Powering Your Independence: Mick

When Mick lost his vision he retired from his career as a financial advisor at the same time as migrating to Australia. He made a bold decision on his next career move.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

S1 (00:00):
Hello, I'm Stella Glory and welcome to Britain, Australia's Powering
Your Independence conversations. Where are we chatting with individuals who
are blind or have low vision who have an inspiring
story to tell while leading their independent and active lives?

(00:22):
And this time around, I'm speaking with Meek, who is
passionate about the water and sports in general. He participates
in triathlons. Mick has vision loss from retinitis pigmentosa. In 2007,
when Mick's vision loss became quite pronounced, he had to
give up his driver's license and retire from his career

(00:46):
as a financial adviser. On top of that, he migrated
to Australia, and it was then that he decided on
what his next occupation might be. And we hear from
Mick now. Hello, I'm Stella glory and welcome to Vision
Australia's Powering Your Independence Conversations. Where are we chatting with

(01:08):
individuals who are blind or have low vision who have
an inspiring story to tell while leading their independent and
active lives? And this time around, I'm speaking with Meek,
who is passionate about the water and sports in general,
mainly triathlons. Mick has vision loss from retinitis pigmentosa in 2007,

(01:35):
around the same time as Mick's vision loss became quite pronounced.
He had to give up his driver's license and retire
from his career as a financial adviser. On top of that,
he migrated to Australia, and it was around this time
he had to decide what his next step might be.

(01:57):
And we hear from Mick, now

S2 (01:59):
a friend of mine, said, Don't blind people do massage?
That's a good idea, and it's a physical thing. The
sports personal that I sent, I investigated that and went
to college and the Stones Corner in Brisbane and did
a remedial massage diploma and decided I didn't want to

(02:21):
work for for anyone else. And. Set up my own
business from scratch and have my own website and and
loving it. Absolutely love it.

S1 (02:32):
You love the physical aspect of sport, but it's still
quite a change from financial planning to misuse it.

S2 (02:41):
Yes, it is. But you know, it was I needed.
I definitely needed something to be doing. And as was
pointed out to me, blind people do it and that
it's a case of knowing what what you need to do.
And as a body, which I know pretty well, the muscles, etc.

(03:02):
and I like the idea and I love working with people.
It's the same with the financial planning. I loved helping
people get the best out of their investments, their planning
assist them, that type of thing. And this is this

(03:22):
is pretty much the same assisting people to be able to,
you know, live or get on with their sport or
get rid of the aches and pains or that something
and that the friends that you make the connections you
make is absolutely. Well, it's it's so rewarding. It really is.

S1 (03:47):
Now, at around the same time, you decided that you
would have to put your surfboard away.

S2 (03:55):
That's right. That. Probably, you know, in hindsight, I probably
I saw that something that and like everything else, I mean, you,
you you see ahead of yourself and what your future holds.
And and it's a case of acknowledging firstly and secondly,

(04:19):
accepting it. And, you know, I keep referring to it,
get on with it. Well, this there's always something waiting
to replace that. Sport hobby occupation that you have set
that can make you happy, and it's it comes down

(04:40):
to attitude in life, how to approach things, how to
deal with. Challenges negative. And and see past those. And
see what the benefits are that you can get out
of that, all your options.

S1 (05:01):
So you gave up surfing, but then you took up you,
now you live quite close to the water, you live
on the edge of the water, you were saying, and
now you have a six foot paddle board.

S2 (05:15):
It ocean ski, oh, nation ski. You sit, you sit
on it, and it's that foot pedals with a rudder.
And is only 10kg. Well, this particular one that I have,
and it's it's it's a lovely thing to be able
to cruise across the water paddling and enjoy it. No,

(05:40):
I just can't. There are so many people who do
that on the bay, and that's why that's more my senior.
I've met two 70 year olds recently in the in
the last week, and they are active and that's what

(06:01):
sport does it. It's a pattern that keeps you. Positive.
I don't know if it's a wonderful thing, it just
the the endorphins that you get from exercise. So invigorating, uplifting.

(06:25):
And so that's that's just one of the things, I mean,
the the peddling on the day and meeting people on
the water and their beautiful islands here that we paddled
out to. And on Friday I went paddled out and
around Green Island, which is five kilometres off the mainland shore,

(06:48):
which is within Morton Bay, inside of Morgan Island and
Stradbroke Island, and the little islands that you can paddle
up to and sit on and never contemplate life. And
I got to the island and there were two other
gentlemen sitting having a cup of coffee there, and it

(07:09):
will be over. Would you like a cup of coffee
and meet them? And one was 76 year old who's
been paddling all his life and had stories to tell
me about paddling amongst the whales near Fraser Island. And
you know, that's what. You won't last, but offers you

(07:31):
when you get out and do things.

S1 (07:35):
I'm feeling quite wistful, as you're telling me this story.
Tell us about your connection with Vision Australia. How did
you find out about Vision Australia and what kind of
services have you used?

S2 (07:51):
Yes, Stella I when I was doing my diploma massaged diploma.
I was made aware of where it might have been
the college or another student, I can't quite turn into exactly,
and they told me about this. And so I called

(08:12):
up and got. Just speak to someone and ask what
what it all entails there and what they offer and. Obviously,
I joined immediately, so I went into to Vision Australia
and spoke to someone, and they showed me what what

(08:33):
was and also the the adaptive technology to the tests
at the end and information, which is, I think, the
most important thing that I was looking for. What? What?
All the sort of diseases, how do they go, what

(08:54):
are the options, what is the best? There is a
medical way of fixing it and we did a whole
lot of research and we were connected to people in
the states and I heard about the. What is it,

(09:14):
stem cell therapy that was helping people in various medical conditions, so.
And it's it's a nice, well, a very helpful body
to belong to and to learn all the new sort
of innovations, all things that are happening. And that has

(09:37):
obviously acquired a number of sort of magnifies and. And
will purchase the Iris vision down the line somewhere.

S1 (09:52):
What other ways has Vision Australia assisted you?

S2 (09:58):
Yet still, as the the sort of grip. Getting to
to meet those two and to that and see how
others are coping, the Facebook page, the communications. And what

(10:20):
I see is. People who are battling who I would
love to reach out to and have been in certain
ways and connected with them and also then sort of,
I would say, advice that she shared as sort of
a positive. Way of looking at that issue. You know,

(10:43):
I knew from an early age from my father how
not to behave. And he he didn't accept his eyesight.
Condition and became an angry person and. In that way,
chased away and number of people who would be only

(11:03):
too happy to help him. So if I can convey
that to others that are happy, positive laugh and accept
assistance from others will go a long way to helping
you and. Which is the case in my triathlons. I

(11:24):
have got numerous members of our triathlon club offering to
take me for my runs or do some Asian swimming
with them, which we do to it. And that vision
and vision Australia gives me the opportunity to connect to
those people. And I have, I think, influenced a couple

(11:50):
of them and hopes hopefully they get on with. Dealing
with the challenges in a more positive way. If that
Vision Australia is a fantastic organisation that assists, of course,
they also get my biathlon category right and then when

(12:17):
I do the vision test there and then that gets
passed on to the the authorities, the Triathlon Australia etc
and gives me my my race category

S1 (12:29):
from when you were talking about the massages and you
like to assist people, you know you can help people
with their aches and pains for, you know, participating in sport.
And I thought, Well, you're a person that probably knows
all about aches and pains. Having participated in triathlons, so

(12:49):
were you doing triathlons before you lost your vision or
was that something you always knew you were going to do?
Or you thought, Well, you know, I might be blind,
but I can still

S2 (13:02):
say I did do triathlons. Previously. And when we came
to Australia, we there was the wonderful Queensland triathlon series
with

S1 (13:16):
Queensland, people are obsessed with triathlon.

S2 (13:23):
And we had to we had a nephew that's right,
who had preceded us to Australia, and he was a triathlete.
So my son and myself and and Grant would, of course,
compete against each other at these. The series there was
six in during the season run in Queensland, outside of

(13:47):
Brisbane and then. I got to the point where I
realized I had to stop cycling on my own and
I had to give up the in the triathlon then.
And that is only when we move to Manly said

(14:11):
on the day on Morton Bay did I actually join
a triathlon club? And. I was at the swimming pool,
that's right, and I did. A few more on my
and with the assistance of the club, and then I

(14:31):
talked to the coach, I'm going to have to. I'm
going to have to stop you. And he said no.
And he took me through this. You can give it
a vision. You can get assistance with a guide and
turn them back. So you just went to bed and
then that's a five to sail with as sort of
a bungee cord. And we swim next to each other

(14:54):
for the duration of the course and get up to
go to transition. And then we have a tandem bike.
And it's it's quite something for a guy to know
what to do. And I had again numerous offers to.
See my pilot on on. That's it. The pilot will

(15:18):
guide your pilot on the boat and they have they
have assisted me honestly to not for many years nearly. Seven,
seven years since we've been in Mandy, the all these triathlons.
And I absolutely love it, and it is growing there.

(15:41):
I met a young child, no child is. Eleven years old,
and he was doing a on a couple of weeks
ago and is also part of Business Australia and he claims. Yes.

S1 (16:00):
Is he? And he's got vision loss.

S2 (16:02):
He does have vision loss and it's a it's a
distance problem that he has. So within a certain distance,
he can see what he's doing. So at this stage,
he is still competing on his own and. He was
introduced to me by Gerard Cousins, who I'm sure you know,

(16:24):
the famous Australian triathlete who is heading to the Olympics.
And we all had a lovely chat before the Sun,
and this young space is. Inspiring himself. And it is amazing,
and that's again, you know what, what clubs do and

(16:48):
how are you? I think it's what's critical is how
you are. You behave, how you accept. Help. And. And
how you behave towards others will determine whether they are
attracted to you and will be keen to offer you

(17:09):
assistance or not and say, hey, but again, it that
comes back to attitude.

S1 (17:19):
Beach in Australia is a leading national provider of blindness
and low vision services in Australia, supporting people to live
life on their terms. To find out more about how
we can help you call Vision Australia on 1800 eight
four seven four six. That's one 300 eight four seven

(17:41):
four six.