Dermot Brannick, 28, receives a water massage from aquatic masseuse Mindy McDaniel as part of his treatment for acute arthritis.

lindsay a. miller / Arizona Daily Star

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Dermot Brannick is a 28-year-old Irishman who's come to Tucson for treatment of severe arthritis and to make a documentary called "Walking" to share his experience with the world.

Brannick's mission to overcome his arthritis, which has put him on crutches for the past nine years, is a journey not so much on the road to good health as it is a guide to personal growth, inner strength and clarity. But he hates using the word "journey."

His condition, called ankylosing spondylitis, has left him little mobility in his hips and lower back.

For the first two years after onset, the pain was so bad he couldn't focus on anything else. Pain consumed his whole being, and every thought pertained to how he was going to accomplish small daily tasks.

"When the pain subsided is when the fear and desperation started to surface," said Brannick, who has some corporate sponsorship for his trip here, but is looking for more donations to finance the film. He's filming in Tucson with a local cameraman he met while doing some volunteer work with street kids in Russia.

The fear and desperation sometimes manifested as absolute frustration.

He'd try to cook dinner and have a crutch in one hand and a plate in the other and when the dinner spilled all over the floor he had to make a choice: throw a hissy fit or clean it up and move on.

Slowly, as he's matured, he's learned to accept his reality and move on. This is where he finds his strength to persevere with a rehabilitation program, even when doctors say it hasn't really been done before.

He's been to numerous doctors in several countries, some telling him he couldn't be healed, others suggesting hip- replacement surgery.

He's turned to alternative medicine for answers and experimented with fasting and raw-food diets.

Some of it worked, some of the time.

He'll be in Tucson for six weeks doing a trial of several types of therapies, including pool exercises, massage and water massage, a special diet including raw foods and short fasts.

It's a "trial" because he doesn't know what will work, what won't and what combination of treatments may have a promising future.

But that's OK, even if it's all to no avail.

He's in control of his treatment and he's in charge of his life. This is the lesson we can all learn from Brannick.

During the last seven years, he's slowly taken charge of his life and his treatment, he says. In his battle with his body he's also faced the demons in his mind and his heart.

He spent plenty of time pondering what life is really about — and he's onto something.

"You have to have a context for life. You're gonna die and your life is going to end. It's a signpost to what a person can do," said Brannick, who has his eye on eventually serving in the Irish army, then leading Ireland, and somewhere in the middle becoming a top martial- arts competitor and, of course, continuing to make documentaries.

"You have to have the courage," he said, causing me to feel a little verklempt and briefly question my own direction in life in the middle of our interview.

And you have to take responsibility for your own life and act accordingly.

He calls it personal power.

"I am responsible for my life, my health. Then at least I can say they're my mistakes."

The rest of us don't have to experience a physical impairment to be inspired by Brannick's raw emotion and zeal for life. All we have to do is realize his mission to learn to walk has taught him how to really live. That personal power is inside all of us.

I asked Brannick if he was in pain during our interview and he told me he just feels mild discomfort. When I asked him if he's happy and how he keeps his spirits up, he replied:

"Fall in love with life and face your fears. I think about the things I genuinely care about in life and love and that literally floods my body," he said.

"What's most important is important and everything else isn't important."