Meet Simon – Shining a light on disability in sport

Meet Simon Barnes, he’s been with JLR since 2011 – starting in engineering, he is now our Customer Care Operations Director based in Whitley. Growing up on the South Coast of England, he has always loved being around water – sailing, kayaking, paddle boarding and swimming are just some of the activities Simon loves to do in his spare time. Along with his family, Simon lives an active life, also taking part in epic cycling challenges including one challenge where he cycled from London to Paris (276 miles) in 18 hours. 

Twenty seven years ago, Simon was involved in a severe motorcycle accident where he was given a 5% chance of keeping his leg, through the hard work of medical staff he was able to keep his leg. However, after years of pain and surgeries, Simon made the decision to better his quality of life and in 2023 he joined 1.3 billion people around the world with a visible disability after having below the knee leg amputation.

When explaining about how he came to this decision, he told us “The first three years post accident, it was as if nothing had happened, life was back to normal, but then the pain started and my left lower leg and ankle started to give me mobility issues, I went on over the course of the next 20 years to have 10 operations including taking bone from my pelvis to rebuild my ankle, full ankle fusion (so I had no ankle movement) as well as having my toes pinned and fused due to clawing.

“In July 2022 I was lucky enough to be invited to meet with the team at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham who accepted me as one of their patients for below knee, left leg amputation with a view to have a much better quality of life.” 

Simon is an advocate for our SHINE employee-led network who focus on supporting our colleagues who have visible and invisible disabilities. When asked why supporting SHINE is so important to him he said “I wrote an article for our commercial chapter not long after my amputation and sort of joked about ‘us’, middle aged men, that we’re almost taught to supress our feelings. I’ve learnt so much about myself and so much about what other people with disabilities both physical and/or invisble go through that I think by sharing our experiences, people become more aware and maybe more accepting, it’s not my job to preach but just share some of my story which may help.” 

Speaking about how colleagues in his team reacted when he had his amputation, he told us “The reactions came in ‘waves’, the first being shock when I told people, only a week or two before the op as I didn’t want ‘me’ to be a distraction. It was also shock for those that didn’t know and saw me back in work in a wheelchair. The next wave was ‘support’ and them wanting to help if I needed it and now it’s very much about reminding me to take the time to ‘repair’ and try to balance work with my own time.”

Simon faced many challenges both returning to work and in his personal life: “Since the operation, I have had some very ‘dark’ days, life is different now, I have no pain, however, at times the simplest tasks just take longer or need more thinking about, it frustrates others, especially my wife. But, it’s only me that knows how I feel, so if I don’t talk about it, how can she help or even just understand.” 

His best piece of advice to those who may be facing similar situations is “Don’t do this on your own, you have a bigger friend, family, work network than you think, so use it! JLR also offers so much support, take advantage and don’t leave it too late. When you’re so full of emotions and questions that you can’t answer, you start to suffer. Be courageous, believe in yourself, push yourself, I’ve learnt that it’s only me holding me back. Reach out to people with similar disabilities, they’ll all have stories to tell and they’ll all be different and remember to keep smiling, remember to laugh, laughter cures many things.”

Simon still keeps his very active lifestyle up and still enjoys cycling, swimming and even skiing. He explained to us how he has adapted to make sure he can still take part in the sports he loves “I’m still on my first prosthetic leg so I make do for cycling and have magnetic pedals to keep my foot in place. For swimming, I can’t get my prothesis wet, so I take it off to swim. For skiing, I’m lucky that my prothesis fits in my boot with some foam blocks to pack it out. Longer term, I’m looking forward to a few legs, one for swimming, one for skiing and a general everyday leg.”