Michael Klim inspires with positive update in ongoing health battle

Olympic swimming legend Michael Klim has offered a ray of hope to his fans and well-wishers as he provides a positive health update in his ongoing battle against Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy (CIDP).

Klim, who has been candid about his journey with the rare autoimmune disorder, shared the encouraging news during an interview on Today Extra.

Thanks to regular blood plasma treatments, Klim happily announced that he’s now “more mobile” after struggling with the condition that had kept him bedridden for long stretches.

Looking cheerful and in good health, Klim shared details about his journey on the Channel Nine morning show alongside his partner Michelle Owen.

“I’m a much more mobile and functioning human being [now],” he explained.

“I can hopefully be a good partner, a good dad, and, you know, [keep] doing what I love doing.”

Currently, Klim revealed that he undergoes plasma treatment every six weeks, a regimen aimed at diminishing inflammation and repairing nerve damage within his system.

As an ambassador for Australian Red Cross Lifeblood, a vital organisation that supplies life-saving blood products to patients, the champion swimmer took a moment to express gratitude to the selfless plasma donors that he credits for playing a pivotal role in “giving his life back”.

According to the Brain Foundation, CIDP “is a neurological disorder that results in slowly progressive weakness and loss of feeling in the legs and arms”.

The former Olympian took to his blog in July 2022, where he opened up about his experience with the condition while revealing that he had been diagnosed after “dealing with chronic ankle problems and degenerative back issues for quite some time”.

He made the admission in an effort to raise awareness for those impacted by the condition.

“Over two years ago I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder called Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) which is a neurological disorder condition that targets your body’s nerves, especially the areas of the arms, hands, legs, and feet,” he revealed at the time.

“Symptoms aren’t the same for everyone but in my case, it has affected my legs and feet.”

Klim had previously told Sunrise that despite the last three years being “very up and down”, he remains determined to “keep fighting” as he holds onto the hope that one day a cure will be found.

“I’ve had an enormous amount of support from the Australian public and my swimming community just to get through this, so I’ll keep fighting and hopefully we can find a cure one day,” Klim said.

“Hopefully we can put all our heads together, maybe there are certain treatments outside the realm we’re thinking of.

“Maybe there’s future treatments that we can implement and…. we can knock it off.”