My name is Stuart, and if there’s one thing that has been woven through my life more than almost anything else, it’s travel.
I’m a T10 paraplegic, wheelchair user, former aircraft engineer and advocate for more accessible air travel.
For more than forty years, travel has been a huge part of my life. In the 1980s I worked as a Top Deck courier in Europe, including six months driving all over the continent, and over the years I continued travelling widely, often on my own. In 2018, I set out on what I hoped would be a three-year journey through Indonesia, the Philippines, Borneo, Taipei, Nepal, Tibet, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Laos, Vietnam and beyond. The plan was simple: explore as much of Asia as I could, meet up with my brother while he was trekking to Everest Base Camp, then catch the Trans-Siberian Railway to Moscow, a city I had first visited in 1986.
On 11 February 2018, I began what was meant to be a three-year backpacking trip around the world. While volunteering at a school in Nepal as a builder and handyman, everything changed on 20 May 2018. Life had a very different route planned.
On May 20, 2018, I had just bought a motorcycle to travel around Asia. Then, while returning to the school where I was volunteering, I had a major accident. I still don’t know exactly what happened. I broke multiple bones, including vertebrae, and sustained a spinal cord injury that left me a T10 paraplegic and wheelchair user. I also sustained a traumatic brain injury, along with serious injuries to my skull, kidneys, lungs and other parts of my body.
I was taken by ambulance to hospital in Pokhara and later airlifted to Kathmandu. About a week later, I was transferred by air to Bangkok Hospital. My three children, Alexandra, Jack and Bella, flew to Bangkok to be with me. My injuries were life-threatening, and at the time there were serious concerns about whether I would survive.
About a month later, once I had been stabilised and undergone several operations, I was flown to Sydney. My next clear memory is waking up in Ward 7E at Royal North Shore Hospital. I remained there for several months, first in intensive care and then in the spinal unit. As my memory began to return, I was transferred to Royal Rehab at Ryde, where I spent another 14 months learning how to live independently again after a traumatic brain injury and a T10 complete spinal cord injury.
When I was eventually considered well enough to leave hospital, I moved into a group home with four other residents who had significant cognitive impairments. After repeated incidents with one resident, I often stayed in my room because I did not feel safe.
Then one afternoon, while watching a livestream of the New Zealand Prime, Minister, Jacinda Ardern announcing the first Covid travel bubble, something clicked. Travel had always represented freedom and a sense of normality for me. Within minutes, I booked a flight back to Auckland to see my three children and two grandsons. Two weeks later, I was on a plane. For the first time since the accident, I felt like I was getting a part of my old life back.
That trip changed everything.
I now live independently in an apartment in Rockdale, Sydney, with support available nearby. I’m an NDIS participant, and over time I’ve continued rebuilding my life after both the spinal cord injury and traumatic brain injury.
I am currently a NDIS participant living in Sydney, Australia.
That trip reminded me that even after paralysis, brain injury and more hospital beds than I care to count, travel was still possible. Harder? Yes. Slower? Sometimes. But absolutely possible. That was when The Travelling Para really began.
I created this site to show others, especially people who are newly injured or returning to travel after a long break, that life and travel can still open up again. The world is still out there, and so are adventure, independence and confidence. But my journey with The Travelling Para soon became about more than travel itself.
After my wheelchair was damaged three times and once left behind in New Zealand, I knew something had to change. Handing over your wheelchair at the aircraft door can be one of the most stressful parts of flying. It isn’t simply luggage, it is mobility, independence and, for many of us, our legs.
So I started We Deserve Better, a campaign calling on airlines and ground-handling companies to treat wheelchairs and other mobility equipment with the care and respect they deserve.
As a former aircraft engineer who worked for both Qantas and Air New Zealand, I understood the industry from the inside. That background has helped me build constructive relationships with airlines, ground handlers and other aviation teams, with the aim of improving how wheelchairs and mobility equipment are handled. Progress can be slow, but it is happening.
Today, I continue to travel, write, speak and advocate for more accessible air travel, while connecting with others who are rebuilding their lives after injury.