Hiking the Pacific Coast Trail to Fight Blindness

Why? - "Taking a hike" to help others...

I spent the past summer hiking around the Lake Tahoe region, thinking about getting in shape for the Pacific Crest Trail. All that hiking gave me the time to think about the many photos I snap and what it is I do with them. The answer is simple; I share them with the people who weren’t there to see what I could see. I show the pictures to everyone who can see them which made me think a bit about the people who can’t see the pictures.

How could I share what I saw with them?

I can describe what I see - a lot of blah blah blah and yaddah yaddah yaddah - but I can’t adequately describe the beautiful and awesome vistas that I could see to those who couldn’t.

Someone special..

One of the people I most wanted to share the awesome beauty of my trip with is the daughter of one of my friends in Great Britain who is losing her eyesight due to a genetic, blindness-causing disease - retinitis pigmentosa. Leanne is 29 years old and at the age of 24 years she was told that she has Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP). Leanne and her family were devastated by the diagnosis and felt like she had been given a life sentence - that she would gradually go blind and spend the rest of her life in darkness. They could not understand where this genetic eye condition had come from - Leanne is the first known person in the families of both parents to have RP. For Leanne at the time, her greatest sorrow was having to stop driving and give up her much-loved little car.

RP Fighting Blindness has provided Leanne and her family much needed and essential support and strength, enabling them to focus on the positive aspects of what is being done to find a treatment and cure for this genetic disease, rather than feeling hopeless and ineffective. Initially it was painful for her family, but particularly for Leanne, to attend meetings and events and see other RP sufferers who were at a more advanced stage.

Five years on and Leanne’s eyes have progressively deteriorated but she hasn’t let that stop her. Leanne has friends in many parts of the world and up to now she has always tried to keep her RP diagnosis quiet , but she has turned a corner recently and decided that RP is part of who she is and she needs those around her to know about her “tunnel” vision, and to understand that she isn’t “in a world of her own” and that sometimes she needs her friends to look out for her. She is a beautiful, intelligent, lively and fun loving young woman who is learning to live with her partial sight and is determined to make the most of her life.

RP Fighting Blindness for over thirty years...

For more than thirty years RP Fighting Blindness (also known as the British Retinitis Pigmentosa Society) has been working to find a cure for RP, a genetic disease of the eye which results in the deterioration of vision, and often complete blindness, through raising funds for medical and scientific research and using this money to stimulate and support cutting edge projects ranging from basic science to clinical trials of potential treatments. Since inception, RP Fighting Blindness has invested over £8 million into the search for a cure and have stimulated significant breakthroughs. RP Fighting Blindness also provides information and support services to people with RP and their families providing assistance on everything from basic facts and day-to-day problems to coping with major stress at difficult times.

I am determined to helping Leanne and others with retinitis pigmentosa by devoting my hike from Mexico to Canada this year to raising awareness about retinitis pigmentosa and soliciting donations to RP Fighting Blindness and their search for a cure. If you are able to share in my adventure, then come along. I’ll post photos here and on this web site. Enjoy the shots and the trip and, if you can, help someone else to see what we can see on the other side of the mountain. - Donate HERE!