Blind ex-judo champ says running 'saved his life'

A former Team GB judo competitor who went blind as a teenager said losing his sporting career and carpentry job at the same time left him in a "dark" place and taking up running helped "save his life".

Liam Harkness, 45, from Frome in Somerset, had a rare form of cataracts from the age of six and lost his sight completely due to eye infections at 15.

Despite being blind, he was a professional judoka and also worked as a children's furniture maker until the age of 32 - but he lost both at the same time.

He turned to charity Somerset Sight, being matched with running guide Zdenek Gregor, an experience he said "probably saved my life".

Harkness said his disability had not impacted him until that point after which he realised "life is really quite difficult for a blind person and it was a really dark time for me".

He said for 10 years he "slept and breathed" judo and his job, flying all over the world to fight while also working in Warminster building furniture, suspecting he was possibly the only blind person in the country using woodworking machines.

"It was a massive part of my life," he said.

"Going from being so busy night and day, weekends, everything - to having nothing to do, yeah, that was it... I certainly realised that I had this massive disability."

He described the experience of running as "like a massive explosion of different sensory feelings".

He said: "You can experience all of these different feelings and it is really quite nice."

Harkness has run two marathons with Gregor and he now works for the charity, helping fellow blind people find support for their condition.

"It is an amazing job," he said.

His boss, CEO of Somerset Sight Jackie Sopworth described Harkness as a "legend".

She said: "He is great listener and giver of pertinent information and able to instil the confidence people need to take on the challenges of sight loss."

Talking about her visually-impaired staff, Sopworth said: "Having achieved so much themselves, they are the very best people to instil confidence and give realistic hope about the way forward.

"Their discussions with those recently diagnosed and the services we offer enable people with sight loss to remain independent, improve their health and wellbeing, remain socially active and make the best use of their remaining sight."

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