Tweet Facebook Mail Rodney Beilby says whenever he tells people what condition he has, they immediately mention singer Celine Dion. "I say, 'I have Stiff-Person Syndrome", and they go, 'Oh what, you have what Celine Dion has got," he told 9News. He said the Canadian performer's admission that she lives with the rare neurological condition had been good because it had raised awareness.
READ MORE: All the winners of the 2024 Logie Awards Rodney Beilby, from Northern NSW has stiff person syndrome. (Supplied) Dion performed at the Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony , despite a new documentary showing harrowing footage of how her illness affects her. Beilby, 69, from Murwillumbah in the NSW Northern Rivers was diagnosed with the same thing in 2008.
He had developed facial paralysis called Bell's Palsy, which caused "hideous" pain and left him unable to close his right eye, he said. READ MORE: Investigators looking for missing woman find remains on husband's property After that started to ease, he developed other symptoms. "Instead of my right eye going back to normal it closed, and when I spoke it sounded like I was really drunk," Beilby said.
His GP sent him to a neurologist at the Gold Coast Hospital for tests. By this point, he could barely walk. READ MORE: 'I was lucky to be able to lie beside him.
It was actually beautiful' Celine Dion released a doco, called I Am: Celine Dion about her Stiff Person Syndrome condition. (Evan Agostini/Invision/AP) READ MORE: Sydney .