Real-Fix
  • Home
  • Podcast
  • Videos
  • Relationships
  • Bizarre
  • Crime
  • Health
  • Inspiration
  • Love This
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Podcast
  • Videos
  • Relationships
  • Bizarre
  • Crime
  • Health
  • Inspiration
  • Love This
No Result
View All Result
Real-Fix
No Result
View All Result

Devoted brother climbs Thai mountain blindfolded to experience challenges faced by his ‘incredible’ blind sister

RealFix by RealFix
August 12, 2022
in Inspirational, Most Popular
0
Devoted brother climbs Thai mountain blindfolded to experience challenges faced by his ‘incredible’ blind sister

Ed Smith in Thailand.

25
SHARES
25
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterWhatsapp

A devoted brother climbed a mountain blindfold during a three-day challenge to find out what his “incredible” sister who was born without sight faces everyday.

Brave Ed Smith, 21, said it was “pretty special” to walk in the footsteps of his sibling, Harriet Smith, 31, while admitting the hair-raising feat was “terrifying” at times.

The student set out on the 72-hour adventure with his girlfriend Eimear Pickstone, 21, who helped him traverse rain-drenched hillsides and bustling cities in Thailand last month.

And during their epic voyage, his eyes were even covered when Eimear accidentally spun their pick-up truck off the road, leaving him “scared” for his life.

Ed Smith with his sister Harriet Smith.

Ed said he had chosen to do the charity stunt in South East Asia – which has so far raised over £3,400 – to “challenge” himself in a non-english speaking country.

And when he finally took his blindfold off three days later, he said it first felt like he was “on drugs” before he was left with a massive sense of relief.

He said: “It was very weird when I finally took the blindfold off, almost like a hallucination experience. It was like I was on drugs, but after that, I was over the moon.”

“When Eimear ended up crashing the car on the road, it was probably the most terrifying thing that’s happened to me.

“But my sister gave me a lot of strength, knowing what I was doing was just a drop in the ocean of the life she has forged for herself in a world that’s not amenable to people without sight.”

“She was in the forefront of everything I was doing. It was pretty special finding my feet in her world.”

Ed, from the rural village of Moreton Pinkney, Northamptonshire, started his Challenge on July 11, near the town of Kanchanaburi, on the West of the country.

Ed Smith with Eimear Pickstone.
Ed Smith in Thailand.

He then went onto the capital Bangkok before taking a sleeper train to the Northern city of Chang Mai and climbing the mountain of Doi Suthep on his final day, July 14.

But the Cambridge University philosophy student explained that he had in fact wanted to spend a whole week blindfolded before his girlfriend talked him out of it.

Ed said: “The main reason for doing it abroad is it’s more of a challenge.

“I wanted to push myself as hard as I could, and I was thinking about doing it for a week. But Eimear talked me out of that.”

Eimear, who had planned the three-month summer holiday with Ed – through Thailand, Laos and Vietnam – said when he revealed his plan, she thought it was “crazy”.

She added: “I definitely did not help come up with the idea. I thought he was crazy, so I said, ‘No, three days is enough!’”

The couple spent every day he was blindfolded together, with Ed fully dependant on Eimear for food, shelter and navigation around the country.

Ed said: “I’m a very independent person, so having to ask Eimear to help me with every single aspect of my life was pretty tricky a times – from brushing my teeth to shaving.

“It was really, really tough, and I learned how trusting blind people are with those around them.

“Everyone focusses on the climb, but the psychological experience of the three days was really the toughest part of the challenge.”

While driving through a rural area of the country, near Bangkok, Eimear lost control of a car she’d borrowed from a local friend, and the pair skidded into a ditch.

Ed Smith with Eimear Pickstone in Thailand.
Ed Smith

Ed explained: “We were driving along this mountain road, and it just started to rain a lot. The windscreen wipers didn’t’ work and the windscreen was getting very muddy.

“To me, it felt like we were driving along a cliff side. Then we just lost traction and spun 180 degrees.

“In my head, we were falling off the side of a mountain. I did think that was the end for me. But we were just lodged in a ditch.

He added: “That was the single most scary thing that has happened to me in my life.”

Ed was rescued by 15 local Thai men, who then helped pull his truck out of the levy, but this was one of several occasions when he believes he was hallucinating.

He said: “My world morphed into a very strange sensory state.

“At first, I was learning the ropes, learning to navigate this usual world. Then the things I was visualising were pretty vivid.

“I created this visual picture in my head the whole time. I was really living in this strange vivid world to the extent I was almost hallucinating.”

Ed and Eimear arrived in Chang Mai on their final day, before making the 1,676 m (5,499 ft) journey to the top of Doi Suthep in “treacherous” conditions.

Ed Smith in Thailand.
Ed Smith with his sister Harriet Smith.

Ed said: “During our ascent of the mountain, it was pretty treacherous. But the sounds of the jungle with the rain was the most sensory stimulating period of the three days.”

And when Ed finally removed his eye mask 72 hours later, he was dazzled by the brightness of his surroundings but thankful he could take everything in once again.

He said: “I was struggling to cope with it for about 20 minutes, but everything was so beautiful eventually.”

Eimear added: “I was so happy to see his face. It was almost like I’d forgotten it.

“He couldn’t see anything when he first took it off for a while. But it felt really quite emotional. I felt a bit teary.”

Donations to Ed’s chosen charity, Royal National Institute of Blind People, are being collected here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/blindfoldthailand

Tags: feature
Previous Post

My £30 Puma sliders saved my life after I was electrocuted while vacuuming my fake lawn

Next Post

Couple’s love still blooms 40 years on – as they recreate first photo posing alongside 12ft sunflower

RealFix

RealFix

Real Fix is a completely free true-life magazine. Check out our Facebook page for more videos and clips, or download our New Real-Fix Podcast for astonishing interviews with some of the real people behind our amazing stories.

Next Post
Couple’s love still blooms 40 years on – as they recreate first photo posing alongside 12ft sunflower

Couple’s love still blooms 40 years on - as they recreate first photo posing alongside 12ft sunflower

You Must See

Charity’s oldest ever pair of dogs with combined age of 34 find forever home after previously being turned down for being too elderly

Charity’s oldest ever pair of dogs with combined age of 34 find forever home after previously being turned down for being too elderly

January 30, 2023
Veterinary nurse credits Labrador with saving her life after it headbutted her in the chest – and detected fast-growing breast cancer

Veterinary nurse credits Labrador with saving her life after it headbutted her in the chest – and detected fast-growing breast cancer

January 30, 2023
Doting dog owner praised her pet pooch after its barks saved her life when her flat caught fire

Doting dog owner praised her pet pooch after its barks saved her life when her flat caught fire

January 23, 2023
Mum forced to wrap up in a hat and gloves in her minus eight home after being left without heating for five months

Mum forced to wrap up in a hat and gloves in her minus eight home after being left without heating for five months

January 23, 2023
Toddler has become Britain’s youngest Mensa member aged just three – reading fluently and counting in seven languages

Toddler has become Britain’s youngest Mensa member aged just three – reading fluently and counting in seven languages

January 23, 2023
Chihuahua missing for seven years has been reunited with its owners after police found him while hunting a suspect

Chihuahua missing for seven years has been reunited with its owners after police found him while hunting a suspect

January 23, 2023
  • Home
  • Podcast
  • Videos
  • Relationships
  • Bizarre
  • Crime
  • Health
  • Inspiration
  • Love This

Real Fix is a trading style of South West News Service Limited.
Copyright © 2022 South West News Service Limited.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Podcast
  • Videos
  • Relationships
  • Bizarre
  • Crime
  • Health
  • Inspiration
  • Love This

Real Fix is a trading style of South West News Service Limited.
Copyright © 2022 South West News Service Limited.

googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('sticky'); });