Meet the inspirational mother who carries her disabled son on her back around the world

From Hawaii to Bali and the ski-slopes of Perisher, 26-year-old Jimmy Antram has seen plenty of the world. 

But it has all been from the vantage point of his mother’s back.

Fulfilling a promise she made to herself as a 17-year-old first-time mum to give her disabled son the best life she possibly could, Niki Antram has spent years travelling the globe with Jimmy clinging to her shoulders. 

She had already planned their next adventure – a trip to Canada – when Covid struck and international borders closed.

At 43, she’s wary that she isn’t getting any younger and it’s getting more and more exhausting to carry Jimmy on her back during their travels. 

Jimmy was born with physical and mental disabilities, including blindness, and requires round the clock care from Ms Antram and his support workers.

He has a wheelchair, but Ms Antram has never enjoyed using it. She’s content to carry him while she’s physically able and helps him walk short distances on his own.    

Incredible photographs taken around the globe show him clinging on as they hike through mountains and rainforests.

‘Planning big holidays, I always make sure I have plenty of nappies, clothes, and even bed pads, sheets and pillowcases,’ she tells Daily Mail Australia.

Ms Antram plans a meticulous itinerary and calls ahead for every venue she wants to visit – whether it be a restaurant, hotel or daredevil adventure. 

‘Even if I know we will be okay I like to inform the companies to give them a heads up about us to make sure they understand and are okay with having us there,’ she says. 

Sometimes, they can’t accommodate. This is usually because of risks associated with Jimmy’s condition or logistical difficulties.

Ms Antram said the exception to this was in Hawaii, where ‘everyone wanted [Jimmy] to join’.

‘I have worked out how to piggyback Jimmy while pulling my suitcase and carry on through an airport until they give me a wheelchair we use until we board the plane.’ 

She counts herself lucky that Jimmy has similar interests to her. They both enjoy the outdoors, the water and adventures.

‘From Hawaii to Bali I’d be staying out all night with Jimmy because he was a party animal like me at the time,’ she says.

‘I will with Jimmy find ways to get him the best and most adventurous life, and most of the time, it’s the simplest things that he loves the most.’  

The duo are based on the Sunshine Coast in their own little pocket of Queensland paradise.

When they’re not travelling, they wake up in the morning and go for a bike ride – Jimmy in the trailer while his mother peddles for them both – as the sun rises. 

The pair smile and wave as they pass their neighbours. People who were once strangers have come to know and love Jimmy, and admire Ms Antram.

Before their early outing, she’s already made breakfast, fed Jimmy, dressed him for the day and washed his sheets from the night before.

Her schedule is exhausting, but she’s determined to give Jimmy the best life she can provide. 

She takes time each day to workout, with Jimmy normally tagging along and sitting while she trains.

He listens to the sounds around him if they’re training outdoors, playing with the sand or shells during a beach session.

Even when doing group fitness sessions at various venues throughout the Sunshine Coast, Jimmy will be in the thick of the action, listening to the workouts around him.  

Ms Antram found out when Jimmy was about two months old that he was blind. 

As a first time mum, she wasn’t entirely aware of the milestones he should have been hitting. Jimmy’s grandmother noticed he wasn’t reaching for or directly looking at toys as they were dangling in front of him, prompting Ms Antram to get further tests conducted. 

Six months after that, she learned Jimmy also had epilepsy, but weened him off the medication to treat it after years without any seizures.

‘He’s my inspiration,’ she says. ‘I see him… He’s always happy, smiling… He doesn’t see me in a conventional way, but I’m sure he has a vision of what I look like in his mind.’   

Every single day, Ms Antram still tries to teach Jimmy new words and movements. It’s a process that needs to be repeated copious times to give him a chance to learn. 

His favourite words are ‘yay’ and ‘oww’ – which he usually saves for bedtime.

‘He knows he need to get his teeth brushed, which he hates,’ Ms Antram says. ‘He will say ”oww”, then I hold his mouth open, he complains and allows me to brush his teeth… but then he’s very happy because he finally gets to go to sleep.’

By about 4pm, Jimmy is exhausted and ready for bed. He’s often heard ‘giggling away’ in his room as he drifts off. 

‘He’s very happy,’ Ms Antram says.

‘Sometimes I ask myself how can I be sad when I see Jimmy, who has never seen colours, clouds or rainbows and he is just sitting with a smile.’

But Ms Antram admits she hasn’t always been so content. She says her heart ‘broke’ the day she learned her son was permanently blind and it took ‘a long time to overcome those feelings of hurt’.

‘Being a mum so young, I didn’t get that carefree life that most 17-year-old’s get,’ she says. ‘I had responsibility.’

The duo were planning a trip to Canada before the Covid border closures halted their plans. Now, Ms Antram has set her sights on seeing Australia.

She’s saving to buy a troop carrier which she hopes to fit out in travel gear to get around Australia, but it’s not easy on a single carer’s pension and the shifts she picks up while Jimmy is booked in with his support workers.