In the summer term we had a special visitor and he was blind. He set world records as the first blind man to ever fly an aeroplane around the UK and set a land speed record for driving a car and a water speed record for driving a boat. He also plays golf and football and won goals against David James.

But he also does things like cooking and how to wash and iron his clothes. He needs to keep his things tidy so he doesn’t fall over them and knows where they are. His name is Steve and his dog is called Lynton.

Steve told us that listening was important, he has to listen very carefully so he knows what to do and where to go. Miss Hall walked him down the path and forgot to tell him about the trees so the leaves went on his head because he couldn’t see and didn’t duck down.

When he went blind his friend made him a ball that made a noise. He put lots of things inside the ball so when it moved he knew where it was.

Then he got married and had 2 children, he has never seen them but knows they are very pretty. Even though he is blind he taught them how to swim and ride a bike.

He has had 8 dogs, I can’t remember all their names and some died and some had to go back to the Blind charity because they didn’t behave.

When he was a little boy he went to school like everyone else, at first he could see and read and do his work, but then one day it became very hard to see. He went to hospital and was given glasses and was told he had 3 diseases.

He was 8. That’s just older than me now.

His friends at school started being mean about his glasses and stopped being his friends.

Soon he went to a special school for blind children, he stayed there all day and all night. He had a headache one day and went back to hospital and 6 weeks later he was blind. He was 12 years old. He tried to learn to read brail but still finds it hard and is still working on it.

He is not allowed to drive on the roads but can drive in fields, like Top Field, and race around track. The reason he can’t drive on the roads, is because if there was a traffic jam he wouldn’t see it and would crash!

He is coming again in November to tell us some more about being blind and how he can still do everything and I am looking forward to it all ready!