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Just Dad - Jamie and Winnie's Story (Summer 2026 - Forward)
10-year-old Winnie and her dad Jamie share their story of navigating fatherhood after spinal cord injury. Jamie is many things to his 10-year-old daughter Winnie. He is a maker of good Lego, a giver of great school snacks and an excellent reader of stories (it’s the voices!)
Winnie’s dad is busy. He’s the one getting her to after school activities, bagging great seats at the theatre, at the circus, at football matches.
He’s not without his flaws mind you – he tends to make her late (this can be a good thing – a pro con/ con pro – according to Winnie as it provides an excellent excuse), he’s got a reputation for breaking plates and their family cat NAME has learnt to be very protective of her tail around his wheels.
Jamie, sustained a spinal cord injury in 1998 when he was 19 years old after a diving accident. He has C5/6 tetraplegia and is a fulltime wheelchair user. But of course, to Winnie, he is just Dad.
Winnie felt so compelled for others to learn about the pros and cons of having a disabled dad that she wrote about it for school and then presented her work in front of all her classmates and teachers.
Word got around about Winnie’s presentation and we were all delighted at SIA when she agreed to come to our Staff Development Day to share her story with all of us, putting together a fantastic Powerpoint.
We were all a little floored by Winnie’s courage at stepping out in front of a sea of adult faces. At SIA, we are here to support everyone affected by spinal cord injury, which of course means family members. To gain insight from her was invaluable and helps give real meaning, clarity and purpose to our work.
“I have to push him up hills a lot and sometimes he falls out of his chair which I get a bit nervous about sometimes,” she shared with us, “But then we get to do things like go behind the scenes. We went to the circus once and we got to go behind the curtains and see all the outfits!”
While coming to terms with the physical and mental complexities of life after a spinal cord injury, Jamie didn’t think that having children would be a possibility. He felt a door had been firmly closed.
“I remember sitting down with a male healthcare professional and him saying you’ll probably never be able to conceive, have kids. I remember going to bed that night and just being absolutely devastated.”
This knowledge would go on to impact his life deeply as he moved through early adulthood and onwards.
“Living with this idea that I wouldn’t be able to be a parent, a father, probably did have an impact on how committed I would be to a relationship. But you get to a point in a relationship where you do have to start looking to the future and look at the next stages of that relationship and, and ultimately, inevitably, that involves talk of children.”
When Jamie began working for SIA back in 2010, working with and for people with spinal cord injury, his thinking began to change around the possibility of parenthood.
“Being exposed to others in that community, I started learning that other men living with spinal cord injury had successfully become parents, were dads,” he says.
It was at work that he met his wife-to-be Anne and the pair went from colleagues to being in a relationship, and then to having Winnie.
“It wasn’t until I got that insight, that advice from the Spinal Injuries Association that my eyes were opened to what was possible,” says Jamie. “I’d assumed I wasn’t going to be a parent, that that was not going to be possible for me. I didn’t know any different.
“And now, we’re ten years in. I absolutely love being a dad. She’s been the best experience that’s ever happened to me. It’s been a been a roller coaster ride, but I wouldn’t change it for the world.”
As Winnie herself puts it, there are indeed many pros and cons to having a disabled dad. But, she adds: “There’s nothing I would change because he’s great.”
Do you have concerns about fertility after spinal cord injury? Please visit our website to connect to services which can offer advice and support
This article was featured in the Summer 2026 issue of FORWARD, the only magazine dedicated to the spinal cord injury community.
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