Walking with courage; Women Talk

From Irish News - 20/08/2003 (1221 words)

Aisling McCrea

In March 1998 Mark Pollock was a 22-year-old student with a career in investment banking ahead of him - he was a successful sportsman with the world at his fingertips. However, all that was to change as over the course of a week he went totally blind. This courageous young man, now 27, chats to Aisling McCrea about his plans for a 150 mile trek across the Gobi desert in Mongolia to raise money for charity. . .

MOST of us can only dream of representing our country in the Commonwealth Games, but for Co Down man Mark Pollock , with a bronze and a silver medal already under his belt, it is time to move on to the next challenge.

Not one to do things by half, the 27-year-old rower has set himself the gruelling task of completing a seven-day, 150 mile, endurance marathon in the sweltering heat of the Gobi desert in Mongolia . But while no one would argue that such a challenge would be quite an undertaking for anyone, for Mark the effort is even greater because he is blind.

Five years ago the 27-year-old endured what for many people would be their worst nightmare - he completely lost his sight.

"I was 22 and just coming to the end of my degree in Trinity College , Dublin .

"One day I was this person who was finishing my degree, rowing for my university and internationally, and with a job lined up at an investment bank in London . But within a week I went from that person to a person who couldn't do any of those things; sport, work or study. But not only that, I couldn't tell the time. I couldn't find my toothbrush. I couldn't walk outside my front door. I couldn't even get round the house very well. . . I couldn't do anything."

Born with very short sight, Mark always had trouble with detached retinas and at just five-years-old he lost the sight in his right eye.

"I could see enough to drive and to read and everything, but over the space of a week, I lost my sight completely."

Despite this history of eye trouble, Mark had no idea when he was admitted to hospital in March 98 that he would never see again.

"It was a complete shock. When I went in for the first operation I thought I would just come out and I wouldn't be able to see, but eventually it would clear.

"No one had ever warned me that I would lose my sight. Of course with every operation there is a risk, but I don't think the doctors realised themselves that this was it for my sight."

Although he underwent the original operation in March 1998, it wasn't until mid-July, following a second failed operation that the doctors eventually broke the news that nothing more could be done. It was at that point that Mark was forced to come to terms with the fact that he would never see again.

"I only remember at one stage feeling particularly bad, and that was when I got back from my second operation. I remember thinking that I would never be able to do any of those three things I've mentioned; sport, study or work. I just thought that was it, my whole life would end."

But never a defeatist, Mark didn't allow his self-pitying mood to linger.

"It was the point in mid-July when I was told that was the way it was going to be, that I could start over, " he says.

But determined though he was to make the most of his situation, dreams of London city life seemed very far away.

Despite being awarded an aegrotat - an ungraded honours degree based on what you have done to date - from Trinity, Mark realised that to have any hope of succeeding in the world of work he would have to retrain in basic skills. Never one to lose time he launched straight into a retraining course in August, less than a month after receiving his devastating news.

"I suppose the reason I went at it so quickly was because I had finished university and I thought that at the start of September I would be going off to London . All my mates were either taking a year off, going on to further study, or had jobs and I didn't want to fall behind everyone else."

But fall behind is something Mark Pollock will never do.

After spending four months learning how to operate a computer fitted with specially adapted software, the highflyer was quickly snapped up for a job in January of 1999.

He later went on to study part-time for a business MA.

But although he had returned to work and study, there was one aspect of Mark's life that was still missing - sport. It was three years before Mark started to get back into sport and that was only thanks to the insistence of a good friend, Brendan Smyth from Coleraine.

Brendan had rowed with Mark in the university team and in 2001 it was at his insistence that Mark found his way back to the sport again.

"I didn't know if I was going to be able to row and people were saying to Brendan that he might be wasting his time, that I might not be able to row."

But Brendan refused to give in and a year later both he and Mark had earned themselves bronze and silver medals at the Manchester Commonwealth games.

Mark's latest challenge, however, is something quite different.

Over seven days he will run 150 miles through the harsh landscape of Mongolia 's Gobi desert while carrying several pounds of equipment on his back.

But while this would undoubtedly be a gruelling test for any athlete, for Mark the effort is quite literally doubled. As a blind competitor he will need to borrow a pair of eyes in order to complete the event, those eyes belong to his former flatmate and Trinity rowing colleague Nick Wolfe. The pair will run the marathon while tied together at the wrist.

But such logistical concerns are the least of their worries, the harsh climate and landscape is what looks set to cause the greatest difficulties.

"You have to buy your shoes a size-and-a-half too big because your feet swell up in the heat and you get blisters and things.

It's probably going to be bloody awful, " laughs Mark.

But don't worry because the two men will be enduring this discomfort all in the name of a good cause. To date they have raised as much as e20,000 (about GBP 15,000) for the charity Sightsavers, which works to save the sight of people in Africa and Asia .

"I'm lucky because everything that could have been done to save my sight was being done, " says Mark.

"I've got everything I need, but in Africa for 10 or 15 quid they can make someone see again with a simple operation."