Myat Climbs Dumyat
Myat Haggart is raising money for Perkins School For The Blind
Story
Myat is a 12-year-old who was born in New York City and is now a full-time student and resident at Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Boston where he attends their progressive deafblind program.
Born healthy, Myat started losing his vision around age 1 developing chronic uveitis, which would eventually lead to full blindness at age 6 after dozens of surgeries attempting to save his vision failed. Soon after full and irreversible blindness had set in, he was then diagnosed with progressive sensorineural hearing loss, but ultimately remained undiagnosed as to the actual causes until whole exome sequencing (WES) was performed and CAPN5 mutation was established at age 10. Myat is the first and only person known to carry the CAPN5 mutation and is currently observed by the medical world’s foremost experts studying the gene who continue their research in the hope that a breakthrough will someday be made to help Myat and others too.
Myat was named after the hill Dumyat (Ochil Hills, Scotland) which his father, originally from Clackmannanshire, climbed regularly as a kid on into his late twenties. It has always been a goal to have Myat climb his namesake, but that was interrupted by continuous surgeries and ongoing medical treatment in the USA. Myat’s last trip to Scotland was in 2011 to see his gran who had just been diagnosed with terminal cancer, hence the visit. Not knowing whether his gran would live days, weeks, months, or years, it was her wish that if she could gain enough strength, one of the things to do before passing would be climb Dumyat with Myat. Sadly, 7 months later, his gran passed on whilst being cared for (wonderfully) at Strathcarron Hospice and the climb never happened.
On his first return visit to Scotland in 7 years, let’s support ‘Myat Climbs Dumyat’ and help him fundraise for Perkins School for the Blind. At 418 meters (1,371 ft.), this will be a major challenge for Myat, but he’s totally psyched and up for climbing what he refers to as “my hill.” Myat may not make it to the top, but he will definitely give it 100% and get as high as he possibly can. If he does manage to reach the top, he will likely be one of the youngest blind folk to do so.
Weather permitting, the climb will take place on Sunday August 5 or on Sunday August 12.
Perkins School for the Blind have made a profound impact on Myat's quality of life, wellbeing and learning in just 1 year. He will likely be at Perkins until he's around 21-22 years old and we can think of no better cause than giving back to the very school committed to helping Myat achieve all he's capable of over the next 10 years.
Here's a wee bit blurb on who Myat's fundraising for:
Perkins is a progressive, multi-faceted organization committed to improving the lives of people with blindness and deafblindness all around the world. Our five areas of focus support Perkins’ aspirational mission. Our organization is driven by a proven team of experts and supported by a community that's committed to upholding our core values. Our history of excellence pushes us to actively seek the next innovation the world holds. We are Perkins – ever evolving to meet the challenge.
Core Values
While the world has changed since Perkins’ founding, our fundamental beliefs have remained constant. Our Core Values guide and inspire our work every day.
• Excellence in Education: We pursue excellence and innovation to enable all students to reach their full potential.
• Tradition: We look to our legacy to inform our future.
• Empowerment: We work to ensure that every person has the opportunity to make their voice heard.
• Integrity: We behave in a way that is honest and principled.
• Accessibility: We strive to be a model of accessibility in our actions and attitudes, fostering and advocating for an environment of inclusion.
Mission
The Perkins mission is to prepare children and young adults who are blind with the education, confidence and skills they need to realize their potential.
• Areas of Focus: Perkins consists of five distinct lines of business that collaborate on local, national and global levels that work together every day to change what it means to be blind.
• Perkins School for the Blind, which serves approximately 200 students on campus, and operates as the headquarters for our Community Services programs including itinerant services, independence courses for public school students, evaluations and assessments for communities, and training for professionals.
• Perkins International, which impacts the lives of thousands of children, families, educators and professionals every year. Perkins International works to develop sustainable capacity in 67 countries through local, on-the-ground partnerships and provides resources, training and advocacy to improve the lives of the 4.5 million children around the world without access to education due to blindness.
• Perkins Solutions, which provides innovative assistive technology products and consulting services to people, organizations and governments around the world to empower people who are blind or visually impaired to reach their full potential. Product offerings range from the classic mechanical Perkins Brailler to the accessible mobile app BlindWays.
• Perkins eLearning, an online portal designed to provide resources and support to anyone, anywhere, in the field of blindness education. Perkins eLearning leverages our reputation as a teacher of teachers by offering high-quality webcasts and webinars on a variety of topics. We also provide professional development and graduate level credits to educators through online workshops. A recent grant from the Gates Foundation for Perkins eLearning is providing financial support for this critical sharing of resources.
• Perkins Library, which circulates more than 530,000 items in braille, audio, electronic and large print formats to about 28,000 patrons in the U.S. The Library has served patrons since 1835 and is one of the oldest accessibility services in the country.
Born healthy, Myat started losing his vision around age 1 developing chronic uveitis, which would eventually lead to full blindness at age 6 after dozens of surgeries attempting to save his vision failed. Soon after full and irreversible blindness had set in, he was then diagnosed with progressive sensorineural hearing loss, but ultimately remained undiagnosed as to the actual causes until whole exome sequencing (WES) was performed and CAPN5 mutation was established at age 10. Myat is the first and only person known to carry the CAPN5 mutation and is currently observed by the medical world’s foremost experts studying the gene who continue their research in the hope that a breakthrough will someday be made to help Myat and others too.
Myat was named after the hill Dumyat (Ochil Hills, Scotland) which his father, originally from Clackmannanshire, climbed regularly as a kid on into his late twenties. It has always been a goal to have Myat climb his namesake, but that was interrupted by continuous surgeries and ongoing medical treatment in the USA. Myat’s last trip to Scotland was in 2011 to see his gran who had just been diagnosed with terminal cancer, hence the visit. Not knowing whether his gran would live days, weeks, months, or years, it was her wish that if she could gain enough strength, one of the things to do before passing would be climb Dumyat with Myat. Sadly, 7 months later, his gran passed on whilst being cared for (wonderfully) at Strathcarron Hospice and the climb never happened.
On his first return visit to Scotland in 7 years, let’s support ‘Myat Climbs Dumyat’ and help him fundraise for Perkins School for the Blind. At 418 meters (1,371 ft.), this will be a major challenge for Myat, but he’s totally psyched and up for climbing what he refers to as “my hill.” Myat may not make it to the top, but he will definitely give it 100% and get as high as he possibly can. If he does manage to reach the top, he will likely be one of the youngest blind folk to do so.
Weather permitting, the climb will take place on Sunday August 5 or on Sunday August 12.
Perkins School for the Blind have made a profound impact on Myat's quality of life, wellbeing and learning in just 1 year. He will likely be at Perkins until he's around 21-22 years old and we can think of no better cause than giving back to the very school committed to helping Myat achieve all he's capable of over the next 10 years.
Here's a wee bit blurb on who Myat's fundraising for:
Perkins is a progressive, multi-faceted organization committed to improving the lives of people with blindness and deafblindness all around the world. Our five areas of focus support Perkins’ aspirational mission. Our organization is driven by a proven team of experts and supported by a community that's committed to upholding our core values. Our history of excellence pushes us to actively seek the next innovation the world holds. We are Perkins – ever evolving to meet the challenge.
Core Values
While the world has changed since Perkins’ founding, our fundamental beliefs have remained constant. Our Core Values guide and inspire our work every day.
• Excellence in Education: We pursue excellence and innovation to enable all students to reach their full potential.
• Tradition: We look to our legacy to inform our future.
• Empowerment: We work to ensure that every person has the opportunity to make their voice heard.
• Integrity: We behave in a way that is honest and principled.
• Accessibility: We strive to be a model of accessibility in our actions and attitudes, fostering and advocating for an environment of inclusion.
Mission
The Perkins mission is to prepare children and young adults who are blind with the education, confidence and skills they need to realize their potential.
• Areas of Focus: Perkins consists of five distinct lines of business that collaborate on local, national and global levels that work together every day to change what it means to be blind.
• Perkins School for the Blind, which serves approximately 200 students on campus, and operates as the headquarters for our Community Services programs including itinerant services, independence courses for public school students, evaluations and assessments for communities, and training for professionals.
• Perkins International, which impacts the lives of thousands of children, families, educators and professionals every year. Perkins International works to develop sustainable capacity in 67 countries through local, on-the-ground partnerships and provides resources, training and advocacy to improve the lives of the 4.5 million children around the world without access to education due to blindness.
• Perkins Solutions, which provides innovative assistive technology products and consulting services to people, organizations and governments around the world to empower people who are blind or visually impaired to reach their full potential. Product offerings range from the classic mechanical Perkins Brailler to the accessible mobile app BlindWays.
• Perkins eLearning, an online portal designed to provide resources and support to anyone, anywhere, in the field of blindness education. Perkins eLearning leverages our reputation as a teacher of teachers by offering high-quality webcasts and webinars on a variety of topics. We also provide professional development and graduate level credits to educators through online workshops. A recent grant from the Gates Foundation for Perkins eLearning is providing financial support for this critical sharing of resources.
• Perkins Library, which circulates more than 530,000 items in braille, audio, electronic and large print formats to about 28,000 patrons in the U.S. The Library has served patrons since 1835 and is one of the oldest accessibility services in the country.