Published: Wednesday, 16th December, 2009 5:00pm

Blind fundraiser completes South African walk

Proof that it's a small world was revealed to local resident Jimmy Scott last month when he happened to meet a man whose great grandfather was from Athlone while on a visit to South Africa.

Jimmy, who is visually impaired and works at Custume Barracks in Athlone, was at the foot of the African continent to undertake a sponsored walk in aid of the National Council for the Blind of Ireland (NCBI).

During the visit, he and 18 fellow fundraisers from various parts of Ireland were given a tour of local townships by Andy Casey, who grew up in a township but whose great grandfather was born in Athlone.

Through his fundraising efforts Jimmy generated a total of €4,800 in order to undertake the trip to Cape Town. A prolific fundraiser for the NCBI, he has now set foot in every continent.

While in South Africa, he and his group colleagues faced a varied array of challenges, from walking 15 kilometres on the long seafront of Cape Town, to climbing the 2,000 ft Lions Head in searing temperatures of 34 degrees celsius.

However he had no cause to feel homesick, as Cape Town experienced some of its worst weather in 52 years during his visit.

"We had rain for six or seven of the days we were there, and the wind was so strong at times that it damaged cars on the street," he said.

The money that was raised will be used to fund a state-of-the-art call centre assisting the charity's 14,000 service users with queries concerning vision loss and related issues.

A native of Elphin, Roscommon, Jimmy is registered blind. He lost most of his sight in a traffic accident in Australia in 1989. The accident left him in a coma for six weeks and he was in hospital for a total of six months.

After making a gradual recovery, he was employed as a switchboard operator at Custume Barracks in 1995 and he has worked there ever since.

Last year, he went on a hiking expedition to the Antarctic and in previous years he went on trekking and climbing expeditions to Majorca, Argentina, Tibet and Vietnam.

He stated that he was considering 'hanging up his boots' after the journey to South Africa, but that was before he learned that next year's annual fundraiser for the NCBI will involve a trip to Australia.

"It will 21 years since I had my accident there and I haven't been back since so I thought I couldn't miss a trip like that," he said.

Jimmy expressed his thanks to those who had helped in any way with the South African fundraiser.

"I wish to thank, each business who made a donation, everybody who participated and collected in the Walkathon in Golden Island Shopping Centre, ticket sellers for the car draw, and to everybody for their support in my fundraising campaign in aid of the NCBI," he said.

"Thank you to Tony McDermott for allowing me to fundraise in Golden Island Shopping Centre and Elverys Sports for providing the treadmills for the walkathon. Thank you to Shirley Delahunt for allowing me sell tickets in Athlone Town Centre, Shopping Centre and I am very grateful to John Keane, Main Volkswagen Dealer, Roscommon, for providing a display car while I was selling tickets in Athlone Town Centre," he said.