Hello and thank you for visiting my JustGiving.com page.

My name is Jonathan Abro. I walk with a White Cane as I am Visually Impaired. I have actually been Registered Blind for over 15 years now. This is due to an as yet untreatable Degenerative Genetic Eye Disease called Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP), the biggest cause of blindness in the working age population.

I currently have around 5 degrees of Central Vision and some patchy Peripheral Vision. To put that in context, when I am standing talking to you, I can only see one of your eyes, part of your nose, cheek and ear (a bit like what you would see when looking at your reflection in an old mirror that has become very mottled). My depth perception and vision in the dark is even worse so I miss things like steps and pavement edges and jump at shadows. Walking into poles (metal as opposed to people from Poland :) is a fairly regular occurrence. Not recognising you when you walk up to or past me is because I don’t have enough time to take in all the details and avoid the obstacles (which include the moving human obstacles as some of you have found out as I have walked into you or stopped just in time). There are more examples but I am sure this gives you some idea.

It is not all doom and gloom, I am the eternal optimist - I am both very lucky and extremely fortunate; I have driven a car, cycled incredible roads, scuba-dived in aquarium like oceans, travelled to places I have dreamed of visiting (the picture is us hiking in Mexico’s Copper Canyon where we went zip-lining :-), and have Annie, the most wonderful person in my life.

Not everyone is as fortunate as I am, especially the young children who have Retinitis Pigmentosa and who may never get to do the things I am lucky enough to have done.

I have recently learnt that there are 175 known genes (and possibly 30% more yet to be found) that can cause Retinitis Pigmentosa! My gene has not yet been identified. I am encouraged by the number of research projects underway, investigating different treatments, in so many different countries around the world but, sadly, as yet, with no treatments available to slow, halt or, dare we dream for, cure this disease.

So, to support our wonderful scientists, and to ask you to help me in my ongoing quest to raise funds, I am going to undertake a 24 Kilometre / 15 Mile NIGHT walk around London. It does not seem that difficult to imagine walking around this magnificent city, that is until you take away the light from someone like me. It then becomes a major undertaking. Annie will accompany me to stop me walking into too many obstacles.

Our aim is to raise £7,500 for my charity, RP Fighting Blindness. This will be matched by another wonderful charity, Fight for Sight, and the result will be enough to sponsor a new research project to be carried out. Who knows, this may be the one to find something really important in our ongoing fight for sight and hopefully even identify my affected gene.

So, please give as generously as you can but know that every Pound counts so, whether it’s £2, £200 or £2,000, it is all going to make a difference!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

Jonathan

 

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity, RP Fighting Blindness, and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity. So please dig deep and donate now.