The fruits of their labour have paid off for Armidale Dumaresq Council Aboriginal liaison officer Steve Widders who earlier this year trekked the Kokoda Trail with fellow vision impaired Coffs Harbor dairy farmer Jason Bake who last week met a puppy named Kokoda who is set to become a guide dog with money raised in their Blind Courage trek.
The two men met Kokoda as they retold the story of their trek at the Annual General Meeting of Guide Dogs NSW/ACT.
Steve has lost 95 per cent of his eyesight with cone dystrophy, but says this increased his awareness of ways to use his other abilities.
Like many sight-impaired people, Steve doesn’t have a guide dog, but he receives support and advice from people at Guide Dogs NSW/ACT. He thanked the people at the meeting in Sydney for the organisation’s 21 years helping him achieve independence and mobility.
Jason has lost 93 per cent of his eyesight as an adult through the degenerative condition retinitis pigmentosa. He also does not have a guide dog, but praises the many other ways that people from Guide Dogs NSW/ACT provide free support to people with failing eyesight. This support has helped Jason run an award-winning dairy farm.
When Jason and his brother-in-law Craig Smith planned a Kokoda trek, they adopted the name Blind Courage and set out to raise enough money to pay for the training of a guide dog. The Blind Courage team raised $38,000 as it completed the trek through the mountains of New Guinea.
“It adds to what we have achieved as a team to have Kokoda on his way to becoming a guide dog,” says Jason.
“Seeing Kokoda makes it all worthwhile,” says Steve, who is now in training for a Walk Widders event next October where he plans to walk from Brisbane to Sydney to highlight the importance of awareness of men’s health issues.
