Brisbane rider Jamie Harrison details his inspiring comeback to the race that left him a paraplegic

Stranded in the desert after a life-changing 120kmh crash, Jamie Harrison knew almost instantly he had lost the use of his legs. Three years on he returns to the scene of the accident looking to make motorsport history.

It was a split-second moment in a patch of bull-dust in the Australian desert which changed Jamie Harrison’s life forever.

No stranger to taking on the harsh terrain as a regular motorcycle competitor in the Finke Desert Race, Harrison was sitting in third position in his class in the 2021 event when the hidden danger of off-road rallying reared its head.

Harrison had not long finished his first fuel stop, about 80 km into the 230 km course and had just started to “settle in” to his next leg.

“I was going through what I call the rollers, which is some easy terrain, rolling hills and I went through a bit of a bull-dust patch,” Harrison recalled.

“I didn’t see inside the bull-dust there was a huge rock that I hit at speed, I was probably doing about 120 km/h.

Jamie Harrison prior to his accident. Picture: Supplied

“The rock just threw the bike and just catapulted me and then I hit the ground.

“A spectator told me that the bike hit me and it folded me and that’s what did the damage.”

Harrison’s injuries were severe.

He suffered a life-altering spinal cord injury, which would result in permanent paralysis from the waist down.

The Brisbane rider also shattered his leg, broke ribs and his wrist, smashed his shoulder and suffered a collapsed lung.

Harrison would then lie waiting in the desert for a helicopter to fly him to Alice Springs. But the first helicopter which arrived was not suitable for a spinal injury patient, so he had to wait another 40 minutes for one which was equipped to transport him lying down.

From Alice Springs, the Royal Flying Doctor Service then flew Harrison to Adelaide where he would spend the next 10 months recovering from his injuries in the spinal ward.

All of this unfolded during the Covid-19 pandemic when travel restrictions and lockdowns created havoc around the country, meaning Harrison was stuck in his hospital bed with minimal family visitation from his interstate-based family.

Jamie Harrison after the split-second moment that changed his life. Picture: Supplied

“I’m a Brisbane boy and I’ve ended up in Adelaide and I’ve got no one,” Harrison said.

“Going interstate at that time in Covid was very hard. So it was difficult for family or friends to come and see me. I was lucky that some family did get a pass to come and see me.

“I was down there for roughly 10 months. Most of it on my back.

“When I started to get a bit more mobile, that’s when we looked for an opportunity to come back to Brisbane, they flew me back to Brisbane and I spent some more time there in the spinal ward.

“I’m what’s known as a T10 incomplete spinal patient. I didn’t sever or completely damage my spinal cord, I crushed it at the T10 vertebrae, which is about belly button height.

“I have lost function below the belly button. So I won’t walk again, I don’t have enough function to do anything.”

NEW NORMAL

It didn’t take Harrison long to come to the realisation he had lost the use of his legs.

He knew when he was lying in the desert after the accident.

Fortuitously, there had been a spectator in the area where Harrison crashed and was the first on the scene to assist him.

“I was lucky that someone was there and saw it, otherwise I could have been lying there for a while … 80km out, there are not many spectators about,” Harrison said.

Jamie Harrison realising his new normal. Picture: Supplied

“There was a guy named Travis who saw the accident and he was from Adelaide. When Travis came over and saw me, I asked him to straighten my legs. I thought my legs weren’t straight and I didn’t want to move. I thought my legs were folded or crossed.

“He said to me ‘Your legs are straight’. I remember it clear as day, I reached down with my left arm and felt my thigh and I couldn’t feel it.

“I said to him ‘Oh shit, I’ve lost my legs’. I was aware of it straight away.

“I’m glad it happened that way that I didn’t go through that period where the doctors were umming and ahhing. I really came to terms with it very quickly, at an instant, I think. I know that sounds strange, but I was aware of it then and there.

“I think I had the opportunity to start dealing with it straight away.”

While he quickly accepted the loss of the use of his legs, the greater challenge for Harrison was the dramatic change to his life as he knew it and what he felt was a loss of his “identity”.

The questions over how his life would now look triggered a mental battle Harrison admitted sent him to some dark places during his recovery.

“I didn’t really know how I was going to navigate life,” Harrison said.

“I’m a maintenance fitter, so it meant I lost my job as a fitter. In a sense I felt like I lost my identity, I didn’t know who I was anymore because (I just felt like) ‘What have I got to offer anymore?’.

Jamie Harrison new straight away the extent of his injury. Picture: Supplied

“I was an active guy, I did a lot of outdoor stuff and I did a lot of bike riding, a lot of adventure riding around Australia. I could do none of that and that was the mental battle for me while I was lying on my back, ‘Who am I now, what am I now?’.

“As much as I came to terms with my legs quickly, I struggled with my identity for a while.

“It is an ongoing battle. I am open about acknowledging the fact that, yes, I went through a period of depression. I would be lying if things as deep as suicide didn’t cross my mind.

“But I’m grateful that I never thought about following through with it, but you are lying there in a hole, mentally, in a dark place. So you have got nothing but time to dwell on these things. That was very difficult.”

THE COURAGEOUS RETURN

During those dark moments lying in hospital, there was one conversation, in particular, which kept Harrison going.

“While they were waiting to medi-vac me to Adelaide, one of my mates that was racing with me walked in and he said, ‘We’ll get you back there to Finke and we’ll get you back there in a buggy’,” Harrison said.

“I don’t know why, but that just gave me something to aim for. I was like, ‘Right, OK, I’ve got a purpose now, I’ve got a reason to get better’ because I wanted to go back. I want to keep racing.”

Three years on from his horror motorcycle crash, Harrison will this week make a courageous return to the Finke Desert Race when he will become the first paraplegic to compete in the famous off-road event.

The 54-year-old will compete in a custom-built Can-Am buggy, which had to be modified to enable a swift escape from the vehicle in the event of an accident in order to pass the necessary licence requirements.

“To get your off-road licence, you have to be able to prove that you can get out of a vehicle in under 10 seconds,” Harrison said.

Jamie Harrison will make his return in a custom-built buggy in the Finke Desert Race. Picture: Supplied

“So I had to modify the vehicle in terms of the roll cage to allow me reasonable access, but also the car had to be approved by the governing body that it was still safe enough.

“The first hurdle was modifying it. Once I did that and I proved that I could get out in the required time, I went to the next step which was to work out how to drive it. How do I drive it with hand controls?

“So we had to engineer the car so that it has got hand controls so that I can accelerate and brake and obviously steer with my hands.

“There is no real kit out there you can buy that makes this happen. There is some agriculture sort of stuff out there, but I wanted a racing application so I wanted something that had a bit of precision about it, a bit of finesse about it. Something that was ergonomically right for me to drive.

“I didn’t want just a bit of farm equipment strapped onto it. I adapted what people would usually use in a car as a paraplegic and we modified it so that I could use it in this race car.”

The other challenge was accessibility for Harrison while camping in the desert with 4 x 4 accessories business TJM equipping him with a specially-built trailer.

“I presented a lot of problems trying to camp in the desert in a wheelchair … how do I shower? How do I use amenities, all that sort of stuff,” Harrison said.

“That’s where TJM stepped in and said ‘Let us try and nut this out for you’ and their engineering team put together a trailer for me that allows me to do that.”

FINISH THIS JOURNEY

Initially, Harrison felt apprehensive about making a return to the scene of his life-changing accident.

But he surprised himself with his reaction when he visited the crash-site for the first time last week en route to Alice Springs.

“I was a bunch of emotions in the lead-up to it. I was nervous, I was scared. I was apprehensive,” Harrison said.

“But I went past the crash site the other day for a bit of a look and I was ready for it.

“I went past it, looked at it and I really didn’t give it much more than a second thought. I didn’t want to sit there and dwell on it. I’m a forward thinker, I always look forward.

“It is no good me just sitting there dwelling on it and carrying on about it.

“I looked at it and thought ‘Yeah, I recognise you. I know you got me, but I’ll go past you on race day and I’ll finish this journey’.”

Jamie Harrison with his motorcycles. Picture: Supplied

While the thought of making a return to the race he loved helped Harrison get through some dark and challenging times after his accident, there is much more driving his return to Finke.

Harrison hopes his return to Finke will not only banish any lingering mental demons from his accident when he confronts the desert again, but also allow him to regain a piece of himself which has been missing since the crash.

“It is definitely about coming back to prove (myself) against the desert, against the race itself,” Harrison said.

“I want to prove that I am better than what got me. I also feel that it’s another tick box thing where I get part of my identity back.

“I come here, I race and I do it competitively and I’m not just here to make up the numbers. I want to come here and try and perform again, for myself.

“But if I can do it and finish and finish well, I feel like that’s a part of Jamie that is back that was there before.

“So it is a bunch of those things. The demons are there and all that sort of stuff. Primarily, it’s about me getting some of myself back.”

Originally published as Brisbane rider Jamie Harrison details his inspiring comeback to the race that left him a paraplegic