Beating the Odds

Producers: Jonathan Harley

If you think you're doing it tough, just wait till you meet Jackson West and his family.

It's an inspiration with "feel good" written all over it.

You see, Jackson was born with a genetic flaw, one that left him profoundly disabled.

At 21, he has the mental age of a two-year-old. His condition is unique, there's no-one quite like him.

At first glance, he looks like a hopeless case and that's certainly what the doctors said.

But Jackson's mum and dad had other ideas. And now, he's very much the enterprising young man about town.

Transcript

LIZ HAYES: Jackson West leads a pretty hectic life and there's not much he doesn't enjoy doing. Swimming's great. Bouncing around at home gets a laugh. And on weekends, chances are he'll be cruising the hills around Canberra with his dad, Mac. This 21-year-old is a bit of a revhead, he loves loud music — especially Madonna — and, not surprisingly, he's got an eye ...

GIRL 1: Morning, Jackson.

LIZ HAYES: … for the girls.

GIRL 2: Hi, Jackson.

LIZ HAYES: Jackson West is profoundly intellectually disabled so you'd think holding down a job might be impossible, but think again — this young entrepreneur is the boss of Jackmail, the courier business he runs in Canberra ...

JAMIE RICHARDSON: Bye, girls! See you tomorrow!

LIZ HAYES: … with a little help from his support worker, Jamie Richardson.

JAMIE RICHARDSON: Well done, mate. Girls happy to see you today? Did you smile for them? Yeah, I know. I love your smile — lucky bugger!

LIZ HAYES: What do you get out of this?

JAMIE RICHARDSON: The pleasure of hanging out with Jackson every day.

LIZ HAYES: Really?

JAMIE RICHARDSON: Yeah, I get to drive around, listening to music, sing badly and watch all the girls say 'hi' to Jackson every day.

LIZ HAYES: There's the added bonus for you.

JAMIE RICHARDSON: Oh, yeah, but he's the star — I'm just in the background.

LIZ HAYES: But as far as Jackson's mother is concerned, her son is a businessman.

SALLY RICHARDS: It's not a pretend business or a token business or a charity — this is a business and we will do a good job or you have to tell us and we'll lift our game.

LIZ HAYES: At 21, Jackson is trapped in the body of a 14-year-old with the mental age of a two-year-old. Long ago, his parents, Sally and Mac, decided no disability was going to stop their son and that he would be treated just like his brothers, and so they helped set up Jackmail.

SALLY RICHARDS: It was 3.00am one morning, I was lying in bed thinking, 'What can Jackson do? What can Jackson do?' and I just started listing the things in my head.

LIZ HAYES: And they were?

SALLY RICHARDS: He's very mobile, he's a very good walker, he can carry things, he can greet people in his own way and give eye contact. He loves going in the car and he loves music and when I put all of those things together, it just seemed completely obvious to me that that was the one job that would suit Jackson and that Jackson would enjoy. Everybody thought I was mad because I would say, 'When Jackson leaves school, he is going to be a courier', and they'd go, 'Oh, really?' And then they'd say, 'Can Jackson drive?' I'd say, 'Well, uh, no, he can't'.

LIZ HAYES: Jackson is the only known person in the world with his particular genetic flaw — a severe form of autism so rare it has no name.

SALLY RICHARDS: I knew when Jackson couldn't sit up when he was one, I knew that that was a really bad indication.

LIZ HAYES: He's fought for and struggled with life since he was born. It is relentless.

SALLY RICHARDS: He can't speak and he does need assistance with every single area of his life.

LIZ HAYES: What do you do as parents when you realise that your child is disabled?

SALLY RICHARDS: Cry. (Laughs) I think honestly that I probably cried for about four years. I mean it is pretty devastating.

LIZ HAYES: What do you think his life is like? If you could crawl inside Jackson, what do you think you'd be seeing?

MAC WEST: I think I always picture that if I crawled inside Jackson, it'd be like I'm watching the world through a thick fog and everything I hear is a thick fog — that's how I see it.

LIZ HAYES: Jackson has three brothers — Tim, Duncan and Lewis. All four were born within six years of each other and, as babies, they proved a handful for their parents. But to make things even more difficult, dad Mac suffered severe depression and was suicidal.

SALLY RICHARDS: It became very clear to me, actually, that our family wasn't going to survive but, um, that there was going to be at least one death maybe, possibly two. I mean it was ... it really was as serious as that.

LIZ HAYES: But one of the deaths might have been you?

MAC WEST: That's it. One of the deaths might have been me.

LIZ HAYES: And the other one?

SALLY RICHARDS: Oh, let's not go there.

MAC WEST: No, I'll tell you. I mean, there were times when I was feeling so bad and so hopeless that I thought that the only way out of this was, you know, like, I'll take Jackson for a drive and I'll take the two of us and jump off the Cotter dam or, you know, I mean, you consider it.

LIZ HAYES: You know, I don't think that's such an odd thought for parents with a disabled child in a frustrating environment.

MAC WEST: Yeah, I'd always been sort of confident and felt that I could make my life better by doing something about it and then something comes along which I can't do anything about.

LIZ HAYES: The family desperately needed a saviour. It came in the form of two strangers and led to an amazing family arrangement. How long did you have Jackson for?

LORRAINE WRIGHT: We had him for 14 years — 14.5.

LIZ HAYES: That's a long time, is it not?

LORRAINE WRIGHT: Mmm, it is a long time.

LIZ HAYES: John and Lorraine Wright are a remarkable couple. For more than 30 years, they've opened their home and hearts to intellectually disabled foster children, these days to severely autistic 15-year-old Sam. But it was Jackson West who stayed with John and Lorraine the most — on average, two weeks a month from when he was 4 until he was 18.

LORRAINE WRIGHT: When a child comes into your home, they become part of your family and part of your life.

LIZ HAYES: So Jackson became a son.

LORRAINE WRIGHT: Yes, he was, and even though we only had him fortnights, about, for that fortnight, he was ours and, in fact, our children always used to refer to him as 'our brother'.

LIZ HAYES: The Wright family basically became the other parents?

SALLY RICHARDS: Yep.

MAC WEST: Yep.

LIZ HAYES: Did you view them that way?

SALLY RICHARDS: Yes, I said Jackson has two homes and two families.

LIZ HAYES: Was it hard to admit?

SALLY RICHARDS: Yes. (Laughs).

LIZ HAYES: I can't do this?

SALLY RICHARDS: Well, you feel incredibly guilty because I knew that really Jackson should be home with us but I also knew that it wasn't gonna be the best thing for him in the long run.

LIZ HAYES: Today Jackson is seeing his other mum, Lorraine, for the first time in more than two years.

LORRAINE WRIGHT: How are you, Jack Sprat? Hello, Jack! Gee, he's got tall, hasn't he?

LIZ HAYES: It's hard to know if Jackson remembers his foster mother but Lorraine can barely hold her emotions seeing the young man she will never forget. So when you see him after a period of time, it's …?

LORRAINE WRIGHT: Sort of tugs your heart strings.

LIZ HAYES: What do you think? Is he doing okay?

LORRAINE WRIGHT: Yeah, he's doing fantastically well.

SALLY RICHARDS: We owe a lot to Lorraine. I think that's absolutely the truth.

DUNCAN WEST: Jackson will happily eat anything. He's a stomach on legs.

LIZ HAYES: Everyone agrees John and Lorraine not only ensured Jackson's wellbeing but that of his entire family.

TIM WEST: I'd say we knew as a family, we needed the help. If we'd have had Jackson around all the time, just to hold us all together would have been quite tough.

LIZ HAYES: Jackson has been back full-time with his parents for the past couple of years and, these days when all the family come home to Canberra, it's a happy time, but there's a constant concern for everyone round this table — who will care for Jackson when Sally and Mac no longer can?

DUNCAN WEST: Mum's always worried. I mean when we flew up here, she was telling me and Tim to get separate planes because ...

TIM WEST: 'Cause one might crash.

DUNCAN WEST: 'Cause one might crash and then there's gotta be someone around to look after Jackson.

SALLY RICHARDS: Oh, no, that was not the reason!

LIZ HAYES: The truth is when your mum and dad aren't around, you will have to assume responsibility for Jackson.

TIM WEST: I mean, at some point when Mum and Dad pass away, we'll, at some point, be ... we'll be the ... Sorry, Mum.

LIZ HAYES: Grim news I know. (Laughs).

TIM WEST: Yeah, we have talked about it. You know, he's gonna be part of our lives forever really.

LIZ HAYES: Right now, Jackson is building his year-old business under the ever watchful gaze of Jamie, a trained disability worker. Every morning, five days a week, they deliver the mail to 15 businesses.

JAMIE RICHARDSON: Come on, Jacky, let's go. Come on!

LIZ HAYES: It is slow going but Jackmail always get through. Do you see it as a business?

JAMIE RICHARDSON: I do see it as a business.

LIZ HAYES: A legitimate business?

JAMIE RICHARDSON: Yeah, it's just a little bit more patient with him but it's still a service. We're bringing them their mail.

LIZ HAYES: How do you deal with somebody with the intelligence of a one- or two-year-old?

JAMIE RICHARDSON: You have a lot of patience and a good sense of humour. Look at you, all smiles. Funny man, Jackson — you're a funny man. I reckon he gets a real buzz out of, sort of, going into the office and dropping off the mail and everyone knows his name, everyone stops and, I think, deep down it, yeah, it gets through.

LIZ HAYES: When you look at Jackson what do you see?

LORRAINE WRIGHT: I just see a fantastic young man with a good future ahead of him.

LIZ HAYES: You feel good about what's become of Jack?

LORRAINE WRIGHT: I do, yeah.

LIZ HAYES: It's been a long and tough road, but this family seems to have triumphed in circumstances where others may not have, and that's why Jackson West is a young man who, against all the odds, now has a bright future.

SALLY RICHARDS: There's a role for everybody. I honestly believe that no matter how significant the disability. If I look at my other three sons and I look at the things they have in their life, why should Jackson have anything different? And it seems that I made a good choice because he seems to be incredibly happy.