Bronze Medal Winner - Phil

Hi folks, my name is Phil Tranter and I am writing this article about my experience at the Para Archery competition in Rome 2022.

My spotter Marina and I were in Rome for a total of 5days where the temperature during our stay was a punishing 37 degrees during the day, falling to 24 degrees overnight. The venue where the competition was held had little shade so conditions were a bit testing.

The first couple of days consisted of practice and acclimatisation. We all then shot a 72 arrow round, this is used to rank each archer first to last.

This information is then the basis of the elimination round, those who rank highest shoot against the lower ranks. Eventually you have the archers who shoot the Gold to Bronze matches.

I came 2nd in the qualification/ ranking round. Then I shot against Norway in the first elimination round and won. Then I shot against Spain in the second elimination round and lost. This put me into the Bronze medal match against Italy.

At the finals, the event was being televised. As 8 visually impaired archers all began their practice session, one of the film crew almost came to a sticky end when he started to walk in front of the line. Thankfully the line judges prevented a potentially fatal shooting.

One of the B1 archers, who are completely blind, inadvertently shot into the electronic scoring system, it continued to work following the arrows removal. They quickly moved the system to a safer distance.

At the Bronze medal match, each archer shoots alternating three arrow ends, best score wins, four ends in total.

The Italian won the first two ends. I then pulled back the next two ends which led to a fifth decider end. We then had a tied score so it went to a sudden death one arrow shoot out. The Italian shot a score of 8. I shot a 10x, the highest score, game over, Bronze medal to me. Hurray!

Writing For Pleasure - Carol

Carol wrote this poem about the Creative Writing Group that meets at our Centre each week:

"I write because I want to, how about you, does it give you a buzz?

I write about what I know or about what I've heard

And it's fun to write fiction too, what do you do?

Do you write like our Kay, who likes things her own way

And if not, someone will pay, they will die or be sent to jail.

Maybe you're like Mike who gives us information so useful or not.

Thelma let's us into her life & we feel her trouble & strife, we feel what she's saying.

Dorothy writes now & again, when she does she cooks up a storm.

Writing for pleasure is what our dentist Bill does

In a world of his own he likes to stay but he always has a bloomin' lot to say.

We miss our June & her ditties, if she doesn't come back it will be such a pity.

Our newest recruit is on a level of his own

He's so new that I've forgotten his name

It hasn't taken him long to make us all speechless.

We all write for pleasure & we all share with each other

Local knowledge from our Diana who loves to write for children's events

Our volunteer Bill just does it well, even if it only makes sense to him &nobody else.

We get each other, we are united in our pleasure

We write because we can, we write as a group, that is our pleasure.

And our Andrea knows just exactly how to read it out, she has our measure."

Carol

 

Mummy's eyes and ears don't work well - Tia

I've been in many different situations in having to explain my condition to people but the hardest by far has been to Lidia. 

Mainly due to her age, it's hard for any typical person to understand the impacts so how can I expect her to? 

I also don't want to scare or cause her to worry about mummy. I feel so strongly about becoming a burden to anyone, never mind my own daughter.

But I've always wanted to be open to her and it's important she understands why mummy does some things differently and why I can't do everything she wants me to. 

The hearing has been quite easy to explain. I think the physical element of hearing aids and knowing they have a microphone to help mummy's hear things better makes it an easier concept to grasp. She knows to talk directly in my ears when I don't have my aids in or get closer to me when she's talking. 

The eyes is another story. I think she assumes glasses fixes my issues so it's a bit harder for her to understand. I try to break it down to simpler specific things - I need you to hold my hands as I can't see when you are far away or running fast. - You can't leave cupboards open as I might bump into them, remember mummy eyes don't work as well as yours in seeing things. 

It is getting harder as she gets more independent but still not old enough to understand. I feel like I set a lot of 'rules' to give her some way of knowing what and why we do things. I hope this will improve as her understanding improves with age. 

But saying that she has picked many things up naturally to help me, from 6 months she was picking her dummy off the floor when she dropped it as I could never find the bloody things, now she tells me when microwave is beeping, she regularly helps me find anything I'm struggling to look for and calls herself a master finder 😄 she tells me what colour things are when I need help, she even matches her outfits sometimes and better than me! 😄 she cuddles me when I have accidents/bumps and tells me I'm just a clumsy bum like her to make me laugh. 

Wish there was a guidebook sometimes, but I'm sure we will find our way together eventually and with a smile on our faces 🙂

WREN - Written by Greg

This poem by Greg was inspired by the Birdsong Talk that we held at SRSB in April 22. Our Creative Writing Group used birdsong as a theme:

I hear her song before the dawn

Her lively, boisterous shrill

From woodland thicket she doth churr

Rattle, rasp and trill

From bramble hedge and undergrowth

She warbles notes that ring

Her rattling chit and vibrant chat

With gusto she doth sing

She flits and flitters tween frosty hedge

And in bushes she doth hide

Her determined strain-strong and loud

Full throated, sung with pride

Now she’s busy, active, foraging

This precious troglodyte

Bobs and hops with neat cocked tail

Then nimbly takes to flight 

And still, she jounces, darts and waggles

Does this jenny ever rest?

Or snuggle neatly in her cave

Like a wee mouse in its nest?

I hear her song before the dawn

Her lively, boisterous shrill

From woodland thicket she doth churr

Rattle, rasp and trill 

Usher Syndrome - Tia

 

Photo of Tia

We asked Tia who is one of our clients if we could share her post that she wrote about Usher Syndrome Awareness Day UK. This is her post (thank you for sharing Tia):

Sense org summarises Usher Syndrome as an inherited, genetic condition of which the main symptoms are hearing loss & sight loss due to a condition called retinitis pigmentosa (RP). Balance can also be affected.

 

There are 3 types;

Type 1: usually born with profound hearing loss in both ears. Balance is affected.  Development of nightblindness occurs in the first 10 years of a child’s life, progresses to tunnel vision & further sight problems due to RP.

 

Type 2: usually born with a mild to severe hearing loss in both ears. Balance is not affected. Sight loss is gradual starting from teens/early twenties.

 

Type 3: gradual sight & hearing loss, which occurs later in life. Balance can be affected.

 

I have type 2, severe hearing loss in both ears & sight loss from RP starting in my early teens.

 

Without going into the boring medical terms, what RP means for me;

- night blindness

- peripheral vision loss

- gradual tunnel vision

- I constantly see blinking/swirling/shimmering lights & black shapes

- I struggle with bright lights & colours

- my eyes are slow to adjust from dark to light & vice versa (think going from outside into a shop)

- I get blurred vision

- a few other symptom that even I don't know how to break down the medical terms into simpler ones🙈

 

And that's the medical facts summary... what they don't detail is how much it impacts everyday life, every decision, every move, every thought, every situation, every relationship, every dream... just everything.

 

And these are all made harder from the lack of understanding and society views on disabilities. Though it has improved  over time through dedicated organisations, Internet and social media helping people to share their stories, there is still more needed.

 

Any condition is so much more than it's medical terminology. I'm sure I can't be alone in feeling that greater awareness of medical conditions and their impacts would make life that little bit easier.

 

I've always wanted to do something positive with my skills and experience and so this is my way of contributing (however very small) to raise awareness and understanding for the condition.