. There was nothing I could do about it but just take it on the chin.”
Is he angry?
“Not really, there’s no point. More sadness. It’s always with me. I’ve never got angry at anything. It’s a wasted emotion. I think there are people worse off than me. I’m still breathing. I can still talk to my family and friends and watch the All Blacks.”
Despite his prognosis, Meechan — who once beat prostate cancer — isn’t backing down this time either and refuses to give into the disease.
He takes an array of drugs to help keep symptoms at bay and undergoes an exhausting exercise and therapy regime each week to help maintain strength and mobility and stave off the clutches of his condition.
Earlier this year, Meechan stunned his family by travelling to Queenstown and tackling the Lake Dunstan bike trail on a custom-built trike.
The ride was captured by filmmaker Keely, whose emotional short documentary Fast Eddie is being released today through Loading Docs in partnership with the Herald.
The film documents the family’s raw pain but also their intense love and devotion as they grapple with Meechan’s diagnosis and learn to accept the inevitable.
Asked why she made the film, Keely, 28, says she wanted to do something good for her father.
“I think I made it because it was hard to see Dad go from being able to do whatever he wants to people carrying him everywhere. I just wanted to give him one last chance to feel free and able-bodied.
“You weren’t sick for a little bit,” she tells Meechan. “You said you felt like you didn’t have a disease.”
Wife Jo, 60, says she was initially in denial about Meechan’s diagnosis and “cried all night” when it was confirmed. “I didn’t want to believe it.”
Jo says her husband has been “dealt a s **** y hand”. The condition has upended their lives and changed her relationship with Meechan in every conceivable way.
She has grieved for the past three years and is now focused on enjoying whatever time they have left.
“We’re doing what we can but we’re pushing s*** up hill a little bit. We’re fighting a disease that’s trying to beat us, but we’ll just try and keep going as long as we can.
“We just have to live our life to the full. We have to live our best life, whatever that may be on the day. Because one morning he can wake up feeling fine but by that afternoon he could be in hospital.
“We have each other. At least we can spend this time that we’ve got together, which is cool.”
Meechan suffers chronic neck and back pain. He’s been forced to give up his beloved red wine and instead sips juice from a straw.
He was hospitalised on Christmas Eve with aspirational pneumonia and spent six days in the care of clinicians.
He was readmitted in September for several days after passing out repeatedly due to severely unstable blood pressure.
Asked how he faced his own mortality, Meechan tells the Herald:
“Take nothing for granted.
“Keep fighting. You have to otherwise you’ll slow down and stop. You give an inch, it takes a mile.
“I’m hanging around like a bad smell. Life throws things at you and you just keep going. The alternative is not good.”
Rare Disorders NZ spokeswoman Angela Nielsen says we have no way of knowing exactly how many Kiwis are diagnosed with MSA each year as no data is officially collected.
MSA is considered a “middle-age” disorder with peak onset between the ages of 50 and 60, affecting men and women equally.
Fast Eddie is part of the 2022 Loading Docs collection and can be viewed online via nzherald.co.nz/loadingdocs and loadingdocs.net