British mother of three becomes first blind person to run Dubai Marathon

From The National in UAE.

DUBAI -- It takes a closer look at Katy Newitt (pictured left in the photo) running around Dubai’s Safa Park to gain an insight into just how passionate this unique woman is about her sport.

Stretching between Mrs Newitt and her running partner, who barks instructions such as “Two women to your left” or “Dip in the track up ahead”, is a cord. The 43-year-old mother of three is preparing to become the first blind person to run the Dubai Marathon this month.

Hundreds of competitors will run the gruelling 42km around the streets of Dubai but for Mrs Newitt, the challenge is completing the race without crashing to the ground on the way.

“I’ve had plenty of bumps and bruises while running,” she says. “Your concentration goes down the more tired you are and you take longer to react to instructions.“I have fallen into flower beds, tripped on steps and gone flying over uneven pavements and hit the ground. Often it is because I misjudge something rather than because my running mate has forgotten to tell me.”

Mrs Newitt, from London, was born with full vision but after worsening problems in her teens she was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa at the age of 21. The condition causes the gradual deterioration of the retina and can lead to total blindness. Within two years, Mrs Newitt could no longer read or recognise colours and had lost peripheral vision. She had to give up reading, driving and her dream job as a deck hand on yachts sailing around the Caribbean.

Now able to see only blurred shapes, she says: “I was in denial as it is all about losing your independence. The process of losing your sight is like grieving because you do not know how long it is going to last.”

One way she found to cope with her loss was running. “I started running with a friend as a hobby about four years ago. We did one lap around Safa Park, which is about three kilometres, and I absolutely died. But just a week later, I noticed the difference in my fitness.

“I like being fit and it is something I can do easily. You can never be completely free as you are always running with someone else, which is intense as you have to have complete faith and trust in them, but I have made great friends through it.”A year after taking up the hobby, Mrs Newitt decided to run the London Marathon, which she completed in four hours and 45 minutes but describes as “incredibly painful”.

“The training was so hard,” she says. “I remember one morning sobbing into my water cup because I could not carry on.“I have not trained nearly enough this time around although hopefully I am fitter. I run about five times a week and have a fantastic running partner. Safa Park has a flat track but there are bumps and she is good at warning me about those.

“My jogging partners, who are other runners I meet via friends, have an incredibly difficult job because as well as keeping pace with me, they have to concentrate the whole time on any obstacles such as pavements and steps and give me enough warning.

“However good a guide is, they can never tell you how steep a step is, and I have injured my knees and back by misjudging them. When you cannot see very well you feel with your feet a lot more.”

Mrs Newitt’s marathon run will raise Dh35,000 (US$9,500) for the charity Foresight, which she chairs. It raises Dh1 million a year for research projects around the world that aim to find a cure for hereditary blindness.

“I want to show blind people that anything they put their mind to, they can do,” says Mrs Newitt, whose husband, Edward 45, a lawyer, and three children have normal vision.“It might mean you need a bit of equipment or some extra help but instead of looking at the problems I hope people will look at the possibilities.”