Now the 28-year-old from Rathfarnham, Dublin has enlisted the help of former CNN producer John Kluver to shoot a film about his quest to cure himself of a severe form of arthritis without the aid of conventional medicine. When it's ready, he wants to distribute it in cinemas worldwide.

"This is a universal theme of fighting an impossible situation, " Brannick said this weekend. When he first developed the condition at the age of 17, none of the specialists knew what was wrong with him. One doctor told him not to run too much. Two years later, when he needed crutches to walk, the doctors put him on medication.

"The pills were like magic, " he said. "They took all the pain away, and I could walk without help. For a month.

And then the effects started to wear off."

The doctor's answer was to increase the dosage, but Brannick was dubious. "I could just foresee a future of continuously having to up my medication to the point where I could do some serious damage to my body, " he said. "I was only 19 and I wanted a more permanent cure."

The only other option proffered was a hip replacement, but again, he refused. "They could give me no guarantees that it would cure me, " he said. "I wanted better than that."

And so began his journey of self-healing. "I spent every hour reading books and researching different diets, and learning as much as I could. I was very afraid and lonely, and very desperate to be better. So, unfortunately, everything I tried was haphazard. There was no method to what I did."

Nonetheless, he had minor successes, discovering that if he went on a mini-fast, his pain would be gone for a day, and if he did a certain amount of painful physiotherapy exercises, he would be able to walk without crutches for a day.

His quest for a cure took him to Japan, Russia and Arizona, to meet traditional medical men, martial-arts experts, and street children . . .all of whom, he believes, furthered his bid to be better.

"I know the last nine years have been a succession of failures, " he said, "but I could not have got to where I am without having done it. Now I want to take all the things that made small improvements and use those in a structured way to get an incremental improvement.

I'm leaving for Arizona this week and I'm going to spend the next seven months on a strict diet of exercise, rest and good food. I've always believed that I will make myself better, and I know that I can do it."