'It's a life changer': Sask. retiree donates his mobility equipment to young farmer

Farmers lift each other up WATCH: Levi Jamieson, a paralyzed young farmer, is receiving mobility help from a retired farmer who's also paralyzed. Stacey Hein reports.

A Moosomin teenager who lost the use of his legs two years ago in an ATV accident was gifted a hydraulic lift chair by a retired paraplegic farmer.

The act of generosity has changed the way 16-year-old Levi Jamieson farms. Despite the accident, that didn’t stop him from doing what he loves.

“I knew there was going to be a way to do it,” he said.

Jamieson has dreams of one day taking over the 28 quarter family farm. He has a passion for working with cattle and haying.

Retired farmer from Redvers, Merle Malin, stumbled across Jamieson by chance. He was flipping through the local newspaper when he turned to a page he doesn’t normally read and saw a picture of Jamieson.

“It was a fluke thing,” he said. “I noticed one person was there using mobility equipment to get around.”

Malin reached out to the newspaper and connected with Jamieson to offer him a hydraulic chair lift.

“I was just so pleased that a young farmer was going to make his life a little easier,” he said. “Farming is not easy when you’re in a wheelchair but it can be done.”

Malin understands the challenges a wheelchair can bring. He became paraplegic in a trucking accident nearly 30 years ago. At the time, the doctor gave him a three per cent chance of survival.

“He said, “You’ll never farm again,’” Malin said.

Shortly after, he was back in the field.

“He left the hospital before I got to go back and say, “In your face,’” he said.

His family helped out with the 21 quarter farm. His wife helped with seeding and his children loaded the air seeder before and after school.

“My family was very, very supportive of me, and my kids had to grow up a lot faster than they should have,” he said.

A few years after his accident, he found the lift at a farm progress show. He bought it for himself because his children were too young to lift him in and out of the equipment.

“Once I got the lift, I was free, I was independent,” he said.

It’s a feeling he wanted to pass onto Jamieson. Jamieson said it’s made him more independent too, as he no longer needed his parents to help him in and out of the equipment.

“It means everything to me, it’s a life changer,” Jamieson said.