Warfare codes, Everest and the occasional skydive: Looking back on Stephen's full life

The 66-year-old, who died following a car accident late last month, is being remembered as a man whose life, though tragically cut short, was lived to the full.

His fiancée, Jenn Arnold, who was also seriously injured in the crash, and is now recovering at home in Bathurst, said Mr Jackson had an unbelievable life, living all over the world and doing things most people only dream about.

In Bathurst, he is best known for his community involvement.

Along with Ms Arnold, he was the force behind establishing parkrun and Mount Panorama Punish, and was instrumental in the World Athletics Cross Country Championships being held at Mount Panorama in 2023.

Ms Arnold said that whenever opportunity knocked, Mr Jackson would answer.

"He spent his entire life being involved and giving things a go," she said.

"He'd say yes and then work out the finer details later."

Just one example was when he was offered the opportunity to skydive onto the North Pole back in 1994.

"He just said yes. There were no details; they just said we are planning this, are you interested?

"And he just said yep," she laughed.

Ms Arnold said that when someone asked "how are we going to do it?", Mr Jackson would reply "I dunno yet, but we will figure that out".

IT was the couple's love of running that brought them together, though they were friends for years before their romance developed.

Ms Arnold met Mr Jackson in 2016. It was his son Josh's first day in year four at Eglinton and Ms Arnold was his teacher.

A runner herself, she had recently heard of something called parkrun and had done one at Shellharbour.

"I loved the community aspect of it. I loved how I was immediately made to feel welcome and I felt like I belonged at that first run," she said.

"So I contacted parkrun Australia and said I wanted to set one up in Bathurst and asked how might I go about it.

"They said there is a guy there already who has been trying to get a parkrun happening, but hasn't yet been successful."

That guy was Stephen Jackson.

"He hadn't been able to get it off the ground, so they gave me Stephen's details, but of course I'd met him only the day before when he dropped off Josh for his first day of school.

"So it was quite a funny coincidence meeting him," she said.

"So I went to his office the following afternoon and talked about what we wanted for parkrun and why we wanted it.

"At that stage, he was on the board of parkrun Australia, so he had the inside workings of parkrun and wanted to get it happening for Bathurst.

"But he was new to Bathurst, his family had only moved two years earlier, and he said 'I don't really know anyone at council'.

"At that time, I think Dad [Graeme Hanger] was the deputy mayor, so I said 'well, leave that to me, I know people at council'," she laughed.

That was February 2016 and, by July that year, parkrun Bathurst was up and running.

"It all happened really quickly. Once we made that connection with each other, we were able to get it going," she said.

Another significant contribution Mr Jackson made to Bathurst was his role in the World Athletics Cross Country Championships, held in Bathurst in 2023.

That was a contribution acknowledged by Athletics Australia.

In an obituary published by the organisation, Athletics Australia described Mr Jackson's role as "pivotal" and said his "contacts, knowledge and skills were crucial in the delivery of the event".

Ms Arnold recalled how Mr Jackson was brought on board in late 2022.

"None of the organising committee were local, they were working out of Tasmania and Melbourne trying to get things happening in Bathurst and they were really struggling with it, not knowing who to get in contact with or make connections.

"Stephen has quite a long history with Athletics Australia: the blue line, the marathon line that went through Sydney [for the 2000 Olympics] that most of us know quite well, that was him; he measured it.

"He set out that course for the Sydney Marathon and the triathlon course - that was the first time triathlon was held at an Olympics - he measured that course in Sydney Harbour as well.

"He has this long association with Athletics Australia through his running and as a world accredited course measurer, so they made contact with Stephen and asked if he was available to help with being a local on the ground.

"He was really instrumental in getting it happening.

"Until Stephen came on board, they were struggling with finding volunteers and local suppliers, that sort of thing."

IN 2017, Ms Arnold came up with the idea for Mount Panorama Punish, and Mr Jackson was right there beside her getting it off the ground.

"He jokes he didn't step back quick enough when I started talking about it and I roped him in," she said.

"He helped me do it and put it on. There's no question his knowledge and understanding of how to get an event like that really happening is the reason behind its success.

"He got good friends of ours, timing guys who do timing for the City to Surf and major events like that, involved.

"Stephen had a longstanding relationship with Chris and June, so got them up to do our timing and put it all together pretty quickly, but through his name associated with it, we had world-class runners racing with us pretty quickly.

"It didn't take long for world-class runners wanting to race in it, knowing Stephen was associated with it. He was that well-known."

But for all he did in Bathurst, it represents just a a smidgen of what he achieved throughout his life.

"The Panorama Punish, parkrun and cross country, that's just him being here for 10 years or so," Ms Arnold said.

"And while he has cemented himself in the community here, people around the world feel like he still belongs to them."

She recalled his time with the Sydney Striders, a running club in Sydney.

"He was president for a couple of years there and he got their 10k series up and running.

"He got a lot of their races measured and certified as specific distance so they could be used as qualifiers for other local and international events.

"People know if they run a Striders 10k event it's a certificated course and Stephen Jackson has measured it and it's able to be used as a qualifying event for other things."

Ms Arnold said it was at the beginning of 2019 that she and Mr Jackson realised they weren't just friends any more.

"There was something else, and given our age difference [22 years], it wasn't an easy thing to come to terms with for either of us and our families.

"But I guess he didn't feel like a 66-year-old. He is so vital and active and full of energy and life. We really did feel like equals."

Ms Arnold said that, as a couple, they already had so much in common.

"We joked about these sliding doors moments," she said.

A couple of years ago, Ms Arnold found what she assumed was her graduation booklet from Macquarie University's Bachelor of Education degree, and was wondering why it was in Mr Jackson's things.

"I said to him 'how did my graduation booklet end up in amongst all of your things?'.

"I didn't know how that happened.

"He said 'no, no, that's Chris'' [his eldest son] and I said 'no, I graduated that day from Macquarie Uni'.

"He said 'no, no, Chris graduated that day from uni'. But as it turns out, we were both there that day years ago at Macquarie University when Chris, his son, and I both graduated together from the Bachelor of Education.

"We didn't know each other, we moved in different circles, but we had these little moments of a butterfly flapping its wings, and here we ended up, both now in Bathurst."

Ms Arnold said that since Mr Jackson's death, one thing is clear: he was loved by everyone.

"Someone said to me the other day he made them feel like they were the only person in the world when they were having a conversation with him. And they were so important to him.

"And he genuinely did find people fascinating. Whatever their story, whether they were starting out to run or interested in giving it a go, or going through a trial or tribulation in their life, he had a very beautiful way of making people feel they were heard and important and he was in their corner 100 per cent all the time.

"People joke at parkrun they'd hear Stephen calling out to them across the river, "go Amanda", whether or not they are walking or running.

"Whatever it is they are doing, they are out and enjoying themselves and making the most of every opportunity.

"He took great delight in seeing people take those opportunities."

She said he also really loved that idea of belonging.

"I think for him, for both of us, we know any of us can do a five km run or walk anywhere, at any time, but parkrun is that sense of belonging to something.

"People are excited to see us and people care for us and people want us to be doing well and see us all happy. Not just Stephen and I, but everyone at parkrun wants to see that for one another.

"He could see the benefits parkrun had in so many people's lives - not just health, but also mental health and sense of self-worth and things like that.

"When we had to pause parkrun for COVID, someone said to us 'don't they understand parkrun is the one place every week where I know people will be happy to see me'.

"To have helped foster, and we didn't do it by ourselves, there's no question Stephen and I provided the opportunity for people, but this community that have built around parkrun support and care for one another is amazing.

"I think on more than one occasion, I have referred to it as our church.

"We're not religious by any stretch, but that feeling of comfort and belonging and caring for one another, which a lot of people get through their church, so many people get it at parkrun.

"I guess Stephen wanted that feeling. He wanted that care and connection for anyone else who would stop and talk to him long enough."

IN the two weeks since the accident, Ms Arnold has been dealing with the aftermath of both physical and emotional trauma, but she said that what has kept her afloat is the support and love she has been shown.

"It's been incredible. It really helps.

"The support for me personally when I was in hospital and injured, and still recovering with a way to go, the care from people in Bathurst has just been lovely and quite touching."

In such a tragic time, she said she has tried to focus on the positives.

"I've been trying to hold onto all the positive things and the bright things over the last week or so and there are some desperately sad and terrible moments.

"But the beautiful, happy and wonderful things, those people reaching out giving messages of support for Stephen, myself and all of Stephen's family and his children, has been incredible.

"People have been wanting to recount their stories of how they met Stephen or little moments of kindness he showed them, sometimes decades ago, when they were just starting to run or going through a dark patch.

"Stephen just provided this little bit of comfort or support and people remembered all of this time what he has done for them or how he has helped them."

Ms Arnold has also taken comfort in the knowledge that, despite her enormous loss, Mr Jackson, as an organ donor, has given the gift of life to others.

"He was an organ donor. We talked about it at length and had various conversations, so it was very clear to me that was his wish and what he wanted.

"He was registered on the Donate Life website as well, so the team at the hospital were also aware of his wishes and it made the decision so easy for myself and son Chris when the time came.

"There was no question in my mind that was the way we wanted to head if we were able, and Stephen's heart held off long enough so we were able to make that happen for him and the three families.

"It was a really nice, peaceful feeling waking up the following morning. I was still in hospital in Canberra, where he was as well, we were at the same hospital, but waking up the following morning knowing these three families, all of a sudden their lives had changed immeasurably, just as mine had but in a much more positive way.

"They were waking up with some joy and hope in their lives for the first time in a while."

Ms Arnold said there was never a moment of Mr Jackson's life that was not utilised.

"He lived life so fully; there was not a moment wasted for him.

"A couple of years ago, he was in quite a bad cycling accident in a bike race - 2021, I think it was.

"He was airlifted to Westmead Hospital with bleeding on his brain and a fractured skull then and he spent a couple of days in hospital before he was released and I brought him home.

"I was working from home and caring for him and his brain was rattled around as a result of the crash and they said he's going to need a lot of time sleeping just so his brain can heal.

"But he was so determined to get back to work. At the time, he was working as a CEO for an organisation in Canberra. He was so determined to get back to work with them."

Before the crash, Ms Arnold said Mr Jackson would sit and read the newspaper and have a podcast on at the same time.

"Ordinarily, that was fine for him. He could do both at the same time and that was no problem.

"But when his brain was boggled from the crash, it was quite exhausting for him.

"But not a moment was wasted, even when he was poorly like that. There was always something to try to learn or try to investigate.

"You know, reading scientific papers for interest and journal articles and news from around the world just out of interest, just to find out what is happening.

"Or to understand things better and research about his own health and how to improve his running and triathlon. He was still researching all of that."

Most recently, Mr Jackson was CEO for the Australian College of Mental Health Nurses in Canberra.

"He'd actually retired. He'd also worked for Marathon Health; he was the CEO of that," Ms Arnold said.

But interestingly enough, his professional background was IT.

"His first job out of university was in Canberra, where he was writing submarine warfare codes for the Defence Force.

"He was doing a lot of IT work. He worked overseas: his first posting was Wellington, in New Zealand, and he lived in Hong Kong, New York, Paris and Switzerland.

"He also lived in Japan for a little while, so he has lived all around the world with his job in IT.

"He then moved into management in the last 10 or 15 years of his career. He set up Marathon Health here in Bathurst; he got that up and running.

"Marathon Health was his thing, hence the name - marathon because he's run more than 70 marathons. It was named Marathon Health because that was his thing.

"That's the thing with Stephen, he lived and worked all around the world. His stint here in Bathurst had such an impact here on our community, but prior to moving here, he's had this stunning career and stories.

"I'm just looking at a picture in our kitchen, of him standing on the North Pole with a friend of his, Graeme. They were the only two Australians to skydive onto the North Pole. It was 30 years ago this year they did that.

"There was a great big expedition, and they jumped out the back of a Russian fighter jet that they commissioned to drop them onto the North Pole. He really had quite an incredible story.

"He ran the Marathon de Sables in 2008, a staged race of five days across the Sahara, which is 250km. He ran that one.

"We tried to count up how many he has done, we think about over 70 marathons, quite a handful of ultra-marathons, and we were training to do an ultra-marathon this past weekend; the Six Foot Track marathon was on Saturday.

"He and I were in training to do that, and he has done it 18 times previously.

"He has also done quite a few half ironmans and done an ironman. He was a competition skydiver. He's done about 250 skydives across his career. They even used to do formations."

Mr Jackson also had two attempts at climbing Mount Everest.

"Both attempts were unsuccessful," Ms Arnold said.

"That one was a bit of unfinished business.

"In the first attempt, they were climbing the Chinese side and the Chinese government closed it, so they just had to head back down."

In his second attempt, their leader, who was a good friend of Mr Jackson's, was tragically killed.

"He climbed with her on a few other expeditions, Mount Cook and different places in Nepal," Ms Arnold said.

"They were climbing Everest and she fell and was killed, so they turned back.

"So when we talk about what he's done for Bathurst with the parkrun and the Punish and how involved in community he is, this is not just the last 10 years, it's an entire life of being involved and giving things a go and saying yes and then working out the finer details later.

"When he was offered that opportunity to skydive on the North Pole, he just said yes. There were no details, they just said we are planning this, are you interested?

"And he just said yeah."

Ms Arnold said she has taken comfort in the love she has been shown in the past two weeks.

"It's clear how much he meant to so many people here in Bathurst. I loved him, but I don't have dibs on that, I am quite certain.

"There are so many people here who hold him in such high regard and with such strong affection for what he offered and what he demonstrated and led by example in taking life by the horns and really giving it a go.

"If we could all live half a life that Stephen Jackson lived, we'd be lucky."

A celebration of Mr Jackson's life will be held on Friday, March 15 at the Mount Panorama Pit Complex, Bathurst.

The service will be held in the Windradyne Room, Suites 7-13, beginning at midday, followed by lunch and wake at 1pm.

"We would love as many people as possible there," Ms Arnold said.

"It will be a celebration of life. We want people to think of the good times, the positive times with Stephen, and send him off with a feeling of positivity because that's him through and through.

"With Stephen, there was always a bright side to find.

"We might not see it just yet, but there is always a bright side in all the situations he encountered."