Ghost Boy

Ghost Boy is an incredible, deeply moving story of recovery and the power of love. Through Martin's story we can know what it is like to be here and yet not here -- unable to communicate yet feeling and understanding everything.

In January 1988 Martin Pistorius, aged twelve, fell inexplicably sick. First he lost his voice and stopped eating. Then he slept constantly and shunned human contact. Doctors were mystified. Within eighteen months he was mute and wheelchair-bound. Martin's parents were told an unknown degenerative disease left him with the mind of a baby and less than two years to live.

Martin was moved to care centers for severely disabled children. The stress and heartache shook his parents’ marriage and their family to the core. Their boy was gone. Or so they thought.

Ghost Boy is the heart-wrenching story of one boy’s return to life through the power of love and faith. In these pages, readers see a parent’s resilience, the consequences of misdiagnosis, abuse at the hands of cruel caretakers, and the unthinkable duration of Martin’s mental alertness betrayed by his lifeless body.

Martin Pistorius was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1975. At the age of twelve an unknown illness left him wheelchair bound and unable to speak, and he spent fourteen years in institutions. In 2001 he learned to communicate via computer, make friends, and change his life.

In 2008 he met the love of his life, Joanna, and immigrated to the UK. In 2009 they married and in 2010 he started his own business. He loves spending time with friends and, most of all, being with his wife.

You will see a life reclaimed—a business created, a new love kindled—all from a wheelchair. Martin's emergence from his own darkness invites us to celebrate our own lives and fight for a better life for others.