It was in the early hours of the 25th of July 2006 that my father passed way surrounded by his family. He had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer 5 years previously and continued to smoke, leading an unhealthy lifestyle. In all my life and travels I’ve never come across a man with a
stronger (and more stubborn) will. I loved him very much. We had a great relationship.
On the same night that my father passed away, Gerard McManus (my very good friend) was randomly and savagely ambushed from behind in the dark streets of a West Belfast ghetto. In a strange coincidence Gerard was fighting for his life just a couple of hours prior to my father losing his. Gerard had been struck to the head from behind, whilst on the ground his neck was repeatedly jumped on until it eventually broke! The assailant then went on to attempt to bite his nose off and choke him to death. In what can only be described as a miracle Gerard was able to fight the attacker off (what ever way his neck broke the spinal cord was still intact).
I was oblivious to any of this as I was by my father’s side. The next day I heard the news in the middle of everything and decided to go see Gerard. As I walked over to the hospital I reflected on Gerard’s tumultuous life to date. You see, amazingly, this was nothing out of the ordinary for Gerard! His life story reads like a best selling novel.
Gerard was born into the middle of an urban guerrilla war in the mean streets of 1970’s West Belfast. Gerard grew up in arguably the toughest place within the pressure cooker that was 1970’s Belfast…. Divis Flats. This particular district was rated officially as the most under privileged area in Europe in 1985 (I remember reading that randomly in an unrelated book in school).
For the youths of the day, “The Flats” as they were known were an unforgiving battleground designed to systematically weed out and punish the weak.
Gerard grew up in a home where both parents were alcoholics. They had very little in the way of common luxuries and Gerard recalls climbing into a closet as a child during domestic arguments and staring at a broken T.V set, picturing imagines and sounds, using his imagination to distract himself.
Gerard was very, very small for his age and thus became a target for bullies. These “tough guys” thought that Gerard should be submissive to them because he was small, because he was poor, because his parents had a drink problem….Gerard didn’t get that memo!! Despite his size (or lack thereof) he discovered he had a talent for combat as he beat back all comers. Winning most encounters he engaged in gained him respect, even in defeat he put up such a good fight that he was left alone thereafter. Gerard had effectively learned lesson 101 in the curriculum of the “school of hard knocks”….If you want something, respect, control, anything at all which is worth while, you must fight for it with all your heart and soul and never give up!!
Realising his gift, Gerard joined the local boxing club (located in Divis Flats itself), the Immaculata A.B.C. Gerard took to the sport of boxing like a duck to water! His natural talent was immense and it wasn’t long before he became National Champion. He won 3 National titles in all and became quickly regarded as one of the most precocious young talents in the country.
As Gerard grew older his talent grew with him and many expected him to turn pro and do great things in the sport. It was at this point in his late teens that tragedy struck for the first time when Gerard’s mother (who’s health had suffered from an alcohol addiction brought on in part by the grief of losing her son, Gerard’s older brother, to a car accident) sadly died. This through Gerard off on a negative path laced with alcohol and drugs, although he still continued to box from time to time, his commitment to training was no longer in place.
Gerard started to lose fights for the first time ever and then tragedy struck for the second time. Gerard’s elder brother Dominic was savagely murdered, stabbed some 27 times. After this Gerard went into an emotional melt down, his life went from bad to worse as nothing mattered or made sense to him anymore, he fell into a haze of drugs and alcohol. He was involved in a string of savage street fights, one of which left him with part of his ear bitten off!
Imagine going to bed as usual then waking up in the back of an ambulance covered in a vast splattering of your own blood!! This is exactly what happened to Gerard. One night as he slept in his bed, someone (as yet unknown) broke into his home and bludgeoned him almost to death with a heavy blunt instrument (which it was suspected was a hammer due to the shape of the dents in Gerard’s skull), leaving him for dead with a compressed, fractured skull.
Miraculously Gerard survived this incident without sustaining any major brain damage. But unfortunately, as soon as his physical injuries recovered he went back to his bad habits and even made an attempt on his own life. Fearing a re-occurrence, Gerard’s family committed him to a psychiatric unit for his own safety.
Upon his release Gerard’s life style picked up from where it left off. I had known Gerard for a long time as we both boxed for the same club growing up and went to the same high school (although he was a couple of years older than me). I had been concerned about him for a couple of years but it was only when my father passed on that I instantly came up with a way in which I could help him.
When I arrived at the hospital that day I looked at Gerard lying there with his neck braced up, his face black and blue with lacerations on his nose where the attacker had attempted to bite it off, and I decided then and there to do all in my power to stop my friend from making his way to an early grave. Luckily I wasn’t alone in this regard, Gerard had well and truly had enough as well. He told me right then that if God granted him the power to walk again that he’d turn it all around (because the break was to the cervical vertebrae there was a risk he could’ve ended up in a wheel chair).
He was sure he wanted to change but was unsure of what direction to push towards. I told him I’d thought of an idea on the way over whilst recalling all that he’d been through in his life. I told him about the EAS Body For Life Challenge (the biggest physique transformation challenge in the world), I told him that you had to take “before” and “after” pictures 12 weeks apart and the idea was to make as big a difference to your body as possible within that time frame. He got exited and focused, right then and there I seen a change come over him.
I knew I could help Gerard with this, as it’s my job to get people into the best shape of their lives. Upon Gerard’s release from hospital we began training straight away (against my wishes as he still had a neck brace in place, but I knew he’d do it alone if I said no, and I figured this to be a bigger risk).
Gerard was driven in the most passionate and committed way I’d ever seen to that point, he was training for something bigger than a title or prize money, he was training to get his life back. In all honesty I was “on fire with desire” myself as I knew what was at stake and I honestly didn’t care if Gerard won the competition or not because he’d be a changed man at the end of it either way, with good habits formed, habits that could be built upon to create a lifestyle.
As he trained for this challenge he gave up drink and drugs from day one. It was coming up to Christmas and Gerard worked 2 jobs to support his family (both very, very physical), I told him to view his physical jobs as a gift, not only for sustain ace, but for the fact that they were defiantly helping his body lose fat. But because of this unusual scenario we were both faced with the strange predicament of training sometimes at 11pm (training hard, but smart). This put a strain on both our domestic lives but we knew it was short term and well worth it in the end.
Gerard’s commitment and tenacity amazed me on a daily basis! His best squat went from 20kg for 1 set of 20 reps (which left his legs sore for 4 days) to 80kg for 20, ass to the ground, reps with limited muscle soreness the next day. He was bench pressing his old 1RM for 10 sets of 10 reps and went from 2 full chin-ups to 15 despite gaining 15lbs in weight. All in all Gerard lost 10lbs of fat whilst gaining 25lbs of muscle in 12 weeks and totally reinvented himself in the process!!
One night, while in the gym working with another client I got a call from Gerard telling me that EAS had called and told him he’d won the men’s 18 to 30 category!!!! I absolutely exploded with joy to be honest with you. This also meant that we had to travel over for the live Grand Final. Gerard still had a chance to win the men’s over all. This would be a massive achievement for anyone as the body for life challenge gets thousands of entries every year and the standard is always really high, but when you consider what Gerard had to go through to get there it’s a miracle.
I had always had a fascination with the body for life challenge. After the very first year’s winners were published in the now defunct Muscle Media Magazine I became so caught up with the individual characters (men like Porter Freeman and Anthony Ellis), inspired by they’re harrowing stories of converting tragedy to triumph that I decided to enter the following year. But to my dismay the challenge was only open to residents of the U.S.A. at that time. After that I continued to read the magazine becoming a huge fan of its content all the while looking at the guys in the body for life championship jackets and wishing I could have to opportunity to earn one some day.
The night of the Grand Final had finally arrived! Just before we were seated for the dinner I saw a familiar figure at the other end of the room, it was none other than the incomparable Porter Freeman himself, and although 10 years had passed since the first ever BFL and the Body Of Work documentary, Porter look exactly the same. We got to speaking with him, and to my surprise he had heard all about us and was able to retort a detailed account of our story.
At the award dinner tensions were running high as all the champions of the perspective age categories were present. The venue itself was very up market and Gerard and I joked with each other about the inadequacy of the suits we were wearing. The food was wonderful and the company was great. Porter, gave a motivational speech before dinner that would make a dead man wake up and join a gym. The stage was set and the winners were about to be announced. My heart was in my mouth as I said a silent prayer in my mind for Gerard’s best intentions….they announced Gerard as the men’s Overall Grand Champion!!!!
In total and complete honest I can tell you this was the proudest moment of my entire life. In a life spent accumulating accolades (as big as world titles) for selfish reasons, this moment topped them all and, ironically, I personally, had won nothing. It wasn’t my hand that was raised it was Gerard’s. After everything I’ve ever won, no matter how prestigious, its always been a bit of an anti climax as the glory of victory quickly fades to reveal the emptiness of an internal hunger which craves something bigger, something better. The feeling I got the night of Gerard’s victory has stayed with me from that day to this and remains the undisputed champion of my personal achievements.
With Gerard’s victory came a year’s supply of supplements, a holiday and a LARGE cash prize. Oh, and of course. . . . The Body For Life Championship Jacket. I had a score to settle with that jacket. I saw Porter Freeman walking around outside the dinner hall in HIS championship jacket. I walked up and asked him was that the same one he’d won nearly 10 years ago, it was! I requested to have my picture taken in the jacket as 10 years previous I wished I could and thought I’d never get the chance. The funny thing is not only did I get to wear a BFL championship jacket like the one in the picture I first saw, I got to wear the ACTUAL jacket from the picture I saw 10 years previous!!
Two years on and Gerard is still sober and one of the most positive and amazing people I know. He is the senior coach of the Gleann Boxing Club and has produced some BIG results since he made his arrival only 2 years ago. His personal life is looking ever better as he is turning out to be a great father to his 3 children (and 1 on the way). Gerard has big visions for the future and is currently looking for an author to help him with an autobiography (and believe me it will be a best seller as what you have learned here is literally only the tip of the ice burg, I’ve never come across a life more jam packed with thrills, spills, laughter, tears, poverty, wealth, tragedy and triumph).
I learned a lot of things from my father growing up, he taught me a lot in life, he taught me even more in death, and although I didn’t always agree with his decisions, I always admired the courage of his conviction. He lived like a man and died like one too. Your experiences in life shape you for sure, but what shape that takes is ultimately down to your own perception of what that experience means to YOU. In other words every cloud has a silver lining because YOU choose to put it there. A situation is only negative if you think of it as such, thus legitimising that which is innately variable in nature. Variable in that its outcome is not set in stone, it’s subject to change in accordance with the label YOU give it in your own mind.
Simply put, view each set back in your life as a positive, as a challenge, as another brick in the road leading you to where you want to go. Don’t unnecessarily empower life’s challenges with a negative label like “defeated” or “fearful”, take back control of your own emotions.
As Gerard McManus tells everyone who will listen theses day, a leopard can change it’s spots, everything happens for a reason and you must never, EVER give up!
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