What is special about that you may say. Well Robert, a local author and blogger, is blind, well, virtually; he has less than 1% vision in each eye. He was registered Severely Sight Impaired in 1997, a hereditary strain of the condition known as Retinitis Pigmentosa.
However, Robert loves to keep fit, and recently rediscovered the joy of cycling, this he credits to Vision Norfolk for introducing him to West Norfolk CTC – Cycling UK who he says have opened his eyes to this! He now cycles on the back of a tandem as a stoker with his pilot Michael Jay.
The West Norfolk CTC have access to four tandems. Over the last three years, members of the club who have trained to be pilots, enable the sight impaired to enjoy the act of cycling during the months of April to October. Michael, Robert’s guide explained that the pilots train together over the winter months, whilst training, the stand-in stoker may well wear a blindfold so they can experience what it is like to be sightless, before they then take out others on the road. The pilots communicate verbally to their riders, and Robert says after a little while you can feel the way that the bike moves, other senses being enhanced with the absence of vision.
Having not cycled since he passed his driving test, aged 17, Robert only started riding again in May of this year and has quickly remastered the skill, something which he now does once or twice a week. Robert hastens to add; he no longer drives. We caught up with Robert and Michael on one of their training sessions of a mere 45 miles.
Whilst the Norfolk Churches Trust celebrates its 50th anniversary this year another county-based charity, Vision Norfolk, who celebrated their 220th year of supporting Norfolk’s visually impaired people in 2025, have set their own fundraising challenge. Robert is also giving his backing, with this cycle ride, towards their aim to raise £220,000.
So, his goal for the day of the 2026 Bike Ride, Walk & Drive is to cover 100 kilometres (approx. 62 miles) and visit 25 different churches, taking him from Vision Norfolk’s west Norfolk base at Thoresby College, King’s Lynn, to the church for which he is raising sponsorship, Little Massingham, St Andrew.
Robert says, “I am treating the NCT Bike Ride on 12th September as not only an opportunity of raising funds for St Andrew’s Church, Little Massingham, but a means of highlighting visual impairment issues, whilst trying to prove that a diagnosis of blindness is not an end-of-life sentence. There are many groups out there who will help our community try and lead as normal a life as possible.”
If you would like to support Robert with his challenge, you will find his fundraising page here, Robert’s Blind Bike Ride.
You can read more about the major restoration project planned at Little Massingham Church here.
We wish Robert every success for his venture.
