Breaking Down the Barriers
Blind courage
Team Isurava
Two men with adult-onset eyesight impairment, who this year completed the Blind Courage Kokoda trek, say that teamwork enabled them to make a journey which shows that failing eyesight doesn’t end dreams.
The idea for Blind Courage began in a campfire talk between Crossmaglen dairy farmer Jason Bake and his brother-in-law, Coffs Harbour City Council asset manager Craig Smith.
Jason has lost 93 per cent of his sight through the degenerative eye condition retinitis pigmentosa.
He first noticed his eyesight problem when he was a teenager at night-time football training.
He had to give up footie, but he didn’t give up dreams of trekking the highlands where Australian soldiers stopped Japan’s advance in 1942.
“Diminishing eyesight made the challenge tougher, but I wanted to do it more than ever,” Jason says.
“Craig turned the dream into Blind Courage – a team trek to raise money for Guide Dogs, whose people give incredible free support to thousands of Australians with impaired eyesight.”
The team was soon joined by Armidale Aboriginal liaison officer Steve Widders, who has lost 95 per cent of his eyesight with cone dystophy.
Steve says that failing eyesight increased his vision of ways he could use his other abilities.
The Blind Courage group grew to be as big as a football team before it left for the 10 day trek in June this year. It included Guide Dogs instructor Matt Wood, Coffs builder and former rugby league player Peter Phillips, indigenous business facilitator Christian Lugnan, and Melbourne film maker Meagan Kae, who is working on a documentary about the journey.
They trekked with both Aboriginal and Australian flags, and took time to commemorate the Aboriginal soldiers who died on Kokoda, as well as the sacrifices of all Australians, New Guineans and Japanese.
“The Kokoda trek helped me realise my own value as a person,” Steve says.
“It helped prove to myself that I can overcome any disadvantages of failing eyesight.
“I believe in myself, and I turned my adversity into an advantage.
“My motto is we all die, but we don’t all live.”
The team had trained in techniques for step-by-step guidance for Jason and Steve through the many tricky parts of the trail.
It turned out to be hard work, but Jason says he only landed face-first in the mud four or five times a day during the 96km trek.
He says New Guinean guides saved him from countless more falls, but his bruises were insignificant beside the elation the trekkers shared with the highlanders’ songs each evening.
Jason was still singing those songs to his cows just after his return when he was selected for a NSW dairy business award by judges who did not know about his diminished eyesight.
Steve also quickly moved on, winning a heat of the ABC television series Strictly Speaking, and planning a Walk Widders journey from Brisbane to Sydney next year to highlight the need for awareness of the health issues of Australian men.
Blind Courage has exceeded its $30,000 target to raise funds for Guide Dogs NSW/ACT to train a dog to be named Kokoda. Donations can still be made at www.blindcourage.net
Steve and Jason say they hope their trek shows that people with failing eyesight should not exclude themselves from everything they want to do.
They can be part of teams that can live their dreams.