Rob Matthews — Running Blind

HarperCollins Publishers New Zealand 2009 Paperback, 272pp. Rob (Bob) Matthews, OBE, went blind as a teenager. Determind to live as normal a life as possible, he became a runner and represented Great Britain for many years as a gold medal winning Para Olympian. Rob always knew that one day he would be completely blind. He inherited a congenital eye condition from his father and after a childhood of painful visits to eye clinics, where he was used as a textbook example for multitudes of medical students, he eventually became completely blind. After finding his true calling as a long distance runner, his rise in the sport was meteoric, and before long Rob was winning gold medals and breaking world and Paralympics running records. With a new wife and job and a satisfying and rewarding life as an international sportsman, he thought he had it all. But tragedy was to strike when his young wife was suddenly struck down by a brain aneurism, leaving him bereft and alone again. (ISBN: 9781869508012). Good.