James’s run for a brighter future

My name is James Kwinecki. I lost my vision at the age of 21 to a rare genetic disease called Leber’s Hereditary Optic Neuropathy. Since then, I’ve been learning how to live life as a person who is legally blind. I have no visual acuity and can only see shadows. With this fundraiser, I want to highlight two things that have really helped me on my sight loss journey: physical activity and the Canadian National Institute for the Blind. The sport of running has helped my mental health by giving me autonomy and community. With this fundraiser I want to bring awareness to the importance of people with sight loss participating in physical activities. 

Sight loss is a spectrum and looks very different depending on the person. For me, I am able to train mostly independently by running on familiar routes and using tracks. I rely on guides from the community to support me in races like the marathon. I recognize that many people experiencing vision loss require a guide when running at all times. Because of this, I want to bring awareness to the importance of sighted individuals being guides in their community! 

The Canadian National Institute for the Blind is a great place to connect with if you are visually impaired or thinking of being a guide. If you aren’t big on running, you can still volunteer as a vision mate and offer sighted support in other ways. 

Your donation today will go towards youth programming across British Columbia. It’s important because I know first hand how critical these resources and programs are. Losing your sight can be overwhelming and scary but with a community like the CNIB to go to my hope is that young people like my 21 year old self will feel supported and excited about the future!