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He wasn't going to let losing his sight stop him doing the Great North Run.

So this dedicated runner certainly isn't going to let a pandemic get in the way.

The Great North Run may have been cancelled as a result of Covid-19, but Gary Ferguson, from Rowlands Gill, is among the hundreds of people who are finding a new way to test their bodies and raise money for charity, just as they planned to do in the famous half marathon.

Civil servant Gary, 59, has reached the finish line of the famous Newcastle - South Shields course around 13 times before, but this year was set to be an extra challenge.

Though he's had serious eye problems for most of his life, this was to be his first time completing the run since he eyesight deteriorate to the point where he could no longer run safely without a guide, and has applied for a guide dog.

Undeterred, Gary, who is registered blind, decided to raise cash for others in his position, running to collect sponsorship for the Guide Dogs charity, as well as the NHS.

He's now completing the Great North Run solo challenge instead: completing 40 runs over the 78 days leading up to September 13, when the half marathon should have taken place.

On the day itself, Gary and his guide runner, Craig Merrick, will be running 13.1miles along the Derwent Walk from Rowlands Gill, with Gary in a 'Braveheart' costume, an outfit he's often used in the Great North Run.

He said: "It would have been the first time I'd run it with my eyes this bad, and I was looking forward to it, because having applied for a guide dog myself I wanted to get the chance to support and raise money for them.

"It was disappointing when Covid-19 knocked it all back: it's frustrating for everybody who was going to run, but it's the charities who really suffer, because they are losing millions that they would have got in sponsorship."

Running while blind is not without its challenges, and Gary has been forced to adapt to a whole new way of doing the sport he loves, due to the cloudy cornea which makes the world around him dark and his vision 'like being in a steamy sauna'.

"It's frustrating, more than anything. Usually I like to dictate the pace, but now I have to run right behind my guide: they run right in front of me wearing a high-visibility tabard and that's about as far as I can see," he explained.

"Sometimes, depending on the weather, if the sun is shining through the trees, for example, the person I'm running behind tends to disappear, so some of the time I am literally running blind, hoping there's nothing going to hit me before that little bit of visibility comes back."

He's spurred on by his love of running outdoors, as well as a desire to help others who've lost their sight, as he knows from experience how valuable a guide dog can be.

He said: "I've been approved for a dog and I'm on a waiting list, but it's a long list because there are a lot of people needing it.

"It's about independence: at the moment I'm having to depend on other people for small things, like going to the shops, with a dog, I could do that on my own."

Gary is raising money for Guide Dogs and the NHS at https://justgiving.com/fundraising/gary-ferguson6

Read more here:
Blind Gateshead runner won't let sight loss or the pandemic stop him completing the Great North Run - Chronicle Live

This entry was posted on August 17, 2020 at 1:51 pm and is filed under Eye Sight & Vision. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |