A New Adventure

JAMIE “Dodge” Manning is planning a new adventure with his family, to ride approximately 580 kilometres from Tilpa back to their home in Dubbo.

Jamie, who was born and bred in Scone, was in a car accident in 2014 where he sustained multiple serious injuries including extensive burns, but his determination and incredible attitude has seen him inspire everyone around him during his recovery.

Karen and Jamie Manning are excited about their family adventure.

Karen, Jamie’s wife, said they wanted something to look forward to and the chance to just spend time together as a family.

“We will have five or six horses for us and the kids, the kids will probably ride on and off,” said Karen.

“Jedd is now 14, Bray 12 and Lori is 12 they are all pretty excited,” she said.

“We looked at a few different options and neither one of us had been out to Tilpa, so we thought why not?

“We wrote up the post for our Facebook page and before I pressed post I asked Jamie if we were sure we wanted to do this, he said “just post”, I said should we call our parents and talk to hem and he said no let’s just post and do it, so I did,” she said.

“So both of us rang our parents the next morning to tell them,” she laughed.

“We are planning to leave in September, Jamie has ongoing operations and his next is scheduled for late July,” she said.

Jamie Manning is back in the saddle for his next adventure with his family.

Jamie has ongoing surgeries for burns at the Concord hospital and Karen said they know Sydney far better than they would like to.

“The operations are spacing out a little bit he’s only just getting back on his feet from the last one because he had a bad infection; I know Sydney better than I would have wanted to,” she said.

“Jamie really has to take into account the weather in everything we do,” she said

“He can’t cope with the heat because he is not able to sweat, he can’t cope with sun expose, but also the cold we have to really take that into consideration now, even the wind dries out his very delicate skin, so we thought September was best to avoid the cold and the heat,” said Karen.

Karen said the opportunity for them to have an adventure alone as a family, with the time and space of a long ride, was what they were most looking forward to, but said they were overwhelmed by people offering to help.

“We are hoping to borrow a truck and have that with camp set up with a truck and move along and camp each day,” she said.

“And we will be fundraising for an association called Limbs 4 Life, bringing peer support for amputees, it is something that is not really covered by any government body, s while the medical needs are met it’s also about coming to terms with loosing a limb,” she said.

“Jamie’s view is that it is important for adults and even more so for children to know that they are not the only one and there are other people they can relate to,” she said.

“Any support people can give to Limbs 4 Life is great, if it helps a volunteer put petrol in their car to visit someone that is so important, it means they can see more people and help more people,” she said.

To donate please go to: Everyday Hero.