Full Transcript
Jeff Thompson:
Welcome to Blind Abilities. I’m Jeff Thompson. Today in the studio we have Doctor Amit Patel. He’s a motivational speaker and author, and an advocate for the blind and visually impaired. As I was setting up for this podcast a friend of mine who’s on the road most of the time, he’s a truck driver of an 18-wheeler, driving from the mid-west all the way to the west coast and beyond, contacted me about this video he saw. Little did he know, I was already in talks with Doctor Amit Patel, in creating this podcast.
Jeff Thompson:
We got chatting back and forth. As a truck driver, he’s sighted, and thank gosh for everybody on the road. But he gets it, he really gets it. You may wonder what those truck drivers are thinking about on those long roads, getting that white line fever. Well, King Fish is thinking about the blindness community and thinking about Doctor Amit Patel. Here’s a little clip from King Fish to lead us out. Hope you enjoy.
Kingfish:
I want to hear this guy’s story. Just the way he carries himself, the demeanor he has, his seriousness, there’s something about this guy that just screams greatness. Here’s the thing though, it’s not a blind story. It’s not a blind story, it’s not a story about a blind man. It’s a story about a man who’s doing what he wants to do, who set a goal for himself and he’s doing it.
Kingfish:
It doesn’t matter that he’s blind, that’s just another obstacle. But that doesn’t define who he is. That’s just like, he’s tall or he’s short or whatever. This guy doesn’t think he’s {sound of car horn}, I like that. He’s not defined by that. I’m not saying it right, but I think you know what I mean. Just like you man, I don’t think of you as a blind guy, I think of you as the audio guy. Sure, I’m sure you have some obstacles that you have to deal with because of it, but it doesn’t stop you from doing what you want to do. Awesome. I’m looking forward to this.
Jeff Thompson:
Thanks, Kingfish, for the intro. Keep those 18 wheels out there on the road. Safe driving to all you truck drivers.
Dr. Amit Patel:
Do you know why I use my disability as a way of trying to educate people? I think you know we exist, but you may never have encountered a blind person before. But I’m hoping that maybe even a five-minute conversation with me will open someone’s eyes.
Jeff Thompson:
Please welcome Doctor Amit Patel.
Dr. Amit Patel:
I think you adapt. It’s not long since I lost my sight, but I’ve adapted very quickly. I think that kind of helped, definitely helps. But it’s tiring. You well know, it’s doing a basic task takes a lot more brain power than if you’re sighted.
Jeff Thompson:
Author, motivational speaker and a strong advocate for the blind and visually impaired. Here’s the big question. As a doctor, did you ever practice your handwriting?
Dr. Amit Patel:
The only people who could read my handwriting were other doctors and nurses. To be honest, I think I even struggled reading some of my handwriting. But I think probably my hand writing’s probably better now as a blind person than it was. Because in my head I kind of know I have to make it very obvious what I’m trying to write.
Jeff Thompson:
Follow Doctor Amit Patel on Twitter, @BlindDad_UK.
Dr. Amit Patel:
Since the day I actually lost my sight, it would be every morning thinking, “Right, today’s going to be the day I can see again.” You pin everything on that and it just doesn’t happen. Then the next day you pin everything. It got to a stage where I just couldn’t. I think I didn’t want to wake up in the morning. I didn’t want to go through the whole day not being able to see.
Jeff Thompson:
Doctor Amit Patel is a husband, a father, a son, and a friend of many.
Dr. Amit Patel:
But then you have your bad experiences. I remember actually walking along a busy train platform. I knew where to go to catch my train. I was walking along the platform and I accidentally tapped someone’s shoe. This person turned around, took my cane out of my hand, threw it on the train track as the train was coming through.
Jeff Thompson:
Download the free Blind Abilities app from the App store and on Google Play. That’s two words, Blind Abilities. You can also enable the Blind Abilities skill on your Amazon device. Just say, “Enable Blind Abilities.”
Dr. Amit Patel:
There’s nothing you can’t achieve. I think you kind of put your own barriers in front of you.
Jeff Thompson:
Please welcome Doctor Amit Patel.
Dr. Amit Patel:
I’m out there, I’m trying to spread the word, the message, that being blind doesn’t stop you from being who you are. That it should never stop you from doing what you want to do in life. [inaudible] mate. Get it back, get it back. Gas, gas, gas, gas. Come on, get him.
Speaker 4:
The GT 86 drives in a straight line along the track. Doctor Amit Patel lost his sight in 2013. He was forced to give up his career as an emergency first response driver. He hasn’t been behind the wheel of a car since. Until now.
Jeff Thompson:
So, you got the Toyota parked right now, right?
Dr. Amit Patel:
Do you know what? I think I’ve misplaced the keys.
Jeff Thompson:
That might be a good thing.
Dr. Amit Patel:
Do you know what? My wife does hide the keys.
Jeff Thompson:
I don’t blame her, that’s good. If she keeps the keys hidden, you might be able to see your book published. Right?
Dr. Amit Patel:
[inaudible] Hopefully.
Jeff Thompson:
I just saw something on Twitter about you’re anticipating the book.
Dr. Amit Patel:
Yeah, we have just finalized the front cover just about 20 minutes ago. So, yeah, exciting times. Book’s out in February next year.
Jeff Thompson:
Someone asked for a photo of me for this one article. I find that very challenging to me. Are my eyes open? Am I looking at the camera? None of that, or…
Dr. Amit Patel:
Do you know what? I have the same thing. I don’t have any vision whatsoever. I’ve forgotten what I look like. So, it’s kind of weird when I’m giving a presentation and someone said, “Oh, there’s a big face of you in the background.” I’m thinking, “What do I actually look like? What do people see? Am I the same as what the photo is as what I am now?” It’s such a strange concept.
Jeff Thompson:
A gentleman sent me a… he’s a truck driver, he drives all over. He calls it his midlife crisis car. He has a vintage; I think it’s a 1928 with a hot rod motor in it.
Dr. Amit Patel:
Oh, lovely.
Jeff Thompson:
He likes the feel of the vehicle, the sound. He was wondering if you ever, while you’re driving that, getting the feel of the shifting, the turning.
Dr. Amit Patel:
Do you know what? It was that. So, before I got into the Toyota GT 86, they let me loose in a Toyota hybrid. Which, for me, it doesn’t make sense, because when I used to drive… I used to be a rapid response paramedic, a doctor. I was trained to drive very quickly, very safely. I would use the revs, I would use the gear shift, I would use the brakes. All of this would be my experience of driving.
Dr. Amit Patel:
When I got into the hybrid, it was like a go-kart. It was an automatic, there was no feel of the steering, there was no feel of the pedals. You put your foot down and you go, and you have this buzzing noise, and you stop. But when I got into the GT 86, it was the rumble of the engine, it was the smell of the leather. It envelops you, that whole experience. I think that’s what it was. It wasn’t so much the driving quickly, it was actually feeling that vibration on my hands on the steering wheel as I turned the corner, as I short shifted on the gears.
Dr. Amit Patel:
… six years or so since I’ve been behind the wheel of a car. It’s funny how quickly things get back to you. The sound of the engine, the gear changes, the clutch, the brake, but then driving and not knowing where you’re driving, that’s the insane part.
Speaker 4:
Amit practices his lap while instructor Mark provides information regarding the route.
Dr. Amit Patel:
As I did it so well, because I’m not concentrating on the road anymore, I’m concentrating on actually driving the car. The funny thing is, I think it made me a better driver. Because I didn’t have to focus, I was listening to Mark, on my left hand side, just say, “Left, Amit. Right, Amit. 90 right, 90 left.” By the end of it, I can anticipate what he was saying before he said it. That’s what I was concentrating on. I was concentrating on the gear changes, on the smoothness, making sure the revs were just right, just as I changed the gear. Hitting the apex on a corner, hitting the rumble strips as we’re taking the bend, and making sure I hit that strip every single time.
Mark:
Right there, left there.
Dr. Amit Patel:
To be behind the engine of a fast car, knowing full well I’m in control, it feels like I’m floating. I feel the engine, I feel the vibrations, and I feel powerful. I feel like I did when I was a teenager, back in that car.
Mark:
Five, four, three, two, one, go.
Dr. Amit Patel:
So not seeing the track, actually for me, was great because it meant I could focus on the car and I could focus on the driving.
Jeff Thompson:
That’s kind of like blindness itself is that anticipating, thinking ahead, as you go about your daily chores, all your activities.
Dr. Amit Patel:
Yeah, absolutely. lot of people say to me, “You know, you look very confident when you’re out and about.” I make look confident, but in my head I’ve got 20 scenarios going. I know where I am, I know what’s approaching me, I know I’m going to be coming up to a curb. But I think you adapt. It’s not long since I lost my sight, but I’ve adapted very quickly. I think that helps, definitely helps. But it’s tiring. You well know, doing a task takes a lot more brain power than if you’re sighted and by the evening I am. I’m wiped.
Jeff Thompson:
And that’s coming from a doctor saying that.
Dr. Amit Patel:
Oh, the doctor in me is the stubbornness in me. I like to have a goal and I like to achieve it so that’s how I’ve always done things in my life.
Jeff Thompson:
Here’s the big question. As a doctor, did you ever practice your handwriting?
Dr. Amit Patel:
The only people who can read my handwriting were other doctors and nurses. To be honest, I think I even struggle reading some of my handwriting, but I think probably my handwriting’s probably better now as a blind person than it was because in my head, I kind of know I have to make it very obvious what I’m trying to write. But yeah, no, I have, I have doctor’s handwriting.
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah. You make a great point that it’s the thinking, the amount of contemplating that you have to do to foresee things, even though you can’t see it, you have to project. You have to have an idea of where you’re going, what you’re doing, everything. It’s not just whistling Dixie as you’re walking along. You actually are concentrating and then someone wants to talk to you as you’re walking, so that adds a whole nother level.
Dr. Amit Patel:
Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely. And especially when you have a guide dog as well. I could be in a corner on a crossroad thinking, do I need to take a right? Do I need to go left at do I need to go straight over? And as you’re thinking about this, someone will come over and go, oh, nice doggy. Hello. And you’re like, oh my God, I don’t know where I am anymore. I hate that. Or the best one… The one thing I never really thought about until I lost my sight is how lonely it could be when you can’t see anybody around you. So I remember when I was learning to use my long white cane, I would get to a busy junction and then I would have to stop because I have to compose myself.
Dr. Amit Patel:
I know I need to cross the road or I need to take a right or left. But before I can even think a little old lady will come along, link arms with me and take me across the road and say, there you go my love and walk away. And I’m thinking to myself, is this where I need to be or do I need to actually just take a right? Then I have to find someone to take me across the road again just so I can start my journey. But it’s funny, people think they do a lot of good, which to me… Do you know what? If someone’s willing to help, that’s fantastic. But sometimes, you don’t want that help.
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah. Sometimes you’re caught off guard when all of a sudden the help comes. It’s not always when you… There should be a little light above our head, like a taxi used to have. Like when I’m ready for help, this light will come on and that could, that would help everybody.
Dr. Amit Patel:
Would you believe? Someone actually told me just the other day, I was in a busy train and someone said to me, you should wear a high vis jacket so people could tell you’re blind. And I said, how would you know I’m blind if I walk just a blip jacket? Because, they can see my dog. My dog was stuck in the… she was laying down next to me. I said how would you know I was blind if I just wore a jacket? And they said you should write on the jacket saying I am blind. I’m like, seriously? I’m like do we really need to do this? Do I really need to announce that I’m blind for someone to move out of my way? Isn’t that obvious that I’m walking around with a guide dog and high vis jack on her?
Jeff Thompson:
It does make you wonder what like you, six, seven years ago, I believe it was, you could see perfectly fine.
Dr. Amit Patel:
Yeah. Yep. Absolutely.
Jeff Thompson:
Did you notice the blind before you went blind?
Dr. Amit Patel:
Do you know what? I don’t think I did. Me and my wife had this conversation. I’ve worked in central London. I took the train. I took the tube. I drove. And the only people I actually interacted, who were visually impaired were patients. I don’t think I actually saw that many guide dogs. I didn’t see a lot of cane users out and about. But I think if I did see someone who needed help, I think I would be the first one there. I think it’s that whole doctor thing in me, but you’re always looking for to help someone regardless if they want help or not. You’re the first one there. But, I don’t think I did see that many people.
Dr. Amit Patel:
I think being blind, it’s opened my eyes, excuse the pun. But I’ve noticed, I live in a totally different community now. I guess when you’re not going through anything like that, you don’t really have to think about it. I used to interact with people with mobility issues, blindness, hearing impairments, all three at work. But once I left work, I don’t think it really came into my life.
Jeff Thompson:
Now when you’re sitting outside somewhere and you hear a cane tapping, bang. You catch that right away,
Dr. Amit Patel:
Bang. You know, straight away. Absolutely. I say it to my wife sometimes when we’re out and about oh, there’s a cane user behind us. She’ll go oh, how’d you know? And you just distinctively just pick it up. It’s like a radar.
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah, it’s like white noise. Those noises that you don’t have to pay attention to as you’re going along. It seems like that is now all the information we use. We use all that and now there’s another layer of white noise. Another layer. I think it’s all in defense that, but you do pay attention to so much more.
Dr. Amit Patel:
You do. And do you know what? My ability to bump into another blind person is amazing. I can be absolutely anywhere and I could literally bumped into another blind person. I don’t know how I do it, but it happens too often.
Jeff Thompson:
And yet I did the same thing before I went blind. I don’t, I think I remember one person walking with a cane and I remember watching them across the street for it might’ve been three seconds, but it’s in my mind now, it seems like in an hour. But I just… and I went, huh? And then my life went on.
Dr. Amit Patel:
That’s it. Do you know what I use? I use my disability as a way of trying to educate people I think. We exist. You may never have encountered a blind person before, but I’m hoping that maybe even a five minute conversation with me will open someone’s eyes and make them think slightly differently.
Jeff Thompson:
And that’s it. We’ve become ambassadors to the blindness community. We’re like a gateway that people can find out more. And that’s why it’s kind of neat to gain some skills and confidence to be out there and be prepared for that because it does happen.
Dr. Amit Patel:
Absolutely. It does. And you know what, it can happen to anybody. This is the thing. A lot of people I come across say, oh, I’ll never lose my sight or this will never happen to me. You know, ask me 10 years ago, yeah, I would have said the same thing. But it does and you have to get on with it. And I think getting on with it is the difficult part. I think you have to acknowledge that. For me, I personally, it was heartbreaking when I lost my sight. Being a doctor, I was the one people used to come and to ask for help and now I have to go and ask for help from others.
Dr. Amit Patel:
I found it really difficult. But I also thought that I lost my sight so quickly. I lost it overnight and I put my doctor’s hat on and I thought, okay, what can we do? Realistically, I knew there was nothing we could do, but you’re still grasping onto hope. So, it can happen to anybody and it does happen to everybody. It doesn’t have to be sight loss. It could be anything traumatic in your life. But I think once you get to a point where you want to help yourself, I think it becomes easier.
Jeff Thompson:
We’re talking to Dr. Ahmed Patel. I came across him in a Toyota video of him driving, operating. He was on the wrong side I believe of the cockpit, but he was driving this and you said something in there that relates to what you were just saying that you are always expecting a cure or a solution to this blindness. And when did you accept blindness?
Dr. Amit Patel:
Since the day I actually lost my sight, it would be every morning thinking right, today is going to be the day I can see again. You pin everything on that and it just doesn’t happen. Then the next day you pin everything. It got to a stage where I just couldn’t. I think I didn’t want to wake up in the morning. I didn’t want to go through the whole day not being able to see. I’m pretty strong mentally and physically, but one day I just, I cried in front of my dad. I said to my dad, dad, why is this happened to me? You know what if I’d done so wrong for this to happen to me? My dad being my dad, all he had to do was put his arms around me and say, because you can get through this. That was it.
Dr. Amit Patel:
He said, because you can get through this. That’s why you’re going through this. You’re going to be able to help others from your experiences. And for me that was a life changing point. I woke up thinking, right, I need help. I need to be able to get back on my feet. And, I lost my sight very soon after getting married. It was just over a year after getting married. So me and my wife had amazing dreams. This is what we’re going to do. This is where we are going to live. We were still in a honeymoon period in our marriage and the lights went out.
Dr. Amit Patel:
So for me it was, well, is my wife going to stay or she’s going to walk? How hard is it for her? So you put all of this pressure on yourself, but you forget to ask for help because you’re all consumed within your own head about what you can do, what you can achieve, what is life going to be like now as a blind person. But, you actually forget to let people in. And I think, when I let everybody back into my life, it became easier.
Jeff Thompson:
What was her transition like to adjust?
Dr. Amit Patel:
Oh, do you know what? My wife, me and my wife, we’re chalk and cheese. So if I want to do something, I will do it. My wife’s very much, she will get her notebook out. She will plan things way in advance. So when I lost my sight, my wife had to take over. My wife had to get the doctor’s appointments together. My wife had to drive me to the appointments because there was no way I could do things on my own, because I went from being a confident guy to being a little child who needed everything done for him. So my wife had to step in and that took a huge amount of pressure on her. Because also, her seeing me go through this, she wasn’t sure what to say and what to do. She didn’t want to be patronizing. She didn’t want to upset me, so she would always think about what she was saying before she said it.
Dr. Amit Patel:
It wasn’t an organic conversation. It was very much a structured conversation. Know how are you? How are you doing? Let’s get you this, let’s get you that. I think she lost… I think genuinely she thought she lost the person she married. But I think with my help, and I say this is in the Toyota video, it was my wife that got me back on my feet again. It was my wife who came and gave me the hugs and the cuddles and the reassurance that I needed.
Dr. Amit Patel:
Because you have your good days, you have your bad days, and then you have your terrible days. And that’s where my wife was just amazing. She knew exactly what to say, what to do. But not everybody has this. And this is why I do a lot of my campaigning because I’m very lucky. I have an amazing wife who stood up and took charge and got me back on my feet. There’s a lot of people who go through this on my own and I like to do my campaigning out there to tell people that you don’t have to be alone. You do have to let people into your life, and it does become easier. It is difficult. I’m not going to sit here and say it’s easy losing your sight, and get back on your feet again, learn to use a white cane, learning to read braille, learning tech all over again. It isn’t, it’s difficult, but you can do this, but you don’t have to do it alone.
Jeff Thompson:
That’s a great message to the people. How did you start in learning some of the skills that you’re using today? What was your first steps?
Dr. Amit Patel:
So I started my, I think it would be my white cane lessons, around about six months after I lost my site. For the first six months I had no confidence. I didn’t want to leave the house at all. It took me about six months to build that confidence to actually go and get white cane lessons. But the lady I went to see to get my cane lessons, she also said, “Right, Amit. We’re not just going to do cane lessons; I’m going to teach you braille as well.” And I think she understood that I needed to focus on something. I can just have a couple of lessons a week with my white cane and then be left at home. She understood that my mind needed to focus on something, and to try and read braille meant I could do it on my own, be at home, and actually focus.
Dr. Amit Patel:
And it was people, do you know, I’m very lucky. I’ve had amazing people in my life. People who have inspired me, people who have seen probably more than what I’ve kind of let on. They understood what I’m trying to say even in a quick conversation, and they understand that I need that motivation, I need something to focus on, and they’ve been there. So braille and cane lessons were the two things I started doing. Soon as I was comfortable with my cane I was out and about. We live in central London, so it’s always busy, but I always used to say sorry to a lamppost, to a letter box because you just don’t know if you’ve tapped someone.
Dr. Amit Patel:
But then you have your bad experiences. I remember actually walking along a busy train platform. I knew where to go to catch my train. So I was walking along the platform, and I accidentally tapped someone’s shoe. This person turned around, took my cane out of my hand, and threw it on the train track as the train was coming to. All you heard was this mighty crack as the train split my cane in two. The rest of the platform, there must’ve been at least 150 people on that platform, all gasped because they all saw what happened. Then the next conversation was should we help him or should we get on the train? Every single member on that platform got on the train. Not one person turned around and said we should help the blind guy who’s lost his white cane.
Jeff Thompson:
Oh, my gosh.
Dr. Amit Patel:
So I’ve seen the good side of London, and I’ve seen the bad side of London. That stopped me from going out for three months because I just couldn’t face the world again. So you have your good days, and you have your bad days. It’s never easy. Even now I walk out with a confident smile on my face, but the moment you step out your house, you’re in someone else’s world. That’s how I feel. You can’t control anything. In my house I walk around, I know where everything is. I have a three year old and a three month old. I can change nappies, I can change their clothes, I can give them baths, I can feed them. But, the moment I step out of my house, it’s a whole different ballgame.
Jeff Thompson:
And that’s where competence comes in. I mean, you can’t change the inevitable of a jerk or mob mentality as they all got onto the train. And yet, I know what you mean by in your house, it’s a huge comfort zone. But I tell you what, with kids, that’s a whole nother area.
Dr. Amit Patel:
Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Lego!
Jeff Thompson:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Ouch.
Dr. Amit Patel:
Lego is a minefield.
Jeff Thompson:
Yes, it is.
Dr. Amit Patel:
It’s got to a point now where if daddy stubs his toe on Lego, or he walks on Lego, that Lego now goes in the bin. That’s how my son was taught and now at the end of his play session everything is all tidied up. He’s very good at that now, but he had to learn.
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah. Now that they’re going to have braille on Lego, it’s even going to be a little sharper.
Dr. Amit Patel:
Yes. Yeah. I can’t wait. I can’t wait to try that out.
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah. I hope they make it available to the public. I know they’re going to start out by making it available to educational practices places.
Dr. Amit Patel:
Yes. So there’s a couple of colleges in the U.K. which are receiving the Legos, so it’ll be great to actually hear the feedback.
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah, that is exciting. I was really excited to learn more about that drive. How did the Toyota drive? I mean, Toyota wasn’t just saying hey, we need a blind guy. You actually pursued it.
Dr. Amit Patel:
Absolutely. The one thing I miss is the freedom of jumping in my car. I used to love driving and I still do. I’m very passionate about driving. Massive fan of the Top Gear, any car programs, I love that. I would spend ages just cleaning and valeting my own car on a weekend. And when I lost my sites, I kind of lost that freedom. One day I realized that the head of Toyota’s PR was following me on Twitter. And I said to my wife, “Oh do you know what? Toyota have a big headquarters in Saree, and I know they probably have a big car park.” And I said to my wife, “Would it be cheeky if I asked if I can jump in a car and just drive around their car park?” And my wife said, “Oh, you can give it a go.”
Dr. Amit Patel:
And the reason I actually chose Toyota is because they’re a huge sponsor of the Paralympics. And they talk a lot about advertising talks about a car isn’t just for the driver, it’s the whole experience. It’s for the whole family. So I thought, you know what, it might be cheeky, but let me give it a go. So I sent a private message to the head of PR, Scott Brownlee, and I said, “Thank you for following me. You know who I am. Any chance I can jump in a car and just drive it around your car park?” And I thought I’d never hear anything back. Within about a day or so I got a message saying leave it with me. And that was it.
Dr. Amit Patel:
I think about a couple of months passed and then we got a phone calling saying Amit can you be at this; I think it was a disused airfield. It was a disused American airbase actually in Oxford, and I think it was the location where they filmed Fast and Furious. They said there’s plenty of runway, would you meet us there one morning, and we can get you into a car? And I thought fantastic. So we got to the aerodrome, and they put me in the electric car. We had about five minutes in this electric car, and I had a codriver who was an ex rally driver. He said to me, “Amit, I’m going to give you a countdown when I want you to turn left and right.” So he’s going, “In three, two, one take a left. Three, two, one take a right.” And within a few minutes he realized that I am just listening to him, I’m not concentrating on the road or anything. So he basically said, “Look, if I just say right or left 90 or 45 degrees, can you manage that?”
Dr. Amit Patel:
And we did. And we we’re taking the car up to about 30, 40 miles an hour and after about 15, 20 minutes we stopped. He said, “How did you like that?” I said I hated it. I said there’s no gear changes, I can’t feel the car. It feels like I’m in a go cart. He walked away, and he spoke to Toyota and he said, “I think Amit’s ready for the GT86.” I didn’t realize they had the GT86 ready. And he said, “Let’s take a bit of a spin on that.” So we spent, I think, two hours in that car just driving up and down the runway, doing donuts. I think we hit about 85, 86 miles an hour. I thought that was the end of it. We had a whole day of driving. I thought fantastic, I’m never going to experience this again.
Dr. Amit Patel:
I then get a call from Tony to say, “Amit, we supply the car to Top Gear for the celebrities to do their fast laps in. Would you like to take part in that?” So you could be the blind guy in a reasonably fast car. And there was no way I was going to say no to this. So I made my way to the studio, to where they film, and they had a whole film crew there. They had drone operators, they had the emergency services, they had the actual car that even Tom Cruise drove around the test track in. The only requirement was, “Amit, don’t total the car. We need it for filming in the next couple of days.”
Dr. Amit Patel:
I was partnered with Mark Watkins, who was the gentleman in the car with me. They said, “Look, you don’t have to do it fast. Just go around the track. It’ll be great if you can enjoy it. Don’t worry about the timings or anything.” But I’m a very, very competitive guy. So I basically said to Mark, “Look, we’ve got to do this. We’re never going to get this opportunity again, let’s just see what we can do.” But, unfortunately the day we were test driving the car it was raining, so the track was completely wet, but we did a couple of good times.
Dr. Amit Patel:
And then the day afterwards, which was the day they were actually going to film the actual fast lap, and it was dry. We actually got the ambulance to go around the test track about three or four times just to clear the water. And we even had the fire engine go around a few times as well, just to make the track a little bit dryer for us. But you would not believe, the day of filming, pushing the start/stop button on the car to turn the engine on, that roar, knowing full well who had sat in the same seat as I did. Top Gear is one of those programs that’s broadcast everywhere. I remember being in the States and watching Top Gear.
Jeff Thompson:
A friend of mine is totally blind and he drove on Top Gear. He parked the car by spinning it in between two cones. It was really cool.
Dr. Amit Patel:
Amazing. But this is it. Top Gear is one of those programs where you watch and you think I can do better than that. You know, to actually sit in the car, in the car that’s actually used for Top Gear. This car had no modifications. So it was a normal standard car, there was no additional breaks or anything at all. Mark had no control on this. At one point we were so in tune, just as he said left, the steering went to the left, gear changes were spot on, but it was the most amazing feeling. I walked out of there thinking I need to do this again. I need this rush in my life.
Jeff Thompson:
How long was it before you start trusting Mark? I mean, you’re driving a hunk of metal down a road with a lot of power, and trust?
Dr. Amit Patel:
Trust is a big thing. I think it worked with me and Mark because I trusted him. I knew that from the test day we had an Oxford months before the Top Gear driving, and it was the banter. It was the fact that he trusted me as well. He never grabbed the steering-wheel, he never grabbed the handbrake. He was always precise on his instructions. And would you believe, even through the test drive, even practicing the laps for Top Gear, we’re having a conversation as we’re driving the car.
Dr. Amit Patel:
So, it got to that point. It got to the point where we were not a 100% focusing on what we should be doing, but we’re just… “Oh, how was your weekend, Mark? How are you doing? How’s the family doing?” As we’re doing a hundred down the runway. But I think it is all trust. And Mark was crazy. I think he got as much as a rush as I did. I remember actually turning up to the day where we were going to start the filming, but Mark had driven in three hours ahead of time, because he was that excited. He had a three hour drive, but got there three hours early, just because you were super excited to do this. And we were like two giddy school kids in the car, because we knew what an opportunity we had. But yeah, we’re always joking. And I was saying to Mark, “The next thing we have to do is the Nurburgring.”
Jeff Thompson:
One of the things that I remember specifically on that drive was, he wanted you to keep it in gear as far as you could get it, up to the revs before you shifted. So you didn’t waste any energy. What was that like, that experience?
Dr. Amit Patel:
Oh, do you know what? My hand was on the gearshift most of the time. A lot of the driving, because there’s so many corners, so many gear shifts as well. He wanted to eke out every millisecond that we could. He wanted to get that sweet spot every single time. So knowing full well that we were recording the fast lap, and it was the only time we’re going to record it, it’s that whole anticipation. I’m ready to go. But, he would just panic. He wasn’t [inaudible] driving the TTA 86 I can feel everything through my fingers, through my feet. I can hear the car, I can hear the engine, I can feel the power. It got to a stage where I didn’t have to really think about anything. I would just listen to Mark and let him give me the instructions, and I was basically his hands and his feet, and it worked. It really did work. I think I had a bit of a cry afterwards, and I think he had a bit of a cry as well.
Jeff Thompson:
That’s really neat that someone that sighted is just excited for you, and they are excited as much to accomplish this, to take on the challenge. Like you said, and being an advocate or out there campaigning and trying to educate people who may not be aware of the challenges that we have. It’s neat when you connect like that.
Dr. Amit Patel:
This is it. I’m very fortunate to meet some inspiring people along my sight loss journey, and even though Mark isn’t the vision impaired, to me, he’s an inspiration because he believed in me, and I think sometimes that that belief kind of gives you that energy. To know full well that people believe in you to believe in your ability to do something. That was it. I went into the driving experience on the morning thinking, I’m going to let everybody down. Toyota have supplied the car. They’ve got film crew in. They’ve closed the track off for the day. They’ve got everything in place. They’ve got the emergency services.
Dr. Amit Patel:
The last thing I wanted to do was go in there, sit in the car and think, Oh my God, I can’t do this, and let fear get into the way, and I was very honest with them as well at the beginning saying that I might get in the car, and that at the moment it’s all adrenaline talking, but I might sit in that car and just decide that I can’t do it, the pressure’s just too much, but, having Mark as my copilot next to me, just reassuring me that, Amit, let’s just take it easy. Let’s just get this done. Let’s get round the first bend and see what we can do. It’s having that kind of push without actually physically pushing me, giving me that inspiration, giving me that hope that I can do it, and giving me that self-control and self-belief that it can be done. I think that’s a huge parts.
Jeff Thompson:
What was it like when you broke the two minute mark?
Dr. Amit Patel:
Oh.
Jeff Thompson:
Did you feel it? Did you know you were better than two?
Dr. Amit Patel:
No. Concept of time is what I’ve lost since losing my sight. It’s crazy. We would be on the radios asking them how fast we’d done, where can we beat and knock our records off, or where can we beat another half a second. And it was, I don’t know why we were so quick, but we were. But I think that was pure adrenaline going.
Mark:
Let it go. Go on, hit the gas. Go on hit the gas, over the finish. Come on, get in.
Dr. Amit Patel:
At that time, I don’t think I had any concept of size and the fact that we I think we were fifth on the leaderboard, which was absolutely insane. And I always joke, I always say to everybody that I had Mark in my palace in my car. If I didn’t have Mark I could have done a good five seconds quicker. So next time we try it, maybe he, Mark, could be on the radio as opposed to being in the car, by the eye.
Jeff Thompson:
Oh, that would be cool.
Dr. Amit Patel:
Wouldn’t that be, but you know what, I would take my time. Even now, the crew were amazing. All the crew did at the end of it was sign their names on my helmet and actually put the time on, and they gave me the helmet.
Jeff Thompson:
Oh, wow.
Dr. Amit Patel:
And probably once, twice a week, when I need that little bit of motivation that sometimes I’ll wake up in the morning saying, “Wow, work’s really tough. Can I do this?” I travel a lot for work, and sometimes I think, wow, is this just too much for me? I would sit in front of my TV, I would put the surround sound on, I would put my helmet on and I would listen to the audio described version of that lap with the bass box, just booming, vibrating with the surround sound going. It takes me back to where I was, and I think I can do this.
Jeff Thompson:
I thought that was really great. The first thing I saw, was the YouTube video from Toyota about your experience, and then I saw in the show notes that there’s an audio described version, and that was even better. I went to that, and it’s talking about how your hands are on the wheel, or whatever it was saying. That was cool.
Dr. Amit Patel:
This is it. The lady who did the audio description for the video, she sent me a message and said that she played it over and over again in their home studio just to make sure she got every last emotion into that, and I love her for that. That was absolutely amazing.
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah, that was really cool, and I got to hand it to Toyota to do this. To them it must’ve been a challenge. I’m sure a lot of the camera crew and said, say, say what we’re going to do, what a perfectly good car.
Dr. Amit Patel:
Listen, this is, there was one gentleman there actually knew his job was to make sure the car was running at its best. And he did say to me, “Amit, we haven’t got any more cars. I don’t have a spare wing for the car or anything at all, so please just don’t dent it.” So, I think Toyota saw it as a challenge, so Toyota have this hashtag called #StartYourImpossible and they use that for a Para-Olympics. I’m very, very fortunate that when we make the edits for the video and it went into, I think the managers or the CEO, whoever saw this video, they said this video has to have the tag #StartYourImpossible. And for me, that says it all. It was the start of my impossible because you know, you don’t get blind guys driving round racetracks.
Dr. Amit Patel:
Were able people do. That doesn’t happen every day. Blind guys have driving experiences. You can drive around this used airfield, but you don’t do it competitively. And for Toyota to give me that opportunity and Mike to give me the trust and the belief that I could do this was absolutely amazing because I don’t think it came cheap. I’m very lucky I haven’t billed me for it because I’d know it hasn’t come cheap. But, it’s that whole, we believe in you, we can do this, and we’ve never done it before. Let’s give it a go.
Jeff Thompson:
That’s awesome. There’s only two other people I know that have kind of competitively done it. It’s Brian Fischer and Dan Parker, world’s fastest. Now, it’s Dr. Amit Patel, is right in that category. I was excited when I heard that 149, I was going, yes he did it. It must have been exciting. Now you mentioned you do a lot of traveling for work. What kind of work are you doing?
Dr. Amit Patel:
So today, actually, I have been judging candidates, finalists for the C-ability award. It’s for the RNIB, which is a national eye charity here in the UK.
Jeff Thompson:
Mm-hmm (affirmative)-
Dr. Amit Patel:
I’ve been going through the nominations and shortlisting, and doing my top three. So, I’ve been working from home today, but I’ve also gone to see a school that my son may start in next September. So, we went to do a school visit, which was quite challenging. Three, 400 school kids, me, my guide dog, and my wife, we have a buggy with a three month old looking at prospective schools. I actually know a lot of work around the UK. I talk about diversity inclusion. I do motivational speaking. I do a lot of corporate events talking about how disability connects you up, your workforce never dismiss someone because of their disability.
Dr. Amit Patel:
The way I think about something is completely different to the way an enabled person thinks about something. Tap into this, and not all disabled people sit at home all day. A lot of us have careers. We have experiences. We have skills, and the workforce needs to tap into it. So, there’s a lot of work. There’s a trip coming up. We’re going out to the States, actually, going to New York in about three weeks time for a couple of conferences, a couple of talks. So, it’s just busy. Constantly busy.
Jeff Thompson:
Are you still doing the doctor stuff?
Dr. Amit Patel:
I’m not practicing. I’m still interested in everything that goes on, but you never know. In a couple of years might go back.
Jeff Thompson:
Well, when your kids catch a cold or something, I’m sure.
Dr. Amit Patel:
I will fix up a finger. I will suture. I will do all of that, no problem at all. I can do that with my eyes closed, but practicing in a hospital, give it a couple of years.
Jeff Thompson:
That’s interesting. When you say, I can do that with my eyes closed. I mean I used to use that statement. I could do that with my eyes closed, well, I’m doing it.
Dr. Amit Patel:
Yep. That’s it.
Jeff Thompson:
Well, that’s really something. I mean to think, where you’ve come in such a short amount of time, and getting involved, and I think as you said before, once you got your cane, you were out. You got out of that comfort zone of your own home, but you went out, and I think meeting up with other blind people, and injecting yourself into the arena, the workforce, the organizations that are helping the blind, and just talking to other peers in the blindness community really keeps you out there.
Dr. Amit Patel:
Oh, absolutely. I had no experience about sight loss, if I went through it. So, to talk to other people who’ve gone through it, or who are going through it, and that we can go through it together, and actually support each other. I think that’s a huge thing. It’s a simple thing.
Dr. Amit Patel:
It’s how do you make a cup of coffee in the morning? Do you pick finger in the cup? Do you burn your finger every day? I didn’t know there was anything like liquid level indicator, which you pop into your cup and it starts beeping. It’s small things. It’s finding the supports. It’s getting people… It’s when someone turns around and says, “Oh, Amit, have you tried it this way?” Oh yeah, it’s changed my life forever. It’s the small things. Once you start learning the small things… Because losing my sights, I felt I had to start all over again. Even walking in a straight line when I lost my sights. You forget about what you do when you’re sighted.
Dr. Amit Patel:
You wake up in the morning, you get up, you do what you want. When you’re visually impaired, it’s a little bit more difficult. You have to think about everything. Everything has to be in its right place. But to have people around me to say, “Well, we’ve been there. Don’t why. You’ll get through this.” Or, “This is the people you need to contact. These are people you need to get help from.” And the reason I do all of my campaigning is because we’ve been through all of this and we’ve had barriers and hurdles which we’ve had to overcome, and sometimes these barriers and hurdles don’t really need to be there. Sometimes it’s a little bit difficult getting the help you need. So we work a lot with organizations to make things a little bit more streamlined, a little bit easier.
Jeff Thompson:
You make a great point about organize; things should be where you expect them to be. And that was one of the toughest things for me to realize that just being near is not good enough. Just like using GPS to get to a location gets you close, gets you pretty close. But even when you set something down, like a twisty tie around a bag where the bread comes in, that thing can disappear in seconds.
Dr. Amit Patel:
Absolutely. Do you know what? That used to frustrate me. I used to get so frustrated when I couldn’t do the simple things. And you forget in our house we have our own way of doing things. I remember when I lost my sight, my mom used to come around and say, “Oh I’ll move the coffee pot over here and I’ll put the sugar over here.” And I have to say to her, “Mom, you can’t clean my house. You can’t move things around because I’ll just never find it again.” It’s funny that people walk into my house expecting to see modifications, handrails or… I don’t know what people expect to see, but they say to me, “Oh it doesn’t look like a blind person who lives here.”
Jeff Thompson:
I wonder what that really looks like.
Dr. Amit Patel:
Well, this is it. My house is clean because it has to be because everything has its place. Everything goes back in its place. We have lots of photos on our walls. We have lots of memories everywhere from our holidays. But people, I don’t know, I think they think going into a blind person’s house that the walls are bare. There’s nothing coordinated. And it’s funny when we have these conversations. They’re like, “Oh, your cushions match the sofa.” Oh, okay. That’s nice. But yeah, they forget that my wife could see.
Jeff Thompson:
You’ve had to accept it at some point because there’s some major steps that a lot of people think about in their lifetime as a blind person. Should I have kids or not? But now you’re a dad. I mean, your Twitter handle-
Dr. Amit Patel:
Blind dad UK. Yeah.
Jeff Thompson:
Blind Dad UK.
Dr. Amit Patel:
BlindDad_UK. Do you know what? When me and my wife got married we were talking about family and all of that got put on hold when I lost my sights. We thought I could barely look after myself, let alone look after a kid. It was only after I got my guide dog, Kicker, that she kind of got me back to where I was before sight loss. She gave me that confidence. We’re working a lot more. That genuine smile came back on my face. Before we knew it we’re expecting a baby. It was a bit of a surprise, but a good surprise because it was one of those things that if it happens it happens. We weren’t trying, but for us the timing was good and we’ve recently just had our second baby.
Dr. Amit Patel:
But the amazing thing was that my guide dog was actually in the delivery room in the hospital when both were born with is fantastic. She kept my wife calm throughout the labor and my three year old was actually in the hospital room when my three month old was born. And my guide dog and my three year old was sat in a corner holding each other. So it’s funny how sometimes you can plan your life out. It doesn’t always go the way you planned. Sometimes it goes exactly how we plan. We kind of went with the flow and it seemed to work. I haven’t been more happy than I am right now. I don’t think I used to appreciate everything around me when I was sighted. You just get on with things, but being visually impaired, I kind of appreciate so much more and I love being [inaudible].
Jeff Thompson:
It is a huge change of perspective, isn’t it?
Dr. Amit Patel:
Absolutely. As I said, you have your good days, you have your bad days, but you have those if you’re sighted. I have a few more challenges if you’re visually impaired, but there’s nothing you can’t achieve. I think you kind of put your own barriers in front of you. Sometimes you just need that motivation or you will get there eventually. Everything takes time. And I think a lot people push themselves too quickly as well. And they want to achieve everything very, very quickly when they’ve lost their sight. They want to learn braille. They want to learn to use a white cane, but you kind of need to start walking again, start getting back on your feet again, accepting that you’ve lost your sights before you can actually take everything else in.
Jeff Thompson:
Experience is a great teacher.
Dr. Amit Patel:
Absolutely.
Jeff Thompson:
Following you on Twitter and you announced that you just finished the cover for a new book that’ll be coming out next year.
Dr. Amit Patel:
Yes. That’s the exciting part. Yeah. So we’re hoping to release in Febuary, 2020 and it’s basically just the story of my life from when I was a kid to where I am now and how we’ve got here, how different life is. But the great thing about the book is it’s not just from my perspective, my wife actually writes a chapter in the book actually saying how difficult it was for her when I lost my sight. And I think that will resonate with a lot of people because it doesn’t have to just be sightless, it could be anything traumatic in someone’s life. And there’s not just them it affects, but it’s the family. And people forget about that.
Dr. Amit Patel:
When I used to go anywhere, everybody used to say, “Oh, how are you. Emmett? How are you doing?” Everybody forget about how is my wife’s doing. So we put a chapter in the book. Hopefully that will just give people that motivation just to kind of hang on. Things take time and time is a great healer, but you need a rock when you’re going through anything traumatic and for me that was my wife.
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah, I know a three year old realize that your eyes different?
Dr. Amit Patel:
Yes. When he was born I did kind of think how am I going to change nappies? How am I going to be able to take him to nursery? How am I going to take him out and about? How am I going to be a dad? Is what I was thinking. But you know what? He was born after I lost my sight. So he doesn’t know any different. He doesn’t know his daddy could see before. He just knows daddy does things in a certain way. And we realized very, very quickly that when I would change his nappies or diapers, he wouldn’t fight it. He would just lay there, let me change it, let me change his clothes. No problem at all.
Dr. Amit Patel:
When my wife tried to do it, it was different. When anybody sighted tried to do it he was different. Even now when we’re out and about. I take him to nursery every morning and he’ll hold my hand and he’ll tell me when a curb’s coming up, he will stay very close to me. But when it’s my wife, he’d want to be a couple of meters ahead because he’s a big boy now. He can walk by himself. He doesn’t need to hold mommy’s hand. And he does act completely that way. When he wants to put his shoes on in the morning he will give them to me in my hand. He won’t just say, here’s my shoes, help me put them on. Where he’s completely different to someone who’s sighted. And he’s always done that. He’s taken a huge weight off us because he’s just adapted and it’s fantastic that way.
Jeff Thompson:
Oh that’s really something. For some reason I reflected back to the guy that took your cane and threw it on to the railroad track, that that guy had a total different experience in life.
Dr. Amit Patel:
Yeah, absolutely. But we’re at the stage now where everything is why. “Daddy, why? Mommy, why?”
Jeff Thompson:
Oh, geez.
Dr. Amit Patel:
Yes. And unfortunately at the moment, access refusals to department stores, to shops, to taxis with a guide dog is quite difficult. Even though the law states that we can take our assistance animals anywhere, we get refused quite a lot. I’ve been refused quite a few times in the last couple of weeks. But I’m hoping my son’s never with me because the one conversation I don’t want to have with him is when we get refused into a shop, it’s for him to say, why daddy? Why can’t we go in there like everybody else?
Dr. Amit Patel:
And the hard question is, what do I say to him? It’s because your dad is blind. We’ve got Kicker the guide dog. So we haven’t quite grasped that. He thinks that daddy does everything as a blind person, but I’m still his dad. He doesn’t see any difference. But it’s going to be a time very soon where he’ll say, well, daddy you can’t see, can you? Because I don’t think he’s quite understood that I can’t see, which is quite strange. Yeah. That’s going to be a great conversation.
Jeff Thompson:
And then there’s going to be when he starts to see society’s limited expectations of his dad.
Dr. Amit Patel:
Yes, that’s it.
Jeff Thompson:
But you had to be strong enough and willing enough to put yourself out there to show up at these possible situations and challenge that and face them. And we can’t just shy away and say society doesn’t want me part of this part of the world or something.
Dr. Amit Patel:
Oh absolutely. I’m out there. I’m trying to spread the word, the message that being blind doesn’t stop you from being who you are, that you should never stop you from doing what you want to do in life. There’s always going to be hurdles. There’s always going to be barriers. There’s always going to be someone silly to say something ridiculous. Because when my son was born the same day, someone said to me, “I didn’t realize blind people could have kids.” And this is a society, we kind of have to integrate into as vision impaired people and we just have to be the bigger person. And sometimes I have to bite my tongue and not say something I want to say and just walk away.
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah. There’s another doctor in the UK I interviewed was Dr. Amy Kavanaugh and she’s started that campaign. What was it?
Dr. Amit Patel:
Don’t grab.
Jeff Thompson:
Just ask, don’t grab.
Dr. Amit Patel:
Yep.
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah. And that got a lot of traction going around. You got to keep that momentum going on that because it hasn’t changed today.
Dr. Amit Patel:
Absolutely.
Jeff Thompson:
I’ve got a question for you. As someone who just went through losing eyesight, adjusted to it and now out there campaigning, what advice would you have for… we call them transition students in the States here for when they’re going from high school to college or university and to the workplace, but mostly it’s a transition into adjusting to your blindness and bringing it into the workplace.
Dr. Amit Patel:
Yeah, Well, one, you don’t have to go through it on your own. If you’re transitioning. I think it’s great to get the experience from someone who’s done it before. And also it’s so easy to say don’t stress. Don’t worry about it too much because I think we’re afraid of what we don’t know. And sometimes it could be easier when you’re moving from school to school, you may meet that right person who can inspire, you might have the right teachers who can inspire, who can give you help, but never… I think never be afraid to ask for help. I think that’s the biggest thing. I think people don’t ask for help enough, and there’s plenty of people out there to help. I bet lots of people are willing to help, as well. So I think that’s my advice. Just don’t feel you have to do it by yourself.
Jeff Thompson:
That’s great advice. Just like when someone shows you a shortcut on the iPhone or something, when you’re swiping around-
Dr. Amit Patel:
That’s it. That’s exactly it.
Jeff Thompson:
… that are doing six things, and you can do it down to one move. It’s like, “Hey, I like it. I like it.” And that’s how training is, too. Just like the cane, just like going from cane to a guide dog. It’s a different type of world for you and yet you can’t do one without… You have to go through that process in that order, too.
Dr. Amit Patel:
Yes.
Jeff Thompson:
So Dr. Amit Patel, I really want to thank you for coming onto Blind Abilities and sharing with the listeners your story, your journey. Hopefully we get to see you back in a Toyota again, and we’re looking forward to your book coming out in February.
Dr. Amit Patel:
Lovely. Thank you so much.
Jeff Thompson:
All right, well thank you for taking the time and being willing to do this.
Dr. Amit Patel:
My pleasure.
Jeff Thompson:
Thank you. And you and your family have a great day and take care.
Dr. Amit Patel:
You too. Bye.
Jeff Thompson:
Bye, bye.
Mark:
Gas, gas, gas, gas. Come on! Get in!
Speaker 4:
The GT 86 drives in a straight line along the track. Dr. Amit Patel lost his sight in 2013. He was forced to give up his career as an emergency first response driver. He hasn’t been behind the wheel of a car since. Until now. Amit along with his instructor, Mark, approaches the car in slow motion. Amit is then seen at the wheel of the car, which is parked.
Dr. Amit Patel:
I see the world completely differently to how I did as a sighted person. It took me a while to actually realize that I lost my sight.
Speaker 4:
Amit is sitting in front of the parked car addressing the camera.
Dr. Amit Patel:
I don’t think I wanted to believe it for a while. I just thought because it went so quickly, it might come back, but when you’re desperate, you kind of hold on to everything. It’s been six years or so, since I’ve been behind the wheel of a car. It’s funny how quickly things get back to you. You know the sound of the engine, the gear changes, the clutch, the brake, but then driving and not knowing where you’re driving, that’s the insane part.
Speaker 4:
Amit, practices his lap while instructor Mark provides information regarding the roots.
Dr. Amit Patel:
All I’m focused on is the instructions from my left-hand side.
Mark:
Cover the gas, the gas, the gas. Gas, gas, gas, gas.
Dr. Amit Patel:
I’m just purely concentrating on what Mark, is saying.
Mark:
Off the breaks. Turn in.
Dr. Amit Patel:
I kind of forget that I can’t see.
Speaker 4:
We see the GT86 spin 180 degrees off the circuit’s main street.
Dr. Amit Patel:
It’s crazy just to think that I’m actually doing this, and I’ve got an amazing instructor beside me who kind of has to be a bit nutty to do what he’s doing.
Speaker 4:
Amit, walks alongside the car, feeling its shape.
Dr. Amit Patel:
Being on the Top Gear test track, driving the GT86, dream come true. You always imagine doing this in a reasonably fast car. You watch Top Gear and you kind of think, “Oh, I can do better than that.” But the fact that I’m actually doing this, but doing this as a blind person is incredible.
Speaker 4:
Amit, on a practice lap, passes a number of parked airplanes.
Dr. Amit Patel:
There’s a guy sitting next to me knowing full well how far he can push me and knowing my ability. It’s absolutely mind-boggling that I’m actually here.
Speaker 4:
Amit, executes a number of maneuvers through a series of tight bends.
Dr. Amit Patel:
I came into this thinking if I can do two minutes thirty, that would be amazing. The fact that we’re doing it quicker than two minutes thirty, and we’re under the two minute mark, it’s fantastic. But I still reckon we can get faster than that. To be behind the engine of a fast car knowing full well I’m in control, it feels like I’m floating.
Speaker 4:
Amit, on his practice lap drives at speed along a strait.
Dr. Amit Patel:
I feel the engine. I feel the vibrations and do you know what? I feel powerful. I feel like I did when I was a teenager back in that car.
Speaker 4:
The GT86 slowly approaches a black and white hatch start and finish line before taking off at high speed to begin Amit’s timed lap.
Mark:
Change. Good. Tighter. That’s it. To the left.
Speaker 4:
During the lap the car turns into a number of tight corners and Amit, is shown turning the wheel and changing gear.
Dr. Amit Patel:
Driving the GT86 I can feel everything through my fingers, through my feet. I can hear the car, I can hear the engine, I can feel the power.
Speaker 4:
The GT86 crosses the finish line.
Mark:
Come on! Get in!
Speaker 5:
Time for the final run was 1:46.
Mark:
Amazing, mate. Really well done.
Speaker 4:
The sun sets on the circuit. The GT86 is parked on the finish line before Amit, addresses the camera once more in front of the car.
Dr. Amit Patel:
Blindness is always there. It’s always going to be in my life. But I don’t wake up in the morning and think, “Oh my God, I’m blind. What do I do?” I just get on with it. And it’s easy to say now, but believe me, five years ago it wasn’t.
Speaker 4:
Amit, is congratulated by his wife, Seema, son, Abby, and guide dog, Kika.
Dr. Amit Patel:
I have an amazing wife who put her arms around me. She gave me hugs when I needed it. She helped me up when I needed to get up, and she gave me the motivation. She gave me the love that got me to where I am. It’s made us who we are. And from that we have an amazing young son, two and a half year old. In my head, I can see a smile on his face. I hope he’s proud of what his dad’s achieved, but I don’t want him ever to grow up thinking that he’s not able to do this. If anything, I want him to grow up and think being blind hasn’t stopped my dad from achieving things. You know, we’d do it differently, but we do it together and that’s what it’s all about.
Speaker 4:
The caption reads, start your impossible.
Mark:
Go on, hit the gas. Over to finish. Come on! Get in!
Jeff Thompson:
For more podcasts with the blindness perspective, check us out on the web at www.blindabilities.com. On Twitter @BlindAbilities. A big shout-out to CheeChau for his beautiful music. You can follow CheeChau on Twitter @LCheeChau. Thanks for listening. We hope you enjoyed, and until next time, bye bye.
[Music] [Transition noise] -When we share
-What we see
-Through each other’s eyes…
[Multiple voices overlapping, in unison, to form a single sentence]
…We can then begin to bridge the gap between the limited expectations, and the realities of Blind Abilities.
Jeff Thompson:
For more podcasts with the blindness perspective:
Check us out on the web at www.BlindAbilities.com On Twitter @BlindAbilities
Download our app from the App store:
‘Blind Abilities’; that’s two words.
Or send us an e-mail at:
Thanks for listening.
Contact Your State Services
If you reside in Minnesota, and you would like to know more about Transition Services from State Services contact Transition Coordinator Sheila Koenig by email or contact her via phone at 651-539-2361.
To find your State Services in your State you can go to www.AFB.org and search the directory for your agency.
Contact:
Thank you for listening!
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On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com
Send us an email
Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Storeand Google Play Store.
Check out the Blind Abilities Communityon Facebook, the Blind Abilities Page, the Career Resources for the Blind and Visually Impairedand the Assistive Technology Community for the Blind and Visually Impaired.