‘I thought there would be a better life if I had my leg amputated’

Football and farming are two big aspects of Jack Douglas's life. Massive. The 16-year-old will tell you that himself. So will his mother Siobhan and no doubt, his father Lyndon and his older sister Abbie.

As long as he can remember Jack has has been intrigued by tractors specifically and machinery in general. His dad is a farm contractor in Moynalvey and that's what Jack wants to do with his life. Work on the land. Live the good life. "Football and farming, that's what he loves," adds his mother to emphasise the point.

There's something of a deep-rooted irony in the fact that Jack - who is a fifth year student in Boyne Community School, Trim - wants to spend his life around machines because it was an accident with a piece of machinery that almost ended his life.

On a warm summer's day in 2007 Jack - who was then just two years old - was involved in an accident with a drive-on lawnmower. One moment the youngster was in the house full of the joys, the next he was out in the lawn and behind the moving mower where he couldn't be seen. His two legs were badly affected. There was talk of amputation. Profound shock all round.

Jack doesn't remember anything about that traumatic day but his mother Siobhan certainly does. She remembers because the events are seered into her consciousness. Indelibly.

"We didn't think he would make it at first, that he would survive," she recalled. "He lost a lot of blood, the ambulance came for him at the house, he was resusitated on the way to Blanchardstown Hospital. They brought him there first and he and the doctors went from there to Temple Street.

"I followed in a car and they said to us: 'We don't think he's going to make it because he's just lost so much blood and he's so small.' They also said to us: 'We are going to try and do everything we can for him, so just go in and say what you have to say to him. We'll do everything we can but at this stage we really don't know what's going to happen.' "

Desperately worried the Douglas family waited and waited. They knew the longer Jack stayed in theatre, the better - and so it proved. "They did save him," says Siobhan who adds she and her family are eternally grateful to the staff in the various hospitals.

"They came out after a couple of hours and they asked us to sign the papers for amputation, at that stage they thought they would have to amputate to keep him alive but they didn't have to amputate, although he had a lot of surgery in the following years.

"That's what I kept thinking when he was in hospital. I don't care what way I get that child home but I want that child home. I could live without him having legs but I couldn't live without him. I pleaded with them to keep him alive and that's what they did."

There was further talk of amputation but Jack kept his two legs at least for the time being. That all changed, changed utterly, when he was 10. Circumstance forced Jack and his family into a terrible dilemma.

After years of painful treatment that wasn't working the decision was made that Jack WOULD, after all, have one of his legs removed - and it wasn't any old leg. It was his right leg, his kicking leg.

"When I first had my accident the left leg was the leg they were going to get rid off straight away because of the tissue damage but they ended up saving the left one and getting rid of the right," Jack himself recalls.

LIONEL MESSI

Two weeks after the amputation Jack, encouraged by other young amputees, started playing soccer using his crutchers to get around. He loved it. He has kept at the game over the years to the point now where he is in the Irish Amputee senior soccer squad - and has a chance of getting selected for the World Cup in Turkey later this year.

Not only that, the other week Jack, who normally wears a prosthesis, scored three goals for the club team he plays for - Bohemians - in a soccer tournament. The tournament was played in Cahir, Co Tipperary and involved the three amputee teams in this country - Bohs, Shamrock Rovers and Cork City. Two of Jack's goals were scored in the final against Rovers that ensured his side ended up the overall victors.

Soccer, he says, was a huge factor in helping him to recover from the traumatic episode that almost ended his life. "Football, it makes you feel like everyone else, normal," he adds.

Like many other soccer fans Jack Douglas enjoys watching Lional Messi. He particualrly enjoyed seeing the little Argentianian when he was in his pomp and conjuring up magic on football grounds all over Europe in the colours of Barcelona. It's why the Spanish giants became Jack's team, even now that Messi has left for Paris St Germain.

As a midfielder or striker Jack has the task of both creating and taking scores - and he has been doing it extremely well to the point where is now training with the senior national squad. There he has joined others such as James Conroy from Skryne. James has one hand but that hasn't stopped him winning close to 40 caps for his country - as a goalkeeper. The Skryneman is also the Irish captain.

Whatever challenges Jack Douglas faces he knows that with determination and resilience, just about anything can be overcome. He knows that because he has already, even in his young life, travelled down a rocky road full of pitfalls, setbacks, pain. He did all that and came through it. Stronger.

In the first eight years following his accident Jack had to endure numerous operations in a dispiriting cycle. It eventually wore him and his family down. Annual surgeries on the legs would be followed by a painful spell of recovery. Shots of morphine were all part of the process. In time the right leg caused the most problems.

"Every year they'd put frames on his legs, to stretch the legs," recalls Siobhan. "He just couldn't do anything, there was no fun, there was these massive frames on his legs, cages. They would be there for six months, then the caste would be put on and when the caste came off they would look and say this didn't work we'll have to try again next year."

BOYS IN GREEN

Eventually the time came when amputation of his right leg was deemed the 'best' alternative. "Every year they put the frame on, then the caste. I didn't know any different, I grew up like that but it was painful and it came to a stage in 2014 and I said enough is enough," Jack recalls. "I was fed up with operations, recovering, I thought there would be a better life out of all this if I had my leg amputated."

Siobhan talks of how as a child with the frame (with it's screws and bolts that had to adjusted from time to time) on his leg other youngsters would stare at Jack. Now with the prosthesis it's hardly noticeable under his trousers. "Nobody really looks at him anymore," she adds. That is just one benefit to emerge from the momentous decision to opt for amputation. In time he was to discover another big plus.

Before he went in for the operation Jack and his family had heard about soccer for amputees. It sounded great. Two weeks after the operation Jack tried it and loved it. He loved being part of it all, the players buzzing around with their crutches, seeking to emulate Mr Messi.

"I was flying within a month," he says. "I went swimming but I loved the soccer. Everyone else, I discovered, was just the same as me. Everybody is the same. I had my leg off in August and I still had my stitches in two weeks later when I started the soccer."

Six years later Jack still gets phantom pains in his leg. He can feel his foot tingle where there isn't a foot any longer. He chuckles at the good of it all. So far Jack's soccer career has brought him to countries such as Poland, Germany, Italy where he has played in junior soccer camps, representing his country in these events, one of the boys in green.

He trains with Bohs every Wednesday at DCU and with the Irish squad once every few weeks. There is a league involving Bohs, Shamrock Rovers, Cork City and Scottish side Partick Thistle that will have plenty of games and he's looking forward to all that. Jack's life has turned around since that traumatic day back in 2007. He's made it happen through the love and support of his family and his own fortitude - and with a little inspiration from the one and only Mr Messi himself.