Hello!

I'm running the London Marathon this year and will be raising money for a charity that's helped my family out a lot over the years; the RNIB. Why the RNIB? Well to answer that fully lets cast our minds back to the year 1991...Bryan Adams was blasting out "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" over the airwaves, the Soviet Union was collapsing, Nelson Mandela was being freed and the World Wide Web was literally invented in the summer of that year. My Dad who had his own agricultural engineering business and had 3 kids (under the age of 10) and a wife to look after, was rocking a mop of curly black hair and my mum the classic 90's perm. Life was good. Then sadly, one day it wasn't. 

One day, after working on a tractor on a chicken farm, he came home complaining about his eyes hurting and watering. A&E couldn't work out what was wrong so my Mum drove him to Moorfields Eye Hospital. It took a brilliant team of doctors to work out what he was suffering from - a freakishly rare, flesh eating bacteria found in chicken faeces. It can eat through your eye, into your optic nerve and then into your brain which in some cases can lead to brain damage and eventually death. My Dad now found himself in Moorfields Eye Hospital fighting for his sight and most importantly his life. Thankfully a young doctor (and in some bizarre twist of fate) had read about a similar case "online". He was diagnosed with Nocardiosis, a new medicine was flown in from the US and his treatment began. After 9 weeks of IV antibiotics my Dad now found himself out of hospital but registered blind. 

The RNIB helped my family out over the next 30 years or so. I remember being fascinated as a little kid with this buzzing gadget they gave him so he could make a cup of tea without spilling boiling water everywhere. I used to play with his various white sticks (obviously I wasn't allowed) and hit stuff with them. I did my best to listen quietly to my Dad's talking books they used to send him and I was intrigued by how freakishly large they were. I looked on in awe as he used various reading aides they sent him to study his OU degree. I marvelled at how quick they were to respond to the prejudices and disability discrimination he faced in his new job as a geography teacher. When I actually think about it its mad how much they helped him. 

So my dear reader that is why I'm going to raise money for the RNIB. I want to give something back and say thanks to this brilliant charity. So if you have a spare quid please throw it into the pot - I'd really really appreciate it. 

Thanks for your support. 

Dave