A week after he was born, doctors told Jett McNamara’s parents he would never walk. 

“They were wrong,” young Jett says – three years later – as he speeds around his Kennington home, walker and wheel-chair ditched in a corner. 

Jett McNamara was born without a lower spine and with severely deformed feet. 

He was supposed to be wheel-chair bound for the rest of his life. 

But this week, the three-year-old aspiring mechanic ditched his wheelchair – nicknamed ‘hot wheels’ – and started tearing around the front yard of his Kennington home.  

“It was unbelievable,” his mum Amy said. 

Mrs McNamara has been a full-time mother since the birth of her fourth child, Jett, who has a rare congenital disorder – sacral agenesis.

“Getting by on a single-income with a family of six has its ups and its downs,” she said.

“But when I saw Jett doing what he is doing now, it was certainly worth all the downs.” 

Yet it is her large family that the Kennington mother reckons is behind Jett’s determination not to let his disability hold him back. 

“I think he would’t have that ‘go’ about him if wasn’t for his older siblings,” she said. “He always wants to keep up with them.”  

Jett’s recent strides towards independent mobility, however, did not happen overnight. 

For the first two years of his life Jett – and his parents – were in the Royal Childrens’ Hospital on a weekly basis. 

Late last year he had major surgery on his feet which left him either in hospital or in plaster for months. 

“Before the surgery he could stand and take one or two steps, then he’d fall over,” Mrs McNamara said.

“Once he’d healed from surgery he could take about four steps, then it was eight steps … now he just gets up and walks around.

Yesterday I was so proud I took my phone out and filmed him while he walked towards me, but he didn’t stop, he just kept right on going. It was the most he’d ever walked.” 

Jett may never have complete, independent mobility – he has no calf muscles and will require both surgery and splints for the rest of his life. 

And mobility is only one hurdle thrown up by his disorder which Jett will have to over come. Because he was born without the lower part of his spine, he has no sensation in his bladder or bowels. 

That will require surgery. So will his hips and his knees. 

But the Kennington kid has never been defined by his disability. 

“Everything the doctors prepared us for, he’s turned around and done the exact opposite thing,” Mrs McNamara said.