At Home With... LIAM DOWNES AND MEAGHAN CONFAIT

March 19, 2012 was a wet and windy day in Far North Queensland.

Liam Downes, had spoken to his mum in Melbourne towards the end of the work day, and explained he was eager to get back to Cairns and the Martyn Street home he shared with partner, Meaghan and their sons, Spencer (2yo) and Fletcher (6 months).

They were renovating a Queenslander, and there was no shortage of work to do. A decision to do a small job in those wet conditions essentially changed the family’s lives forever.

That simple error of judgement, with Liam slightly overextending on a ladder, resulted in his foot slipping and a fall of three metres to the ground. He punctured a lung on the way down, and when paramedics arrived, they incubated him into an induced coma in the Cairns Base Hospital, before he was airlifted to the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane.

Liam’s mum, Pauline, received the second call from the Far North that day. “I couldn’t make out what Meaghan was saying. She was screaming. I thought so mething had happened to Spencer.”

Liam had broken the third and fourth vertebrae of his spine - C3 and C4, which typically results in extreme breathing difficulties and loss of function from the shoulders down.

Upon hearing the news, his family made their way from Melbourne and New Zealand overnight.

In Brisbane, Liam spent 42 days in ICU, with the assistance of a ventilation breathing device. The entire family relocated to Brisbane to assist with Liam’s recovery. Meaghan, wrangling a toddler and breastfeeding her youngest son, made intermittent trips back to Cairns, where they had simply closed the door, leaving a concrete slab and exposed steel poles on their renovation project.

As so many business owners will attest, when you are unable to work, it’s not so easy to just “close shop”. Liam had spent so many years building the reputation of the business, LJ’s Plumbing and Gas Service, and he didn’t want to let his clients down.

On one of these trips back to Cairns, Meaghan had the task of allocating the business’s scheduled jobs to other tradespeople. It was at this time she met with Michael Moore from Cairns Plumbing and Property Management. Outside their Martyn Street home, Meaghan thanked Michael for assisting them, and briefly explained what had happened to Liam. Michael and Liam were acquaintances through the construction industry. Not close mates, but certainly enough to give a friendly wave when they saw each other. W

hen Michael heard of Liam’s injury, he felt compelled to help out. “I was flying back to Brisbane that afternoon. By the time I got off the plane, the Liam Downes Appeal had been formed.”

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Michael Moore rallied local tradies to finish off the house that Liam had started. He engaged local businesses to support the campaign and became a regular on local radio stations.

“I knew to some extent what was going on. My friends would joke that they were sick of hearing about Liam on the radio. Every week there were updates, and calls for more tradie to assist at the house.”

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Five weeks post injury, Liam showed the first sign of progress with the slightest movement in his big toe. That small movement created a mountain of hope for the family.

“He was so determined. He never missed a physio appointment,” Meaghan explains.

“Somedays he would choose to spend all day at the physio when other patients failed to show up for their appointments.”

“A couple of days after Christmas in 2012, we were at a park under the Storey Bridge in Brisbane. Spencer ran up with a little box and said “Mummy, new earrings, daddy bought them for you.”

When I opened up the box, it was an engagement ring. “I looked at him and said ‘Are you kidding?’ But he told me it wasn’t going to happen until he could walk me down the aisle.

“Or at least, able to stand up at the end without too much assistance,” Liam interjects.

Meanwhile, back in Martyn Street, volunteers continued to donate anything they could. “It was very humbling to think that so many people from our adopted hometown were so generous to strangers,” Meaghan recalls, the emotions overwhelming her as she wipes a tear from her eye.

“Coming from a big city, we probably would have been lost amongst the crowd down there.”

“There was a guy who arrived with a full sized fridge in the back of a ute. He wheeled it under the house, turned it on and filled it full of flavoured milk.”

“And I was here one day, and a lady I’d never seen before got out of her car with three or four slabs of softdrink. She apologised that she had no tradie skills to offer, but wanted to donate drinks for the workers.”

“A few years ago, we took Liam to Project Walk in America. It’s a specialised gym with intense physiotherapy. Liam explains “It’s hard work - but it’s more mentally draining than it is physically. In order to make any movement, you need to remember which movement you did, and which movement in your brain moves which part of your body, and then try to set those thought patterns into motion. You are trying to visual and remember what muscles you have moved to take a step. Then when it doesn’t work, it's a bit frustrating.”

“But each day I’m making progress. I’m doing a walk almost every day, using the walking frame. And I can’t wait until I can cuddle my boys again. I love going on adventures with them, just me and the boys along the Esplanade. We hit the skate park. My wheelchair can do about 10kmh, so I can keep up with them. And it gives Meaghan a bit of time off.”

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“Cairns has an incredibly big heart, and without Michael Moore, I don’t know what we would have done.

Amazingly, we are not the only people he has helped. He was also front and centre assisting with renovations on the family home of Leighton Rowe, the 21 year old carpenter from Earlville who lost his battle to in 2014, leaving behind his wife and baby.

Michael is always doing something for someone else. He’s a true unsung hero.”

“All of these people - most of them strangers - helped us when we needed it, so now we are always mindful to pay forward that kindness,” Meaghan explains.

“We also owe a huge debt of gratitude to the Perry Cross Foundation, the Queensland-based organisation helping to find a cure for paralysis. Each year, our family participates in SIPtember, raising funds for research and bringing awareness of the challenges people with spinal injuries face every day.”

Anyone would excuse Meaghan and Liam for being upset at the cards that life has dealt them. But there is no negativity to be found in this household. There is laughter, and an abundance of cuddles, and a lot of rescue animals, but there’s not anger.

“I’ve actually been really lucky,” Liam says. “

I’m alive. And I have amazing support from my family. I figure, if they are going to put up with me, I’d better make the most of my life.”