Striking lucky at the bowling alley

Dave's Story...

Dave was in his fifties when he lost his sight suddenly. Getting involved with sports activities at Galloway's helped him stay active and meet other people with sight loss. 

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“Thirteen years ago, I lost my sight overnight. I woke up one morning and realised driving down the motorway that I couldn’t see the car in front. There was damage to my optic nerve, it might have been the result of a stroke, but the doctors aren’t sure what caused it.

It was a shock, a big change in my life. I had a stressful job which required lots of travel, but with the sight loss I couldn’t keep doing that. Suddenly I found myself with nothing to do. I decided I wanted to spend time on activities I enjoy. 

I’ve always been very active, I love dancing, golf, fishing – I’ve got 300 trophies in my garage! But when I lost my sight, I found it harder to play sports like golf, it’s no fun if you can’t see where the ball is landing. 

Galloway’s are brilliant, they organise lots of outdoor activities. We’ve been on their walks, tried the rifle shooting and I even played in a blind football competition. I’m 70 years old, but I’m still young at heart!  

Getting involved in the bowling team gave me something to focus on, a way to meet other visually impaired people. I’ve been running the team for 13 years now, we’ve really improved over that time and now we play in two leagues. 

We had a nail-biting finish in one league and finished in first place! So we’re going to the National Finals in Wigan on 7th May. It’s great fun playing in the finals, it’s a chance to meet other visually impaired bowlers from all over the UK.
 

We play every week at the Red Rose Bowling Alley in Preston. The manager came to us recently and offered to sponsor the team – they bought us Red Rose Blind Bowlers matching kit. A polo shirt, jacket and hat – the team looks really good! 

The support from Galloway’s has been great. In my Will, I’ve left a donation to them, to support their work in the future.”