Jason Horton was treated to a steak at the Pier Hotel after he rolled 700km from Perth to Esperance. Photo: Nikki Bailey.
As Jason Horton rolled his wheelchair to the front of the Pier Hotel on Friday afternoon, he had two things on his mind: a shower and a pub feed.
“I’m absolutely buggered,” Mr Horton said.
The young man with paraplegia had just rolled 700km from Perth to his new hometown, Esperance, to raise money for HeartKids, promote bowel cancer awareness, and prove his self-worth.
Mr Horton spent 10 days rolling through the Wheatbelt with his Esperance-raised partner, Alena Hodges, in support.
“If we weren’t in the swag sleeping, we were rolling, if we weren’t eating a sandwich, we were rolling, if we weren’t stopping for a drink, we were rolling — sunup to sundown,” he said.
“I had Alena in the car behind me, saying ‘beep, beep, hurry up’.
“There were times along the way when I looked at Alena and said: ‘I don’t think I can do this, I think I’ve bitten off more than I can chew’ and Alena said ‘like hell’.
“Hats off to Alena for being my fabulous support crew — I admired her singing the entire way.”
The trip was a personal journey for Mr Horton, who said he struggled to accept his life in a wheelchair after an accident 14-years ago.
“I had a car accident in 2011 talking on the mobile phone — I picked up and said: ‘hey, I’ve missed the turnoff’,” he said.
“I remember looking down and pressing the red button and then looking up and there was a tree so I swerved and rolled the car eight times down a galley.
“I waited eight hours on the side of the road, laying there.
“In the end I held on to the bottom of my car and dragged myself up and it was the heat off the engine that kept me alive because I woke up to a little old lady holding my hand.
“I thought I was going to die.”
He was 24 at the time and said he became addicted to his prescription medication to disguise his new reality.
After a recent stint in rehabilitation in Perth and his “Roll for the Heart” he said he had realised the “phenomenal” life he had lived in his wheelchair.
“Now I can honestly say that I’m a proud paraplegic in a chair and I’ve just rolled 700km to prove it,” Mr Horton said.
“It’s taken a long time to accept who I am — you’ve got to love yourself before you can love others and I can finally say that I do.”
Ms Hodges said Mr Horton’s motivation was to become a better father, partner and person in general, even if he had chosen the “longest, most boring, straightest, hilly road that he’d ever go on.”
He raised more than $2000 for Heart Kids as part of his roll.
“To do this for himself first and foremost but then to also extend that to heart kids has just been a fantastic inspirational journey for himself but also great for them as well,” Ms Hodges said.
“He also lost his father to bowel cancer last year and he was raising awareness for bowel cancer along the way just to talk about it.”
Mr Horton said it was an “emotional, physically and mentally straining” roll but he was doing it to make a difference in the lives of young people with heart problems.
“Every dollar counts — I think I made around $2500 and that’s a couple of flights for a couple of kids because they’ve got to fly to Brisbane or Melbourne to get these operations done most of the time,” he said.
“Alena’s best friend, Angie, has a little girl and she’s a Heart Kid and over the years I’ve heard some great stories, some happy stories and some heartbreaking ones.
“My legs don’t work anymore but there’s nothing wrong with my heart so that’s what pushed me through to do a 700km roll.
“Don’t get me wrong, I won’t be doing it again anytime soon.”
Mr Horton and Ms Hodges met several Heart Kids during the roll, including a family in Esperance.
“They’ve got an awesome family and the struggles those guys have had to go through, I heard some of their stories when I got here,” Mr Horton said.
“It was the Heart Kids along the way that gave me the strength to keep going and here I am.”
As Mr Horton put in one final effort down the Esplanade, he dropped his phone in the middle of the road.
“Around five cars ran over my phone and I haven’t had the chance to thank anyone — I’ve got to Esperance and I’ve gone missing in action,” he said.
“Thanks to Shelley and the Heart Kids, thanks to Bowel Cancer Australia — they were awesome too — and thanks to Armadale Active.
“I was training for three or four months at Armadale Active and those guys have been really supportive.”
