Against all odds brave Longford teen Jonatan Safiak achieves his karate Black Belt

Fourteen years old Jonatan Safiak began Karate training when he was five. At that time neither he nor his parents knew that in years to come he was going to be diagnosed with Ataxia Telangiectasia.

Ataxia Telangiectasia is a rare inherited neurological disorder that affects the part of the brain that controls motor movement.
His parents thought that karate would be good for improving his balance.

Jonatan reflects that at the start he didn’t like it and tried to make every excuse in the world to not go back. "I finally started liking it when I was around 9. It was my breakthrough moment.”

But sadly, shortly after Covid hit and everything was closed, he realised just how much he missed his karate.

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John Killane, his Sensei (teacher in Martial Arts) of Longford Martial Arts was always funny and made him feel special, so he kept coming back to learn a little bit more every week.

Jonatan’s mother Aneta explained that her son got his diagnosis in 2022 at the age of 12 and since then the symptoms of his disease have worsened.

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He struggles with walking or even sitting but somehow he is still able to practice his Katas (sequences of Karate moves).

Jonatan says, "I swing and wobble but I'm getting through them with gentle encouragement from my Sensei."

On March 29 last, Jonatan passed his exam and got his Black Belt.

Perhaps, he is the only Karate Black Belt in the Ataxia Telangiectasia world and rightly, he is super proud of himself.

Ataxia Telangiectasia is a degenerative condition, which progressively gets more severe over time.

Jonatan's family set up a gofundme page entitled ‘Happy Life against all odds’ in a bid to secure Jonatan’s place in international research and trial studies while also paving the way for more physio, occupational and speech therapies.

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