[Sportsandrec] First Blind Cyclists to Ride Across Australia This April

[Louise Walch]

This is Louise Walch. Many of you know me.  I’m writing to let you
know about my brothers— Their names are Lorin and Dean Nicholson.
They're both well employed and raising families, but they are also
about to become the first blind guys to ride tandem bikes all the way
from Perth to Sydney, over 2,500 miles across the
Australian outback. The ride will take place this April.

Their website is soon to be launched at:
www.blindcourage.com

You’ll also be able to follow the ride on facebook and twitter.

Below is a more complete story as told by my oldest brother, Lorin.

Best,

Louise Walch
Fort Worth, Texas
louisewalch at gmail.com
fFf
BLIND COURAGE – The amazing journey

I was born with Retinitis Pigmentosa and have been blind my entire
life, however I have always strived to live as normal and independent
a life as possible, with many seemingly insurmountable challenges
facing my path, along with an equal number of extraordinary successes
in sport, music and business.

Over the past six years I have been working full time as a musician
and motivational speaker, travelling the length and breadth of
Australia, New Zealand and the USA sharing my life's experiences in
over 2500 presentations to schools, community and corporate
organisations, reaching over half a million people live on stage and
millions of others via television and radio.

One of the personal stories I share occurred when I was sixteen years
old, as I rode solo on my old five speed mountain bike nearly 300kms,
with only my Dad driving up ahead in a support vehicle, over what we
believe is the third steepest mountain range in Australia from
Tamworth to Port Macquarie via the Moonbi ranges.  It was a two and a
half day epic journey, but little did I know what a character building
experience it would be for me and what an inspirational story it would
be for thousands of others since.

As my sight diminished a couple of years later, I thought that riding
a bike would be impossible, however twelve years later, my good friend
and now pilot rider John Eder encouraged me to get a tandem and start
riding with him.  A year later we found ourselves winning two silver
medals at the Queensland state track championships, then a year or so
after that my dream to ride across The Great Dividing Range came true
once again, as John and I re-enacted the same 275km ride from Tamworth
to Port Macquarie, at the same time raising over $7000 for Vision
Australia in the hope that we might inspire thousands of other blind
and vision impaired kids like me around the country.  This time we
conquered the Great Divide in a day and a half, with newspapers, radio
and television crews following us all the way, with 83 media articles,
interviews and news stories resulting over a one-week period.

My younger brother, Dean, is also blind.  He too has a long string of
extraordinary personal achievements to his credit, including two
university degrees and he currently works as a project manager for an
Australian civil engineering company, Bowdens Group.

Now, we as brothers hope to create history by being the first blind
persons to ride over 2500 miles across the Australian outback, from
west coast to east coast.  Already Channel Nine's 60 Minutes
television producers have said that they'd love to be there to cover
the story and my publicist has no doubts that they will be only one of
potentially hundreds of journalists and media crews across the country
wishing to support our epic adventure.

Virgin Blue airlines, Optus Country, Cannondale cycles, Bowdens Group,
Water & Carbon & Kea Campers have already signed up as major sponsors,
by providing us with new tandems, flights, telecommunications, motor
homes and significant financial support.

The Ride

Our current plan is a four-week trip in April 2010, beginning in Perth
on March 29, and finishing in Sydney on April 26.

Our support crew is ready and willing to go, including the company of
a full time publicist organising all of our media stories and
interviews along the way, which will of course promote the names of
all of our valued sponsors.  We also now have ISP Media, an
experienced and reputable internet PR company wishing to facilitate
our entire publicity campaign, along with the design and maintenance
of a fully professional website, which will track the whole event with
blogs, press releases, pictures, video clips and of course direct
links to the websites of each of our sponsors.  Traffic will also be
driven to our website via face book, twitter and even our own youtube
channel with live video footage being uploaded along the way, thanks
to our sponsor Optus Country and the launch of their new national dual
band mobile network.

Purpose

This ride would be a dream come true for my brother and I and will
bring to us a great sense of accomplishment, however our vision wishes
to achieve a higher goal. When we consider that, like in the United
States, in Australia blind unemployment sits at a staggering 75
percent, my brother and I wish to change public perception by raising
awareness of the challenges for blind people, by accomplishing the
seemingly impossible.

Many blindness challenges are found in education, transport/mobility,
accessing information, gaining a career and overcoming the low
expectations and limitations that are sometimes imposed by the general
community.  My brother Dean and I have conquered many of these
challenges and hope to inspire not only blind and vision impaired
Aussie's to rise above their disability, but a whole nation,
regardless of life's hardships, to look for the positive in others and
most importantly the talents and strengths within themselves.

We also hope to raise funds along the way for Australia's largest
blind services organisation, Vision Australia, so that they can
continue their vital work in supporting nearly half a million blind
and vision impaired Aussie's.

How can you help!

As you may well appreciate, there are several fixed costs associated
with conducting such a large scale event, travelling from one side of
the country to the other.  Apart from our major sponsors Optus and
Virgin Blue, we have already received financial support from other
small to medium sized businesses, with total sponsorship donations
amounting to $47,000.  We now only need an additional $10,000 in order
to cover our costs, which will enable us a smooth and successful
campaign.

If you are unable to support as a sponsor, you can still help us by
spreading the word about what we, two blind Aussies, are doing. Our
hope is that all will find a way to contribute something to this
meaningful cause.

As two blind brothers create Australian history, you’ll be able to
track us on facebook and twitter as well as on our website at:

www.blindcourage.com

-Lorin Nicholson
Musician, Athlete, and Motivational speaker
Brisbane, Australia