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Newmarket's Sensei celebrates a big birthday, and beating COVID-19 (9 photos)

Celebrating a 65th birthday during a pandemic — and coming out of COVID-19 infection relatively unscathed — has reminded Brad Jones of a powerful personal creed that has seen him through some tough times in his life

Celebrating his 65th birthday during a pandemic — and coming out of COVID-19 infection relatively unscathed — has reminded Brad Jones of a powerful personal creed that has seen him through some tough times in his life.

“Life is hard, life has always been hard, and life is always going to be hard. The sooner you set that reality, the easier life becomes,” he said. “Just shut up and get on with it, do what you have to do and do what you can do. Take it a day at a time.”

The well-known martial arts athlete, gold-medal champion, coach and owner of the top-ranked Brad Jones Karate Do training centre in downtown Newmarket has been sharing that advice online with some of his students these days. 

“There’s a lot of anxiety out there, even with kids,” Jones said. “I talk to my students about this, it’s something I learned a long time ago and we’ve forgotten because the good times were here. (The pandemic) is something that’s happening, and we are all going through it.”

That stoic feet-planted-firmly-on-the-ground attitude doesn’t mean the sensei didn’t have a moment or two in the midst of his personal battle against the coronavirus that left him shaken — and scared.

“One night when I went to bed, I could hear a rasping in my lungs, and I started to get worried,” he recalled. “Guys younger than me are dying, and I thought am I going to get through this?”

Fortunately, by the next day, his symptoms began to improve.

Jones tested positive for COVID-19 after returning home March 15 from a ski trip to St. Anton, Austria, which has since become a byword for its mishandling of the outbreak, and the source of more than 600 cases across the country and likely twice as many abroad as infected foreign tourists returned home.

He and his wife, Kelly, had travelled with their Ski Bees Club, which organizes weekly ski days in the Collingwood area and an annual overseas trip.

York Region public health had identified that trip as a COVID-19 “cluster”, with five cases confirmed.

However, of the 55 members on the trip — from across the GTA and Simcoe County — Jones said at least half of them had COVID-19, though only nine had the infection confirmed by testing.

“The numbers they are giving aren’t even close,” he said.

Just prior to the March 6 departure, he recalls reaching out to the owners of the club to ask if there were any concerns about travelling to Europe.

There was no awareness at that time that there actually was a reason for concern, with the virus taking hold in identified “hotspots” only, he said.

Four of the travellers were doctors themselves, Jones added, who were also confirmed positive with COVID-19 after the trip.

Even Premier Doug Ford was advising Ontarians on March 12 to “travel” and “have fun” on March break.

However, the situation rapidly changed shortly after their arrival in St. Anton.

“Every single day things just escalated very fast, to the point it was almost hourly, there were changes.”

Bars and restaurants at the resort closed, as did the Italian border, he said.

A few of his fellow travellers had symptoms on the flight home, and Jones said he and Kelly began feeling ill March 17, two days after their return. 

First came a dry cough, then the next day, severe headaches and just feeling “horrible” with muscle aches, diarrhea and vertigo for about 14 days, Jones said.

While his wife began improving after about a week, he went into a second round of symptoms, including “brutal” night sweats. 

The ski club travellers shared their experiences in their chat group, which revealed the symptoms and severity can differ dramatically.

“We didn’t have to go through it alone, which was kind of nice, because it was scary a couple of times,” Jones said.

He had been fast-tracked at Southlake Regional Health Centre’s assessment centre, when travellers with symptoms were a priority for testing, however, he waited almost two weeks for results, he said.

“When I was sick, they didn’t know how bad this was going to be. They were saying don’t come to the hospital unless you have to because they were worried about the ICUs being overrun. The ICUs are less busy now than ever because nobody wants to go to the hospital.”

After being isolated for about three weeks, he was cleared by the health department.

While he said he still feels physically tired, he has returned to his normal workout routine.

“But I’m really feeling it. It’s going to take a while for that to come back,” he added.

As a former president of the Ontario Karate Federation, Jones said he has shared a video with the group “stressing the fact that a healthy lifestyle is really what saved me and my whole ski group.” 

“Nobody was hospitalized,” he said. “It speaks volumes about a healthy lifestyle. If your immune system is weak, you’re not able to fight it.”

Despite the “life is hard” philosophy, as a Main Street small business owner who has been shut down under emergency orders, Jones said he is grateful for the support received from the town and other levels of government. 

“I’m just glad that we’re here. And I’m glad our government stepped up the way that it did.”

He has been offering free online classes for his students to keep them engaged.

“I’m afraid it’s going to be a slow return,” he added. “I know a lot of businesses won’t make it through this.”

He calls himself fortunate, as he owns his Main Street building and home, yet others will be struggling with “huge rents.”

“A lot of landlords aren’t giving them any breaks, we all have to share this load,” Jones said. “I’m going to be very vocal when this is over about who was helping, and who was not, and who was making it worse. That’s not right, that’s not how we help each other, we keep going on ‘we’re all in this together,’ but …”

In the meantime, it’s important to make the most of reasons to celebrate — like a 65th birthday.

His neighbours, friends and students paraded along Main Street on April 21 to wish him the best on his big birthday.

“It became a parade, it was crazy,” Jones said. “It was nice to celebrate something instead of all this bad news.”


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Debora Kelly

About the Author: Debora Kelly

Debora Kelly is NewmarketToday's editor. She is an award-winning journalist and communications professional who is passionate about building strong communities through engagement, advocacy and partnership.
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