Personal trainer overcomes cystic fibrosis to become real-life Thor

'It’s amazing when people tell me that, just by me putting up photos of dealing with cystic fibrosis, showing the scar on my stomach, even taking my nebulisers, has made them more proud of having cystic fibrosis'

(Ben Mudge / SWNS.com)

A man has overcome cystic fibrosis to become a personal trainer and Thor lookalike.

Ben Mudge, 27, has defied doctors by fighting back at the degenerative lung condition he’s had from birth.

It wasn’t until he was a teenager and his lung function plummeted that Mudge was incentivised to get into shape.

Doctors told him he’d never fully recover - but he proved them wrong. Hitting the gym has not only given Mudge an enviable physique but has also improved his health dramatically.

As gym friends started pointing out Mudge resembled Thor, he decided to grow his hair long to complete the look.

Much to his 55,000 Instagram followers’ delight, Mudge, from Belfast, posts regular “Thorsday” pictures of him posing as the superhero, complete with hammer.

“Thor is not just a name, it’s a mantle,” he says. “Growing my hair long to look more like Thor is definitely a big part of what keeps me motivated, and encourages me to keep training.”

But his main mission is to encourage and inspire people with cystic fibrosis.

“I’ve had hundreds of messages from people who are affected by cystic fibrosis, saying that me posting these photos has inspired them to be more active, more confident,” Mudge says.

“It feels so surreal that I’m having this impact on people all over the world, and especially on young cystic fibrosis kids - all these little Thors.

“It’s amazing to think that now, when these kids see Thor in a comic or a film, they’ll associate Thor with cystic fibrosis. It’s incredible, really.”

Cystic fibrosis is a genetic disorder that affects mostly the lungs, but also the pancreas, liver, kidneys and intestine.

Those suffering with the disorder usually have difficulty breathing and often have to cough up mucus as a result of frequent lung infections.

Mudge was always sporty when he was young, but it took a hospital visit at the age of 18 to spur him on to get serious about his fitness.

Mudge as a baby

He had a chest infection and his lung capacity had dropped to 66 per cent.

“That was scary,” he said. “I’d never had any issues with breathing at all before that. But then after that it felt like someone was squeezing the bottom of my lungs shut. That’s when I knew I had to get exercising.”

Now Mudge can squat up to 140kg for 12 reps and can leg press 500kg - but it wasn’t easy at the beginning.

“It was pretty severe at first. Even just having the bar alone on my shoulders when I was going to squat felt like, ‘Woah, this is really tough’. It wasn’t like a really smooth transformation. It was quite a severe change.”

But he persevered: “Training has been massively beneficial to me. It has literally taught me how to breathe properly - figuring out your breathing is such a key part of training.

“And it’s got me back up to 95 per cent lung capacity, ten years after I was in hospital - with a disease that’s degenerative, so should be getting worse as I get older.

“I’m hanging on to those high 90s. It does go up and down by a couple of per cent either way, but I do believe that I can get up to 100 per cent capacity.”

Mudge now works out five or six times a week for 50-60 minutes each time. He focuses on big, compound exercises that work the whole body.

To combat his cystic fibrosis, Mudge has to take digestive enzymes with every meal, as well as nebulisers once a day to keep his lungs clean and healthy.

And he has also worked as a personal trainer for the past seven years, training people both with and without cystic fibrosis.

“I can’t see clients who have cystic fibrosis in person, because of the risk of cross-infection, so I coach them online,” Mudge explains.

“But I just see them as normal people. The way I see it, everybody has something wrong with them - whether it be a bad knee or a gluten intolerance. Nobody is 100 per cent healthy. So I just treat all my clients the same.”

Aside from his clients, Mudge is proud of the children he’s inpsired, saying it’s “emotional” for him to get sent photographs of his own band of “little Thors.”

“It’s amazing when people tell me that, just by me putting up photos of dealing with cystic fibrosis, showing the scar on my stomach, even taking my nebulisers, has made them more proud of having cystic fibrosis.

“I don’t know how to react, really. I’m stunned. It’s amazing to think I can help, in any small way I can.”