Blind Veterans Member and 100k Participant – Kerry Levins

Kerry Levins is a 41 year old who was formerly an Officer in the Royal Corps of Signals; he is married with one child. Kerry has been Registered Blind (Severely Visually Impaired) since 2005 and is a Blind Veterans UK beneficiary he is taking part in this year’s 100k Challenge.

Kerry and guide dog Pedro

“I have been asked to contribute something to the Blind Veterans UK blog in preparation for the 100k challenge, unaccustomed as I am to sharing my thoughts with an audience I have jotted down the first things that sprang to mind, No…Really, I did. I will apologise now for the words below, they are bound to offend someone, I usually can’t open my mouth without offending someone so why would the written word be any different!”

Having just been on BFBS being interviewed in relation to the 100k Challenge I figure I had better pull my finger out and write down something for the blog that Cat asked me to do a while ago.

So I’m going to complete the 100k challenge, now some people will consider that to be a bold and arrogant statement, a Blind Man stating that he WILL finish a challenge that would severely test any normally sighted person. But the point is I‘m not actually being arrogant (for once) I’m merely using positive language to try and kid myself into thinking that this is going to be a walk in the park. So I will expand on the questions that were asked during the interview.

Why am I doing this?

Simply put and in the words of George Mallory, “because it’s there”, in my own words; over the past few years Blind Veterans UK have shown me that in adapting to my sight loss it is not so much about what I cannot do anymore as what I can do. Every day I wake up and feel the need to prove to myself and to the world that I am capable of doing anything I set my mind to, for example just a few weeks ago I drove a Bentley Continental GT around Silverstone, something I have wanted to do since my sight started to fail, were it not for Blind veterans I would not have been given a chance like that. As a counter point I would say that I am not always successful in my undertakings. People handle sight loss differently, indeed no two people who lose their sight will have the same experience, it’s a very personal thing. I’d quickly like to share with you a shortened version of my experience.

The first emotion I felt was despair, strong word I know but there it is! In hindsight I think it was the realisation of what the future might hold and the fear which that brought with it, for example it’s the prospect of having to sit down to pee, which as a man is rather a demeaning thought, not the end of the world but it all chips away at your self-esteem. Other considerations are not being able to drive again and the inherent limitations of mobility that come with that and the last thing I will offer for you to consider is not being able to distinguish between joy and sadness on your child’s face, the prospect of was a bit depressing to say the least. I tried to lift myself out of the funk that I had slipped into which unfortunately translated itself into anger, because it is very difficult to be actively angry toward a situation this resulted in me being rather unpleasant to just about everyone I came into contact with, I think I have managed to apologise personally to everyone I may have upset during this time but if not just let me know.

Then two things happened at about the same time, I was accepted as a beneficiary by St Dunstan’s (Blind Veterans UK as was) and I was paired with a Guide Dog. Blind Veterans UK and the people I met Ray Hazan MBE and Paul Jacobs GM to name but two) showed me that above all else sight loss does not mean an end to anything it means that you have to do things a bit differently maybe slower and a bit more carefully but you can still do them, no matter what “they” are.

To summarise this point I will paraphrase the words of another, John Fitzgerald Kennedy; We do these things not because they are easy but because they are hard.

How is the training going?

Every morning of the working week, at about 04:30 Pedro (my Guide Dog) and I head out of the door and nip around the block, it takes about 40 minutes and covers 2.3 miles, not a lot but it’s all about spending time on your feet. Then at the weekend I do two longer walks this weekend for example I will be doing 3 and 3 ½ hours respectively on Saturday and Sunday, on top of this I get myself to the gym 3 or 4 times a week. The obvious, unasked question is “why 04:30?” The answer is simple, I am picked up to go to work at 06:20 which gets me there at 07:00 and misses the traffic and allows me to leave at 15:30 which gets me home for a little after 4pm allowing me to look after my daughter (she’s 8), which in turn means my wife can go to work in the evening without us having to shell out for Child-care! In addition there is no-one around at that time of day, which suits me down to the ground;-) To answer the other unasked question “are you doing it with your guide Dog” the answer is partly, yes, I intend to do the first leg 6 – 8 hours with him and then drop him off with my wife who will hopefully be meeting us!

What are you expecting to be the hardest part?

This is not my first long distance event, I have previously done the Nijmegen Marches, 40km per day for 4 days, the difference is it was 18 years ago and I could see properly, more recently last year I attempted the Wainwright Way, Coast to Coast Walk (192 miles from St Bees to Robin Hoods Bay) this didn’t end so well, truth be told I barely began, damaging myself on the first day which resulted later in that year in surgery and about 3 months in a cast. So what am I expecting to be the hardest part, honestly? The next 5 steps! But then if it was easy, anyone could do it!

Details of the Events as St Dunstan’s #raisetheflags on Blind Veterans UK

10.30am Brighton – The Royal Marines and Commando Display Team will abseil down the front of the Ovingdean centre
The abseilers will be from The Royal Marines Mountain Leaders and the Commando Display Team, and it will mark the start of the celebrations of our rebrand – so exciting!

11.30am Sheffield – Bomb disposal robot to unveil Sheffield Centre’s name
Tuesday, 21 February at 11.30am a bomb disposal robot will open a curtain to reveal the new sign on the front of the St Dunstan’s rehabilitation and training centre in Sheffield to mark the charity’s change of name to Blind Veterans UK.

The robot, also known as the ‘Wheelbarrow’, will be operated by a member of the 521 Explosive Ordnance Disposal Sqn, which is based at the Catterick Garrison.

2pm Llandudno – RAF Sea King Helicopter delivers the new flag
Tuesday, 21 February at 2pm an RAF Sea King Helicopter will land at St Dunstan’s rehabilitation and training centre in Llandudno to mark our change of name to Blind Veterans UK from St Dunstan’s.

The Sea King will be flying from RAF Valley, Anglesey to deliver the new Blind Veterans UK flag which blind veteran Billy Baxter will then run up the centre’s flag pole.

We’ll keep you updated with pictures and video as they come in – if you want to follow the story as it unfolds, please do subscribe to our Storify, like our Facebook page, or follow us on Twitter.

Get Involved and Help Us #RaiseTheFlags!

It’s so exciting that tomorrow we will be able to share our news with the world and we have so many amazing things planned for the day that I hardly know where to start, but just in case you want to organize to visit tomorrow, here’s a little preview:

10.30am the Royal Marines will be at our Brighton centre
11.30am a Bomb Disposal Robot will visit Sheffield
2pm a RAF helicopter will land at Llandudno

And I know many of you have been asking how you can get involved, and help raise awareness, so if you are at any of our centres please do take pictures and post to our Facebook wall, and don’t forget to tweet using our #RaiseTheFlags hashtag – we would LOVE to get that trending on the day! If can’t get to one of the centres, you can still keep up to date online with what is happening via our Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr accounts.

We are also bringing everything together in one place over at Storify – our main one will be called ‘Raise the Flags’ and it will cover everything throughout the whole day. We will also be providing specific ones to cover the local activities – so one each for Brighton, Llandudno and Sheffield.

Please do follow all the activities online and retweet and post anything you can – the more people who get involved the higher the awareness will be, the more people who will know about us and the work we do with your support – and the more blind veterans we can help in the future. Which is what it’s all about after all ☺

What’s #RaiseTheFlags all about then?

As many of you already know, St Dunstan’s was started in 1915 by Sir Arthur Pearson, and has been helping blind ex-Service men and women ever since – you can read our full history here. We currently run three centres – at Brighton, Sheffield and Llandudno, and we give practical support, training and family assistance to over 3,000 members and their families.

In 2000 we widened our remit to include any ex-Service personnel suffering from blindness or sight impairment from any cause, and we quickly realized that we would need more support in order to help the estimated 50,000 veterans currently suffering from vision impairments – many of whom don’t realise they are eligible for help or who haven’t heard of us.

Unfortunately, as a charity we have been aware of a steady decline in recognition of who we are over the last few decades. In fact it often seemed as if most people who weren’t directly involved with us thought we were a church or a school – a situation perhaps best illustrated a year or two ago when one of our spokespeople in Sheffield was asked if he could organize a christening! And of equal concern has been the unavoidable fact that many of our donors belong to older generations with little general awareness among the under 40s.

As the main fundraiser at St Dunstan’s I saw this close up and personal – we need to raise more funds and to do that we need to be much more widely recognized. Something obviously needed to be done and so we spoke to our members, staff, supporters and the general public. They helped us find a better way of expressing who we are and what we do as a charity, and next Tuesday we’ll be revealing the results of that work!

Thank you for coming to see our new blog and for your ongoing support of our work – it’s an exciting time for us and we really can’t wait to unveil our news, and any help you can give us with this by helping to spread the word to the world would be very much appreciated.

If you’re on Facebook please come and find us if you haven’t already by searching for ‘St Dunstan’s Charity’, and please do like our posts, updates, photos and videos… and please share them on your own wall so your friends and family can also see, share further, and hopefully get involved!

If you’re on Twitter make sure you follow us at @stdunstansnews (see right hand column) and if you can please start tweeting about us with #raisetheflags in the lead up to Tuesday 21st February as well as throughout the day then we stand a chance of getting it trending on Twitter, which will really help us get our message out to more people.

Watch out for more blog posts very soon about the changes and how and where you can get involved on the day!

Injured Veterans’ Olympic Torch Honour

Four of our blind or partially sighted veterans have been selected to carry the Olympic Torch during its 5,000-mile journey around Britain this Summer.

The four have all been helped by St Dunstan's to rebuild their lives, adjust to life without sight and once again live independently despite their disability.

Two of them - Darren Blanks and Simon Brown - were featured in a video on Forces News about their journey from frontline to recovery and their pride at fighting back from battlefield injury.

Both men have severely restricted sight, and were nominated to carry the torch in recognition of their inspirational attitude.

A train called St Dunstan’s

A train called St Dunstan's, photo courtesy of Tony Gillett

In 1937 a London Midland and Scottish Railway Company locomotive train was named after St Dunstan’s.

It’s number was 45501 and it was an LMS Patriot Stream Train.

“St Dunstan’s” ran until 1961. It can currently can be seen at Preston Station, Lancashire, England, in the Lostock Hall Shed.

London Triathlon 2011

The 2010 edition of the London Triathlon was the biggest yet for the Sport & Recreation department with seven St Dunstaners taking part and completing the challenge – it also saw the closest finish yet with Steve Sparkes edging Jamie Cuthbertson out by just 51 seconds. They vowed to renew the friendly rivalry this year both training hard for this massive event. An extra dimension was added with the recruitment of Nigel Davies into the St Dunstan’s team – with his background in competitive cycle time-trialling and having represented his Army regiment in the pool, 2011 was shaping up to be an exciting event.
Also returning this year was David Cranson seeking to improve on his debut performance last year, and Sue Eyles who was taking part in this event for the fourth time to add to her considerable triathlon experience.

Unfortunately for Sparky he was unable to take part in the end but we know he will be keen to get back into the swing of things at the earliest opportunity.
This left Jamie and Nigel to battle it out for the top prize, ably guided by George Buckingham and Andrew Seivewright respectively.

The expected overcast conditions never materialised over the race weekend as the event continued its tradition of being held in glorious hot sunshine – unfortunately for the athletes overcast would have been ideal rather than the basking high-20’s temperature.

Setting off at 12pm on Sunday afternoon the athletes entered the water of the Royal Victoria Dock. David and Sue were being guided by Matt Roscoe and Kayla Hammond – both taking part in their first triathlon and their first event guiding a St Dunstaner.

With his pre-race training suggesting a quick swim time Nigel moved to the front of the crowd of about 150 swimmers and the tactic paid off. As soon as the starting horn sounded he was able to get clear water pretty quickly and avoid the rough and tumble of the open water “washing machine”. It wasn’t too long before he and Andrew were starting to catch swimmers from the previous wave and it was clear some sort of record swim time was on the cards. Jamie kept up a steady pace in second with Sue and David in hot pursuit. David, in particular, was already showing a massive improvement over 2010 having benefitted from some technique lessons in the pool with Kayla leading up to the event.

As the first leg drew to a close Nigel exited the water in the fast time of 29 minutes 11 seconds. Jamie was a fair distance back in 46:42 but his partnership with George has been well-honed over the years and they flew through the first transition in hot pursuit of the leading pair on the bike.
Sue came in next in 1.04:00 with David following on in 1.24:02 – this was an improvement of two minutes on the previous year’s time but unofficial reports suggested the swim was actually longer than the advertised 1500m this time around making David’s advances in the water all the more impressive.

Onto the bike and Jamie set out with the intention of eating into Nigel’s lead and did so taking a minute out of him on each of the two 20km laps. With both bikes hitting speeds of around 40mph while flying through the Limehouse Link Tunnel neither of them was prepared to give an inch. However they weren’t the only ones making good progress. Both David and Sue greatly reduced their times from 2010 improving by 15 and 12 minutes respectively.

Nigel entered T2 with a bike time of 1.06:57 while Jamie completed that leg in 1.05:03 – with the run leg possibly being Nigel’s weakest discipline and Jamie’s strongest it made for an exciting finish and the chase was on. With four 2.5k laps to negotiate there was plenty opportunities for the pair to get an idea of how the other was doing and slowly but surely Jamie began to chip away at Nigel’s lead. This was particularly evident during the first lap where a hamstring niggle slowed Nigel down considerably. However he managed to run through the pain and maintained a fairly even pace for the three remaining laps. With a sprint finish he crossed the line in a final time of 2.43:42 – a massive 13 minutes quicker than Graham Kiff’s previous record of 2.56:33 set in 2007.
Jamie didn’t let up though and with a storming run time of 52:31 he finished in a total time of 2.52:14, also 4 minutes inside Graham’s mark.
David came in next in a time of 4.05:11 with Sue closing proceedings in 4.47:58 – David’s time was over half an hour quicker than his previous best, a massive improvement showing all his extra training over recent months is really paying off.

Capital to Coast Bike Ride – 10th July 2011

We had four St Dunstaners take part in the Capital to Coast Bike Ride on Sunday 10th July this year, which is a 60 mile cycle on country roads involving some tough uphill climbs and some speedy downhill descents. The route starts at Hove Lawns and then heads towards Steyning , Shipley and Southwater. From just outside Horsham the route meets up with the cyclists who started in London and together they head back to Brighton, finishing with a long downhill from the top of Devils Dyke. The first St Dunstaner to finish was Sue Eyles who was riding with her friend Jenny Rowlings. The other St Dunstaners who took part were David Cranson, Derry Laviolette and Billy Black. It was a hugely enjoyable day, everyone put in a lot of effort and finished in good time, especially considering it was such a hot day (proven by the fact that the tan lines from my cycling shorts remained with me for several weeks after the event!)

By Kayla Hammond

St Dunstan’s Swimathon 2011

The St Dunstan’s Swimathon, which ran from 9th to 13th May 2011, was extremely successful. Everyone that took part put in a lot of effort and really challenged themselves to swim further and faster than before! We had over 10 St Dunstaners take part, plus many other staff and guests and altogether the event has raised over £1,000.
St Dunstaner Kerry Reed clocked up the most lengths, swimming 5km on each of the 5 days totalling 25km (15.5 miles) for the week. St Dunstaner Iain Millard also swam an amazing 10 miles over 4 days. We’re hoping that we will have even more people dive in for next year’s Swimathon!

Author: Kayla Hammond

Virgin London Marathon 2011

RAF St Dunstaner Iain Millard was the sole entrant for this year’s London Marathon in a low-key presence at the event. Royal Marine St Dunstaner Steve Sparkes had also been due to take part but was prevented from doing so by an injury just a couple of weeks beforehand.

The build-up to the big day was hampered by injury and a lack of available training time. A knee injury in early February prevented Iain from taking part in the traditional warm-up event at the Brighton Half Marathon but he managed to recover from this setback pretty quickly and was soon able to ramp up the training miles in the following weeks.

As the day arrived we got to Greenwich Park in plenty of time and took our spots in our allocated pen at the red start. As is customary at big events like this there was a lot of standing around waiting for the gun and when it did eventually go off it took around 20 minutes before we actually crossed the start line and were able to get into a decent running rhythm.
The parts of London near the start are quite open and exposed so the increased temperatures on this warm April morning were apparent right away. A good steady pace of around 11 minutes per mile was maintained through a large portion of the first half of the race but at around the 12 mile mark the lack of training in the earlier months of the year started to show and the pace began to slow considerably. Iain was determined to carry on regardless and went through the half way point bang on 2½ hours. The remainder of the race carried on in a similar vein with a steady running pace being mixed in with short bouts of walking and with an increase in speed through the last two miles, Iain came home in a time of 5.27:35 just inside the revised target time of 5½ hours.

This was Iain’s 11th consecutive attempt at the London Marathon and he hopes to make it 12 in a row next year, along with Sparky who is determined to make amends for this years disappointment.