2024 marks one year since Jack took over as Chairman of SeeAbility, Michael was appointed to the Board of Trustees and the charity turned 225. To celebrate this, we embarked on an extraordinary journey...

One of the leading and oldest disability charities in the UK, SeeAbility encourages people to challenge what they expect from life, from themselves and from society.

In the spirit of that ethos, in early September, Jack provided guiding and support for Michael to climb 24 peaks of the Lake District in September, in 24 hours. This fast-paced and formidable challenge saw them summit 24 peaks, all of which are over 2,400ft and includes Scafell Pike, the highest mountain in England. This trek had an official grading of Extreme – and that was for fully sighted people…

"We work closely together at Revantage Real Estate, a Blackstone Portfolio Company and this challenge was extremely personal for both of us"

Michael and his family have been profoundly impacted by sight-loss with Michael and his twin brother losing the vast majority of their eyesight within a year of each other at the age of 19 as a result of a rare disease known as Lebers optic neuropathy. The profound and bilateral sight loss is rapid and has left Michael and his twin with under 10% of useable remaining sight and both registered severely sight impaired/blind. Michael underwent a career change and intensive rehabilitation through charities such as SeeAbility and uses an array of accessible technologies in the workplace which act as aids/adjustments to allow Michael to perform his current role as Principal Counsel at Revantage.

After completing the trek, Michael said: “The experience has been pretty emotional. When I lost the majority of my sight 13 years ago, I thought it’s curtains for me, the career path in front of me pretty quickly disappeared, and I had to take a couple of years, with support of charities like SeeAbility, to relearn everything, learn a whole new language on the computer, as well as relearning basic things like how to make a cup of tea. I chose this challenge as I knew it would be way out of my comfort zone, using so many faculties that I’ve developed since my sight loss.”

Jack and his family have had a very long association with SeeAbility as it has been supporting his brother, Matty, since 2000. Born in 1983 at 26 weeks and due to the premature nature of his lungs, Matty was placed in an incubator for the first 4 months of his life. The oxygen treatment he received caused a condition called Retrolental Fibroplasia, resulting in total blindness. Matty has never been able to speak and has other severe learning and behavioural difficulties. But at SeeAbility, not only are Matty’s complex medical and support needs met, but his potential is realised, allowing him to enjoy his life to the full.

With Michael’s lack of depth perception and minimal navigational vision, the 24 Peaks challenge was an undertaking of grit, communication, teamwork, unwavering trust in each other and endurance.

“When we reached the last peak, I felt a real outpouring of emotions" says Michael. "It wasn’t just the physical aspect of it, it’s the fact that but for Jack, I wouldn’t have been able to set foot on the first mountain, let alone the 24th, so it means a huge amount to me.”

As well as providing Supported Living and homes to people like Matty, SeeAbility provides Supported Employment programmes, helping people with learning disabilities, autism and sight loss who might experience significant barriers to finding paid employment. SeeAbility is also a leader in the Eye Care sector for people with disabilities and in 2023, after years of campaigning, successfully convinced the NHS to provide sight tests in all special schools, with secured funding in excess of £10m.

https://www.seeability.org/

In 2023 to 2024, SeeAbility’s impact meant that:

• Over 22,000 lives were changed for the better through support teams, specialist programmes and awareness raising work.

• 261 people with learning disabilities and autism were supported in homes and supported living services, some being able to move out of long stays in hospital.

• 3,254 children were supported with eye care in special schools.

• People supported into paid employment worked 4,223 hours, enabling them to have the independence to save and spend their own money.

Now SeeAbility is facing its own formidable challenge, fueled by a challenging economy with inflation, high interest rates and increased living wages. Demands on services like theirs has never been higher. With regard to Supported Living alone, there are still 2,000 people in long-stay hospitals that would be far better supported by a charity like SeeAbility in their own home and in their communities.

That's where you come in.

Your support isn't just a donation - it's a lifeline to help people overcome huge barriers every single day.

Any donation, no matter how small, is really appreciated to help us reach our £150,000 fundraising goal and make a tangible impact on the lives of people with learning disabilities, autism and sight loss.

As well as individual giving, we are inviting a select number of firms that we work with to play a bigger role in our campaign. We would like to offer corporate sponsorship for larger amounts and we would like to recognize the support of these organizations in our PR as well as physically including their branding, prominently, on the jackets that we’ll be wearing on the day. We would be delighted to discuss this opportunity with you in more detail.