2016 sees the 40th Anniversary of the foundation of the charity RP Fighting Blindness

to mark this , one of the events will involve the London Marathon

we have put together a team of 24 with 2 guide runners to raise money for vital research work

The team is

Roger Backhouse, David Wynne Griffith,  Will Harrison, Amber McClory, Dominic Steele, Susan Chester,   Hugh Miller, Alex Taylor, Alex Backhouse,              Jamie Wynne Griffith, Tom Rowe Jones,                  Tom Backhouse, Zephirine Warde-Aldam, Will Crisp, Esme Backhouse, Emily Naylor, Harry Spendlove,   Sam Goldblatt, Rob Gibson, Harry Coe, Will Pearson, Charie Dorey, Gareth Abbott, Max Brown, Ed Oram,  Cesca Gavins

Team managers Theo Backhouse, Maddy Coe and Oliver Backhouse

Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is the name given to a group of inherited conditions of theretina that lead to a gradual progressive loss in vision. Difficulties withnight vision and peripheral vision are the first things that are noticed;later, reading, colour, and central vision are affected. There is currently no cure for retinitis pigmentosa, but many researchers are working hard to develope a treatment.

TeamBlind as a Bat was put together by Roger Backhouse, who has RP himself and is trustee and long-time supporter of thecharity; he ran the London Marathon for RP Fighting Blindness in 2010 with his brother Oliver, an eye surgeon in Leeds, and is now taking on an even bigger challenge for the charity’s fortieth anniversary and has put together a whole team of runners

The team is raising money for Professor Robin Ali of the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, who is a world-respected medical researcher and leading expert in the field of gene and stem cell therapy. Roger and his brother raised moneyfor the start of a pioneering five year gene therapy research project ofProfessor Ali’s in 2010, which aims to develop a treatment for RP, and now theywant to help him fund its final year. The money raised by Team Blind as a Bat will be contributing to building a programme of clinical trials, whichis the next stage of finding an effective treatment. With your support Team Blind as a Bat can help see this vital research through to its conclusion.