The Blind Traveller

Sometimes the stories you hear in the news about blind people doing extraordinary things (such as running marathons, breaking blind land speed records or climbing mountains) can be intimidating when you’re experiencing sight loss.  Some of the things I hear about blind people doing, I wouldn’t have even attempted fully sighted! 

Not everyone is an adrenalin junky or wants to be a record breaker, or whatever, but just wants to live as normal a life as everyone else.  Sometimes their disability can make that seem like an heroic effort in itself and going into your shell is so easy.
However, these stories can also help people realise that a disability doesn’t have to prevent people from achieving their goals or even just doing the things they love.
As someone still getting used to getting around with deteriorating eyesight the story of “Tony the Traveller” is inspiring.

I met Tony Giles this week.  He was born with a genetic disease the eventually robbed him of all sight and has only 20% hearing without his hearing aids.  He also had a kidney transplant in 2008.   He was telling me how he’d not long returned from a solo trip to Argentina and Antarctica.  He has travelled the globe, visiting all 50 U.S. and all 10 Canadian states, crossed the Artic Circle and bungee jumped in New Zealand.

With the help of local guides and fellow travellers he befriends he has visited more countries, experienced more exotic locations and tasted more weird and wonderful local cuisines than most people will in a lifetime.  Tony is 33.

Tony has written a number of books, in the form of his travel diaries, also available in different accessible formats.  You can find out a lot more on his web site "Tony the Traveller" .

For anyone going through the life changing effects of losing their sight, stories like Tony’s can highlight the fact that things they may have thought would become impossible to do, are still out there to experience, even if it might just take a little more thought and effort in how to achieve them.

Quote from the Tony the Traveller web site about his book “Seeing the World My Way”:

“Seeing the World My Way follows Tony Giles’ journey of hedonism and thrill-seeking adventure as he travels across North America, Asia and Australasia. Full of drama, danger and discovery, this fascinating travel biography is a young blind man’s view of the world as he sets out to achieve his dream, dealing with disability whilst living life to the limit.
From bungee jumping in New Zealand to booze filled nights out in New Orleans, Seeing the World My Way is a no-holds-barred account that is certainly not for the faint hearted. Travel the world in a whole new way with Tony Giles’ frank, honest and exhilarating romp through one adrenaline-fuelled experience after another.”