Miracle recovery by biker

l CAIRNS NORTH

A MOUNTAIN biker, who feared he may never walk again after a horrific downhill crash, has made a miracle recovery thanks to marathon surgery at Cairns Hospital.

Cairns man

Thomas Dimes

(right) was mountain biking with friends in the foothills of Smithfield in November, when he crashed while attempting a jump.

“I went headfirst, straight into the ground. I was lucky that my helmet probably took most of the brunt. It’s a total write-off now,” he said.

l CAIRNS CBD

| Nick Dalton

TROPICAL North Queensland’s tourism expenditure could top $5 billion a year by 2025 – about $1bn more than in 2022.

The bold ambition by Tourism Tropical North Queensland’s chief executive Mark Olsen is four years ahead of 2021 forecasts.

He also told the Cairns Chamber of Commerce’s annual meeting that visitor nights spent in the region of 15 million was currently at 84 per cent of 2019’s levels but was expected to exceed 16m by 2025. Mr Olsen said international tourist numbers were slowly recovering, with current figures at just over 2.5m, however it would reach about 2.8m by late next year.

He said the region’s inbound recovery was slower than nationally because the first travellers returning were predominantly those visiting friends and relatives or on business.

“We grew our national market share in domestic spending, particularly in holiday and interstate nights, but we’ve lost our share of international,” Mr Olsen said.

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Businesses such as Cairns Canyoning will be looking forward to the growth in visitor numbers and spending. Picture: Tourism Tropical North Queensland

Fortunately Mr Dimes crashed in front of a group of off-duty health workers, including surgeons and nurses, who were also mountain biking. They helped stabilise him until an ambulance arrived to rush him to Cairns Hospital.

Doctors found Mr Dimes had a fracture dislocation of his cervico-thoracic spine, meaning his back was broken in several places.

“It was pretty bad. They didn’t think I would walk again,” he said.

Surgeons Dr Cameron Downes and Dr John Maunder were able to operate on him that afternoon.

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