UAE | General

Dave Heeley sprints past blind stigma of disability

Dave Heeley is the first blind person ever to complete seven marathons in seven days on seven continents. Running one marathon is hard enough, but to run seven in such a short space of time around the world with a sighted guide is phenomenal.

  • By Alice Johnson, Staff Reporter
  • Published: 23:39 May 16, 2008
  • Gulf News

  • Dave Heeley with Katie Newitt, Chairperson of Foresight (right) and Jeanie Steepers, volunteer for Foresight in Dubai.
  • Image Credit: Alice Johnson/Gulf News
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Dubai: Dave Heeley is the first blind person ever to complete seven marathons in seven days on seven continents. Running one marathon is hard enough, but to run seven in such a short space of time around the world with a sighted guide is phenomenal.

Gulf News caught up with Heeley over coffee as he relaxed on a short break with his family in Dubai. He revisited Dubai - where he ran his fourth of seven marathons - to meet supporters at Foresight and also to speak at the Dubai Road Runners annual social event.

"It was pain, it was pleasure, it was fulfillment, it was just every emotion you can think of, and it was all wrapped up in me," Heeley says of completing the challenge of his life.

"The realisation - and it's a month since I finished the challenge - still hasn't really hit me, what I've done. Maybe tomorrow I'll sit at home and the emotion will just pour out over what I've done. I'm still on a high coming out here to Dubai - it's fabulous," he said.

Heeley and sighted running guide Malcolm 'Mac' Carr were greeted in their home town of West Bromwich, England, by the local Mayor of Sandwell, a welcome band and were treated to an open-top bus tour of the town.

"Literally the whole town came out to support us. I was absolutely overwhelmed, and I said I'm sure the town just wanted to see how many times in one day they could make me cry," Heeley said.

The seven marathons, however, weren't just for personal glory or challenge. Heeley is very much focused on raising awareness of blindness and diseases that cause sight-loss, particularly in the younger generation.

"I am passionate about guide dogs and I am passionate about blind charities, and I want to do more for the kids coming up. I want to help the children that we can save from blindness, or help with their blindness. Let's help the children, and if doing this is helping them then it was worth it. I'll stand a bit of pain for seven days," he said.

Heeley has three daughters with wife Debbie: Dannie celebrated her fifth birthday last week in Dubai, Georgie-lee is six and Grace is 17.

Despite raising an amazing amount of awareness about blindness and eye disease around the world, Heeley continues that the stigma of disability is still very much alive in the UK.

"When people think of 'disabled' people, many think of wheelchairs, so ramps and things are put in places of work, but there's still this stigma about blindness. If someone talks to me like I'm an idiot, then I'll act like one, but I'll turn it round on its head and start making fun of them. We may be disabled, we may be blind, but we're not stupid," he said.

Many UK employers, Heeley says, think that it will cost them a lot of money in special software, Braille and other facilities, to take on an employee with impaired sight or blindness.

Archaic thinking

"From an employers' point of view, they think that it's going to cost them a lot of money to take on a visually-impaired person, but I can see their point of view. I don't think the education is there for employers, they just think it's going to cost them a fortune. I don't actually need everything Braille and yes I need special software for the computer and a tape recorder, which I have. We still live in the archaic way that people take on an able-bodied worker because they feel all they have to do is give them an overall, pen, pencil and off they go to work," he said.

Heeley uses a guide dog, trained by Guide Dogs for the Blind in the UK. He raised money for this charity as well as Foresight, which raises funds for eye disease research and has a base in Dubai.

With such an unbelievable challenge laid out before him, it is encouraging to note that he didn't once think of giving up on his plan.

Do you know of any special needs person who has carved a successful career for him or herself? Do you think the stigma still exists?

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