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Published on November 18, 2007

For seven years straight the world's fastest blind runner, Henry Wanyoike is a champion in the hearts of millions of visually impaired people, both in his Kenyan homeland and around the world. Blindness, he has proved, is not an impediment.

He's revisiting Bangkok for the fourth time, for a charity mini-marathon this Sunday, and again promoting sport as a path to self-improvement. His own path is paved with philanthropy: Every step he takes on the track generates US$1,000 (Bt32,000) for medical efforts that restore sight to the blind.

"That's why I join so many marathons every month," he beams. "Before I flew here I did the Boston marathon in the US, and there are a few more events ahead in Japan and Singapore."

Wanyoike, 33, is filled with the confidence that so often evades blind people. Yet he's lived in darkness for a dozen years.

At home in the slums of Kikuyu one night in April 1995, he went to bed and then woke up totally blind.

"I had a mild paralysis all the way down the left side of my body. At the rehabilitation centre I learned that many young people suffer the same condition. Perhaps I didn't have enough food or the right vaccination when I was growing up. Life is difficult in Kikuyu.

"The saddest thing was that my mum didn't have the money to take me to the hospital - it was five kilometres away. She was in shock. By the time I saw a doctor it was too late."

Over time Wanyoike just got used to being blind, and then he got busy doing something about it - or rather, in spite of it.

Within nine years he was a world track champion, an Olympic gold medallist and a globetrotting goodwill ambassador for Standard Chartered Bank's "Seeing is Believing" project, which raises money for research and operations to restore people's sight.

Blind runners compete with sighted guides. With his pal Joseph at his side, Wanyoike won the 5,000-metre race for the visually impaired at the 2000 Paralympics in Sydney. He was the first African to win gold in that category, and just three seconds shy of the world record of 15 minutes, 16 seconds - he had to push his fatigued guide for the last 50 metres!

He won the gold medal in the 10,000-metre race as well, and at the 2004 Games broke the world record in both events.

Then, at the inaugural Nairobi Marathon in 2003, Wanyoike completed the 10km run in about 30 minutes. That was the achievement that so impressed the directors of Standard Chartered.

The bank sponsors his world tours, on which he gives motivational speeches and participates in fund-raising runs from New York to Hong Kong.

His speeches to business executives encourage them to recognise potential in unlikely places. To blind students he gives hope and points out the signposts to "the way forward".

Sightless people often despair at their status in this visual world, Wanyoike says, and they need to find courage and learn how to trust - in themselves as well as others.

"I tell them that, even if you've lost your sight, you don't have to lose your vision. If they can accept their condition, they can get on with their lives."

Sport is one of many options they have to move forward, and there's much to be learned from Wanyoike's passion for speed. He always wanted to be a sports star.

"I was good at sports and I wanted to be a hero, because in my country there are so many heroes in the sports world," he says.

As a boy he usually ran all the way to school - five kilometres. There was no public transport, but he would have done it anyway.

"In the rainy season it could be difficult. I didn't have shoes, let alone an umbrella. But I was always passionate about running."

When he was at Kenya's Technical Institute of the Blind he found out about the Paralympics and decided maybe he could start running again. Finding a guide was essential, though it wasn't easy.

"I was very nervous running on my own. I fell down a lot or ran into trees.

"But I didn't give up."

His world has changed because he didn't give up.

"When you can play sports you have more confidence to face life. You learn to trust other people - in my case Joseph, my guide.

"Me and Joseph have been trying to support all the activities to reduce blindness in the world. We set a target of helping one million people this year, and by 2010 we're hoping we'll have helped 10 million. I think we can reduce up to 80 per cent of the blindness around the world."

The money Wanyoike raises on his travels pays for surgeries and other procedures that cure or prevent blindness stemming from cataracts and resolve minor eye problems.

His next challenge, he hopes, will be a triathlon - swimming and cycling as well as running.

"I also want to race cars - it could be a lot of fun!" he laughs.

He's not really kidding. Of course Joseph, sitting next to him in the car, would have his own brake pedal.

Manote Tripathi

The Nation