Thaddeus and his guide dog, Hobbs.

About Thaddeus - Thaddeus Neumann is the second of five children and was born in Washington DC He came down with Juvenile Diabetes at the age of seven. After a fairly normal childhood Thaddeus started noticing the affects of this prolific disease right before entering college. Along with the normal task of taking insulin injections four times a day, Thaddeus contracted another disease called Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT). CMT is a degenerative disease that affects the extremities, in his case his feet. The CMT caused atrophy in his calf muscles and through time totally deformed his feet.

Thaddeus attended The University of Maryland and majored in Accounting. He made his way across campus in more different types of orthopedic shoes than the most ardent marathon runner would in the same amount of time. During his senior year a thread like fuzz appeared in the upper right side of his left eye. He slowly started to lose his vision and then the same thread appeared in his right eye. Four days after getting his diploma, Thaddeus' vision got progressively worse until he lost total sight ten months later, due to diabetic retinopathy. The same month he lost his sight, his kidneys failed and soon he was put on dialysis, and as he later said, entered the world of, "The Walking Dead." Being hooked up to huge blood cleansing machines four hours a day, three days a week, literally sucked the life out of him. Constantly exhausted and often depressed he kept up this routine for a year and a half. The morning of January 3, 1988 proved to be a pivotal juncture in his life. After being on the kidney transplant wait list for just 42 days, the transplant coordinator called and said they had a match. Amazingly, it was a rare perfect match.

Thaddeus had a new lease on life and said if he could walk, he would be dangerous. Armed with new vigor he attacked life with great zest. The following year he landed a job teaching computer skills to other people with visual impairments, a month later he went to The Guiding Eyes For The Blind - guide dog school - and there he met his best friend for the next decade, his guide dog Jasper.

Thaddeus in his mono ski.

On a vacation to Colorado he rediscovered his love of the mountains and the thrill of skiing. He soon quit his job and decided to pursue his new goal of becoming a member of the United States disabled ski team. Since his feet were his worst enemy he had to use a mono ski and to this day he remains the only known competitive blind mono skier in the world.

After a couple of years pursuing his happiness, he learned of a foot specialist in Seattle, Washington. After the ski season Thaddeus made an appointment with the doctor and flew to Seattle, his brother Andreas drove up from Los Angeles to meet Thaddeus and bring him to the doctor to see what they thought could be done to correct his feet. They visited the doctor and after hearing the options Thaddeus knew in the back of his mind what his next move would be.

Thaddeus wearing his corrective shoes in Slovakia before having his foot surgery.

One year later, Thaddeus had both feet corrected. The operation was complicated and risky; however, a tremendous success. Today, Thaddeus can walk barefoot and take a shower standing. For the previous 15 years, Thaddeus had to crawl around and sit in the shower. Three months after the life changing operation, Thaddeus had to decide to put Jasper to sleep. Jasper had a basketball size tumor wrapped around his intestines. The cancer was not treatable. Not only did Thaddeus miss his guide dog, he suffered four minor strokes caused from diabetes. With physical therapy and determination his paralysis on his left side of his body slowly regained its normal function.

For the next year Thaddeus was without a companion and guide dog. The next ski season, Thaddeus tried to ski standing up again. It is unheard of making the transition from Mono skiing to standup skiing. Once again, Thaddeus beat incredible odds. Thaddeus' boldness and risk-taking attitude enabled him to ski like he did when he was an able bodied child. Today,Thaddeus lives in beautiful Colorado. He is guided by his new guide dog, Hobbs, and continues to enjoy an eventful and amazing life. However, one morning, after playing 18 holes of golf, Thaddeus had a severe heart attack. This unforeseeable attack, was diabetic related and required a quadruple by-pass.  Again, Thaddeus beat the odds and was skiing 4 months later. His next accomplishment will be to play goalie,or as his brother likes to say,´backstop´, on a roller blade hockey team.