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Guiding the way Gerry Boyle, Jog Leader with jogscotland Airdrie, completed this year’s London Marathon as a guide runner for his daughter Pauline Rouse, who is deafblind. Here they tell us about the experience.
Pauline’s story I am the eldest of six children and, like another three of my siblings, I have Usher Syndrome, a progressive, degenerative condition that causes both hearing and sight loss. I am extremely fortunate in that I have a wonderful group of family and friends, whose support keeps me positive. I began running about ten years ago and loved the sense of freedom that it gave me. That freedom has somewhat eluded me in recent years, and the decision to take part in the marathon is my way of staying positive and living my life to the full. Deafblindness is debilitating. The world is a scary place and is so much more so for people who are deafblind. I decided to run for Sense as I wanted to raise awareness of the difficulties faced by the many deafblind adults and children who are living in the UK today.
stride jogscotland magazine
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Summer 2016