MICHAEL KLIM - ‘I'LL BEAT THIS FORMY KIDS'

FAMILY IS FRONT OF MIND AFTER HIS SHOCK DIAGNOSIS

- Lizzie Wilson

Sometimes life just isn’t fair. When Michael Klim went public with the shock news he’s in for the race of his life after being diagnosed with a rare auto-immune disorder, it can now be revealed the toughest thing the Aussie swimming legend ever had to do was break the devastating news to his three children.

For more than two years, Michael’s daughters Stella, 16, and Frankie, 11, and son Rocco, 14, had no idea that their fun-loving dad – the centre of their universe – had been struck down with a cruel condition known as chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP).

Eventually the moment of truth came when Michael came clean and explained to his children why the one man they could always rely on was constantly falling over.

“For quite some time I didn’t want to mention the CIDP to anyone, especially my kids and my close friends,” the six-time Olympic swimming medallist and seven-time world champion revealed last week.

“My health began to deteriorate drastically. I couldn’t walk up the stairs, and I found myself laying down in bed all day because the back pain became unbearable.

“I could no longer ride my bike because my feet were not responsive. I couldn’t come to terms with telling them the truth just yet. I think that I was in such denial to myself as to how severe things had become, I couldn’t admit to others what was happening to me. I just wasn’t mentally ready to face reality,” he explains.