Leo Burgess was on holiday with his family in Tasmania when disaster struck.

The nine-year-old from the New South Wales Central Coast, who has autism and ADHD, suffered paralysis and was placed into an induced coma as doctors scrambled for answers.

The primary school student was finally diagnosed with astrocytopathy, an autoimmune disease so rare, his mum Michelle Burgess said, "doctors had never seen a case before".

Leo is one of almost 14,000 Australians who access exercise physiology (EP) services through the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) for personalised exercise therapy and strength training.

Ms Burgess said exercise therapy had become an integral part of her son's ongoing recovery.

She said it helped him "walk more independently for longer periods of time" and was

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