Blindness fuels drive to achieve

Rob Matthews (right) is the fastest blind runner in the world. Photo / Richard Robinson

Blind Aucklander Rob Matthews says having a disability is in the eye of the beholder.

Losing his sight became a catalyst for discovering how far he could push himself and he threw himself into activities many blind people would sensibly shy away from.

Since becoming legally blind at 20, Matthews has driven a race car, fired a gun, tried archery, gone jet- and waterskiing, cross-country skiing, cycled throughout Britain and Europe and played golf, football and cricket.

But mostly he discovered a passion for running.

Matthews is now the fastest blind runner in the world. He has won 29 international gold medals, set 22 world records and was made an MBE by the Queen for services to sport for the disabled.

Last month, he competed in the World Paralympic Triathalon, winning a silver medal.

The winner was 20 years younger than him, he said.

Matthews has just written a book, due to be released today, about his life and the early struggles he fought when his sight began to fail him.

The 48-year-old, who was born in Britain, inherited a congenital condition from his father and started losing his sight when he was 11 years old. He was totally blind nine years later.

"I remember clearly the face of a frightened 15-year-old staring back at me in the mirror. This is the last image I have of myself," he wrote in his book Running Blind.

"I felt sorry for myself for a while, but then I started coming to terms with it."

He felt fortunate that he had sight in his early years, because he could visualise things.

"I know what a kerb looks like, what a forest of trees look like. Someone who was congenitally blind wouldn't be able to recognise that. And I can also visualise what pretty girls look like."

Matthews soon discovered running was a release for him. But the obvious issue was not being able to see where he was going.

The only way he could run properly was to have a guide runner run with him who described the terrain as well as turns Matthews would need to make. Matthews and the guide would be attached to each other with a short piece of rope.

But the faster Matthews got, the more difficult it was finding runners who could keep up with him.

"All through my running career that's been the most difficult thing."

Matthews said he had often wondered if he would have been as successful an athlete if he had not lost his sight.

"I know I would have been a good-level runner, I don't know if I would have been right at the top, but I think I would have been knocking on the door."

Matthews is now a motivational speaker and uses the challenges he has faced to inspire others.

"Whenever someone tells me I can't do something, it makes me more determined to do it.

"I love the feeling of driving a car - I've often dreamed how fantastic it would be to be able to just jump in the car and drive anywhere."

So when his mates offered him the opportunity to drive around an aerodrome, he jumped at the chance.

"I enjoy speed as well, so jetskiing and waterskiing was good fun. I don't let anything get in my way," he said.

He did concede, however, that a number of lampposts and trees did get in his way as his sight gave way and he would often arrive at work or home bruised and bloodied.

"I was of much more danger to myself when I had some sight to when I lost it."

Matthews moved to New Zealand in 2006 after meeting and rapidly falling in love with Sarah, now his wife .

About a year later Sarah became pregnant with their son Thomas.

Despite the 50/50 chance his son might inherit his disability, Matthews said he was not really concerned about the issue.

"My father had a happy life, he tried not to let anything stop him from doing stuff - he got married and had three kids.

"And ditto with myself, probably even more so. It was decided that if our child did inherit the gene then he'd have a great role model to show him that everything was do-able."

Tests seem so far to have cleared Thomas of inheriting the gene, he said.

"He can see in the dark, which is something I never could."

Matthews hasn't finished challenging himself. Next April, he plans to compete in the Marathon des Sables through the Sahara Desert and after that wants to ski the 650km marathon to the North Pole.

- NZPA