Calling this article “Truly Inspirational” needs some real justification, doesn’t it? Well, hang on to your seat because I’m about to introduce you to one very special woman. Born on the 5th of September 1957, Cathy Birchall is a woman whose life has inspired, and will inspire, many people to know that they can do things, when many quite simply say “You can’t.” To give you an idea of what I mean, let me set the scene by telling you that she was the first blind woman to travel around the world on a motorcycle. But first, let’s go back to basics. What on earth led up to her doing such a thing?

As a child, Cathy didn’t really understand that she was any different from other children; it was normal to her that everyone looked hazy. She led a life of “shifting shadows and indistinct images,” but as she grew older the differences became more pronounced; Retinitis Pigmentosa, a genetic disorder, was stealing her sight. This must have been a painful time as her fast reducing sight left her more and more excluded, while the other kids could run and play….

At age 14, she managed to move out of the normal educational system and into a specialist school for the visually impaired. For the first time people really understood her; she wasn’t an idiot or just clumsy. But, to allow her to continue her education, after she reached the age of 16, she had to move to a standard educational college, and all her original problems surfaced again. “But,” she said, “I hated being dependent on government hand-outs. I wanted to, needed to, stand on my own two feet… I had to become a new person.”

During this time she met Peter, who was to become her first husband. They married when she was 22. Life continued to give Cathy knocks, and by her mid-twenties she was completely blind. Not only did her sight deteriorate so badly that she felt unable to venture out alone, but Peter died from Leukaemia. After 19 years of marriage, during which time they built a transport business, Cathy found herself alone and in the dark once again. She later wrote, “Tossed between anger, self-pity and absolute misery, the spiral took me down deeper and deeper to a place where there is no perception of light, no good times, no happiness, no warmth… no anything.”

Unwilling to be beaten, Cathy turned to new challenges. Over the next seven years she threw herself into further education. This involved a one- to twohour bus journey to the college with her first guide dog Petra, and a similar return journey for a single one-hour lecture, each and every time. I doubt many of us could do this for so many years, but she achieved her degree and then put it to good use as a further education lecturer. She would never forget the applause and whistles from classmates at her graduation. She also tried sailing, skiing, and a parachute jump!

Those who knew her understood a vital aspect of her personality; openness and honesty were key. They fitted hand-inhand with her ability and desire to listen much more carefully than the norm. She seemed to have a knack of getting straight to the nub of any problem or misunderstanding. She said, “We are blessed with five senses. One of mine doesn’t work, but four do!”

While she was at a college in Liverpool, Cathy met Bernard Smith, who was to become her partner in adventure, and in due course, her husband. He was a specialist teacher for the RNIB (Royal National Institute for the Blind) while she worked for Action for Blind People, providing advice on independent living. Cathy recognized that, in more ways than one, meeting Bernard was a life changing moment.

Cathy said, “Bernard had ridden motorbikes from the age of 17, and he’d always wanted to ride a motorcycle around the world. I am quite adventurous, so I thought, let’s have a go, see what it’s like. Basically, he had a spare seat, and I took it up.” In 2008 the duo set off across Europe in August heading for Asia. “I didn’t have any fear before we set off. I trusted Bernard 100 percent. Though I did think, if anything happened to him where would I be?” Blind? As Bernard puts it, “She belonged to the 5% of visually impaired people who have ‘no useful vision.’ In Cathy’s case I do mean nada, zip, nothing.”

Raising money for the U.K.’s Action for Blind People Organisation, together the two of them covered 26,385 miles, 31 countries and five continents on an 18-year-old motorcycle called Bertha. What became apparent to her as she travelled the world’s roads, surrounded by strange places and languages, was that life does indeed involve a very simple truth. All you have to do is believe.

The duo rolled, battled or smiled their way through the year-long adventure with Bernard’s descriptions combining with Cathy’s working senses to paint pictures of the road in Cathy’s mind. “Weird and wonderful stories, interspersed with motorcycling updates, came through the intercom in strange voices as if from the captain of a plane giving altitude, directions, speed and weather conditions.”

Cathy especially liked the countries that were very different from the U.K. They even inadvertently stayed in a Kosovan brothel—imagine the sound effects… and the roads in India were terrifying for her. One day it took 14 hours to ride just 90 miles; Indian traffic is an adventure of the kind that you might not deliberately hunt out. The roads are crowded, horns go off everywhere, other vehicles literally push and shove you, and while she was dealing with the noise, the smell and the darkness, Cathy also worried about how silent Bernard was. She knew that if he wasn’t bantering thoughts and descriptions, plus the occasional curse, then things were grim indeed.

As you discover more about Cathy, you realize that a sparkling sense of humor was a key aspect to her nature, as was her ability to turn situations to the positive. She describes at one stage in India how, after accidents and constant battles with the traffic, “I constantly startle at unexpected sounds or movements, feeling frightened for hours on end in a state of breathlessness verging on panic. I spent my days surrounded by noise, waiting for a sudden catastrophic impact against the bike….”

But whilst feeling as low as this, she was also analyzing the situation. And by using all of her working senses, Cathy came up with a solution that would get them out of desperation; observations that a sighted person may not have made. And, there were numerous high points, such as Cathy being the first blind person to climb Huayna Picchu—the sister mountain to Machu Picchu in Peru. For Cathy, a constant high of the adventure was the chance to talk with people.

She was also strongly appreciative of her good fortune. At a center for blind women in India, Bernard was asked, “Men do not want you if you are blind: Why would you want to be with a blind woman?” Bernard responded, “If you knew Cathy you would not have asked that question.” The women broke into spontaneous applause. In the male-dominated culture of India, blind women are considered to be of lesser use, and at the onset of blindness are often “cast off” by their husbands.

But, Cathy’s life of challenges didn’t stop with their successful circumnavigation of the world. Six weeks after she and Bernard returned to the U.K., she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Friends say, “She never flinched from her terminal illness.” With this news Cathy, with support from Bernard, sat down to write their inspirational book Touching the World. Her aim was to encourage others to explore outside of their comfort zones and her uplifting story does just that.

Cathy and Bernard were married on August 20th 2012, which turned out to be the same day their story was published. Due to her illness, Panther Publishing had decided to bring the publication date forward. The book is written from Cathy’s point of view, and in doing so she achieved not just her dream, but something of a cornerstone for us all. What is it like to be blind?

However, the point of their book is not only to talk about travel whilst being blind. That’s just a third of the story. It’s a tale about motorcycling, people, relationships, border crossings, courage, the things that go wrong, and how you find out both who you really are, and what you’re capable of. Bernard said at the time, “I made a promise to Cathy that her story would be told. Her ambition was to show other people that no matter what convention says, just about anything is possible.”

In spite of her illness, Cathy headed out onto the promotional trail. With an exhausting swirl of book signings and presentations, the reviews began to come in. The word was out. One of those presentations was at the world famous Horizons Unlimited adventure travelers U.K. event. Her publisher, Rollo Turner, was there to assist.

“At their first talk of the evening there were still seats going spare in the large hall. Both she and Bernard were apprehensive that very few would turn up for the second one. People trickled in slowly, but then there was a swell of movement towards the presentation room. In fact, they had to turn people away; there wasn’t a spare inch of room in the hall as word had spread. It was only then that she realized people were getting the ‘message’ and that so many of them understood.”

Cathy Birchall, a woman with the heart of a lion, passed away on the 31st of January 2013. Bernard and her guide dog, Biscuit, were with her. Her legacy is, well, I can’t say it any better than this post on Cathy and Bernard’s Facebook page: “For me, the story will always be about a truly inspirational woman who got on with living, despite being knocked down so many times. In this shallow world of wannabe celebrities, fast food stories and sound bites, it is true that inspirational people do exist.”

Touching the World
WorldTour.org.uk
ISBN: 978-09564975-8-1
Panther Publishing
Panther-Publishing.com
Paperback: 344 pages
$13.50, also available in e-book format and as an audio book