Don’t tell Rob

Matthews about
pain. He has
endured more than
we can imagine.

But don’t confuse

a lack of sight
with an absence
of vision.

The English
Paralympic legend
who found love
and purpose in
New Zealand, now
wants only two
things.

A place on our
team for Beijing.

And the right

answer to a
question he dares
not ask.

by: ROBERT TIGHE

pictures: AL GUTHRIE

28 29
 rob matthews blind faith
November 2003 had already been a bad month
for Rob Matthews. Quando, his guide dog for
the previous 11 years had died. Now his wife
was sick. Kath Matthews had been diagnosed
with post viral fatigue syndrome. On November
29 she spent most of the day vomiting and
went to bed that night in her mother’s room
while Rob slept in a spare room.
The next morning Kath’s mother found her
daughter on the floor. She had developed a
cyst on the third ventricle in her brain. She
was dead.
“The first I knew about it was when her Mum
came into my room and told me. After she
died, my immediate reaction was, ‘what’s the
point in anything? What’s the point in living?’
“She was a huge part of my life. We had
been married for nine years and we were best
friends. You think about committing suicide
because you want to be with her but she would
have killed me if I did that.
“They say that people who can handle it are
thrown a curveball and that was the hardest
thing I’ve ever had to deal with. It was certainly
more difficult than losing my sight.”
Aubrey and Patricia Matthews’ second child,
Robert was born in Kent in May 1961. The
Matthews’ were a typical middle class British
family. Well almost a typical family - Aubrey
Matthews was blind.
Rob’s father was born with a disease called
Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP). People with RP
experience a gradual decline in their vision.
It is typically diagnosed in adolescents and
young adults and it is progressive. The rate of
30
progression and degree of visual loss varies,
but most people with RP are legally blind by
the age of 40.
Aubrey Matthews developed the symptoms
earlier than most and started learning Braille
at the age of five. His son Rob was the only one
of his three children to inherit the RP gene and
he soon got used to the stares of strangers.
“I spent a lot of time in hospital with all
these doctors looking into my eyes,” explains
Matthews. “I was an interesting case apparently
but I felt like a guinea pig.”
Matthews was told by the specialists that he
wouldn’t go blind until he was in his 50s. The
specialists were wrong.
“I didn’t really think I was any different when
I was younger. I got dazzled in the sunshine,
but I could see a number plate from 25 metres,”
“i couldn’t see what the teacher was
writing on the blackboard and when
we played ball sports i played truant
because i couldn’t see the ball.”
says Matthews. “It
wasn’t until I went to
secondary school when
I was 11 that I started
to feel different.”
One of the doctors
described Rob’s vision
as like looking at a
jigsaw through a net
curtain with some of
the pieces missing.
As he got older the
curtain got thicker and
more and more pieces
of the puzzle started
to disappear.
“I couldn’t see what
the teacher was writing
on the blackboard and
when we played ball sports I played truant
because I couldn’t see the ball. I became more
reclusive and I didn’t want to draw attention
to myself.”
It must have been a frightening experience?
“Frightening isn’t an adjective I would use.
I felt sorry for myself. Why should I be blind
and my two sisters be fully sighted? But my
sight just kept deteriorating and I felt more
and more inadequate.”
At 16 Matthews changed schools and went
to a college for the blind, literally opening
his eyes to the reality of his situation. He met
people with less sight than him and he began
to accept that he was losing his. He also began
to play sport.
Matthews excelled at Goal Ball - a three-a-
side game played with a ball with bells in it
– and represented Great Britain at his first
Paralympics in Holland in 1980. He didn’t win
any medals but he did meet Jacques Pilon, a
blind Canadian athlete who inspired Matthews
to take up running.
“If he could do it, why couldn’t I? It was a
case of sink or swim really. I had just turned
20 and I had lost all useful sight by this
stage. I could have taken the easy decision
to vegetate and not do much with my life.
But that is when I discovered running. Before
I ran I was very shy and didn’t really know
anyone. When I started running I started
meeting people and it changed my way of
looking at life. I loved the feeling of speed
and freedom it gave me and it helped that I
was quite good at it.”
Matthews had tried running before and
failed. At a school sports meet he ran his
first 1500m race and lapped the entire field.
But halfway through a 400m race he lost his
bearings and almost ran into the water jump.
“That completely blew my confidence and
I stopped running. It was a fear of looking
stupid. Would I fall over? Would I make a
fool of myself? My sight was too broken
up and I thought that was the end of my
running career.”
It wasn’t. Soon after meeting Pilon at the
Paralympics, Matthews ran 4m 59s for the
1500m. Six months after he started taking
running seriously he ran 4m 29s to set his
first world record and at his first European
Championships, just over a year after he took
pictures: al guthrie
up the sport, he won gold in the 800m, 1500m
and 5000m.
In 1986 he became the first and only blind
athlete to break the two minute mark for
the 800m and his world record of 1m 59s
 rob matthews blind faith
still stands. Three years later he lowered
his world record for the 1500m to 4m 05s,
another record that hasn’t been broken.
When you consider the New Zealand blind
records for the 800m and 1500m are 2m 15s
and 4m 37s respectively, it gives you some
idea of his ability.
“Running has become a way of life,” explains
Matthews. “Running has taught me who I am.
Some mornings I can feel the sunshine on my
face and it feels good to be alive. It feels easy
and almost effortless.”
But it is when it isn’t easy, when it hurts like
hell that Matthews comes into his own.
“You get to a certain point in a race and you
are thinking about how much it is hurting. That
is the time you have to work hard and to push
through it and the last lap looks after itself.”
One of his most memorable last laps was at
the Sydney Paralympics in 2000. He had been
32
disqualified at the Atlanta games four years
before, when his guide finished the race just
ahead of him. But in Sydney, at the age of 39,
he bounced back to win his first Paralympics
gold for eight years in the 10,000m.
In front of a crowd of 30,000 at the Olympic
Stadium, Matthews and his guide Paul
Harwood produced a storming last lap to
move from fourth to first.
“I was fucked with five laps to go. That is the
technical term for being short of breath,” says
Matthews with a wry smile. “But Paul told me
to keep going. He knew if I was in contact with
two laps to go I’d have a chance. I moved into
3rd with 600m to go, up to 2nd with 400m to
go and we hit the front with 100m to go.”
Harwood and Matthews also won silver in
the 5,000m and the marathon, just rewards
for the years of hard work they had put
in together.
Matthews had been introduced to Harwood
in 1995 by his wife Kath who worked with
him at a local army training camp. Harwood
is an ultra marathon runner who regularly
competes in 100km-plus races and Kath asked
him if he would like to try running as a guide
with her husband. Though Harwood was 11
years younger than Matthews, the pair hit it
off almost instantly.
“He is a proper character,” says Harwood.
“I threw the rope at him now and again but
we never fell out and considering how much
time we spent with each other that is a pretty
big achievement.”
“He knows me better than I know myself,”
pictures: al guthrie
says Matthews. “He knows I am capable of
running faster than I think.
“He beats me along. He tells me to ‘get a
move on,’ and asks me, ‘how much do you
want it?”
“I don’t treat him any differently because
he is blind and I don’t consider it abuse. It is
running banter,” explains Harwood.
“I used to say ‘get going you leg iron’, or
when he stumbled during a run or something
I’d say ‘are you blind or what?’ I suppose it
was borderline abuse but it wasn’t meant in
any derogatory way. And he gives me as much
stick as I give him.”
When Kath died, it was Harwood who helped
Matthews through the pain.
“Paul came to see me a few days later and
we went for a run and that was so cathartic,”
says Matthews. “We talked about Kath ad
infinitum. I had to stop sometimes because
I couldn’t breathe but running really helped.
I felt more sympathy for Kath’s Mum. She
had lost her husband a few years earlier
and then lost her child. I had lost Kath who
was the most important person in my life
but even though I thought it was unlikely,
there was a possibility that I could meet
someone else. Kath’s Mum could never get
another daughter.”
Did he dare to dream that four years later he
would be living on the other side of the world,
married to a New Zealander and holding his
newborn baby boy in his hands?
“No way. I didn’t think I’d find another Kath
and I haven’t found another Kath. But I have
been lucky enough to find my soul mate and
the love of my life.”
After a few scary speed dating experiences
in England, Matthews came to New Zealand
in February last year to visit a friend. And it
was through a friend of a friend that Matthews
met Auckland interior designer Sarah Kerr at
Soul Bar in Auckland’s Viaduct.
The day before they met, Kerr was in Tirau
rummaging through antique shops when she
rob matthews blind faith
found an old fob watch from the turn of the
century. Kerr considers herself a logical person
but she felt compelled to buy this watch for
reasons she couldn’t understand.
“It cost me $1000 and though I didn’t have
anyone to buy it for at the time I knew I had
to have it. The craziest thing about it was, that
it was a Braille watch. I bought it and met Rob
the very next day.”
“It was an instant attraction,” says Kerr. “It
was bizarre. It was like we had always known
each other. As soon as I met him, I knew and
he knew. We just didn’t stop talking.”
In fact they were so busy talking that Kerr,
who had a weekly interior design show on
Radio Live at the time, invited Matthews to be
her guest on her show the next morning so
she could spend more time with him.
“I had nothing prepared for my radio
programme so I asked him to come on and
33
 rob matthews blind faith
help me pad it out. Rob came on and talked
about doing up his kitchen. And my Mum rang
me after the show and asked me, ‘who was
that guy you were flirting with on air?’”
Within three months that guy was her
fiancé. Matthews moved to New Zealand in
July 2006 and they got married in February
2007. Matthews had no qualms about leaving
England behind.
“I didn’t have any ties at home. Sarah said
she would be willing to move to England but I
felt it would be easier for me to move here.”
Running has helped make it easier. In July
last year he contacted the YMCA running club
in Auckland and they invited him along to a
club night at Mt Smart Stadium.
It was there he met his newest batch of guide
runners including Cameron Watts, Dave Lear,
Brent Foster and Andy Harper. Matthews has
had over 100 guide runners but Watts is the
only blind man to fill the role. Watts installs
blinds for a living so it is a classic case of the
blind leading the blind.
“I was just curious,” explains Watts about
the reason he offered to guide Matthews. “Rob
is about the same height as me and he has a
similar stride. And I don’t do anything weird
with my left arm which is good.”
Watts holds an eight inch rope in his left hand
while Matthews holds on to the other end with
his right. Obviously the guide runner needs to
“i choose not to let my disability stop me from
doing anything. i tend to have the attitude that
i am not blind, i just can’t see. yes it is a pain in
the arse but it is a disability with a small d.”
be fit enough to keep up with Matthews but
there are other important considerations.
“A good guide runner is someone who
is confident running with me, who is not
hesitant, who can communicate with me and
run in synchronisation,” explains Matthews.
“It takes about four sessions to develop an
understanding but I can tell after one session
if it is not going to work out. I went for a
run with a guide a few years ago and in the
space of 200 metres I fell off a curb, ran into
a lamppost and through a fence. I knew we
didn’t have much of a future together.”
Watts isn’t too stressed about running into
things with Matthews.
“Cam doesn’t give a shit. His mentality is
that if I run into anything then it is tough luck
34
as long as he doesn’t,” jokes Matthews.
Watts agrees it is survival of the fittest.
“My theory is that he is blind and he wants to
run as fast as he can so I am not going to beat
myself up if he whacks into anything. He has
run into a few fences but he has the stumble
down to a fine art.”
The pair ran the 2006 Auckland marathon
in just over three hours and while they get on
really well, realistically Matthews needs faster
guide runners if he wants to get to Beijing.
“Cam doesn’t have the necessary track
experience at the moment,” explains Matthews.
“He has never run a 1500m but I come into my
own on the track. I know what I am doing. I can
handle the pain because I’ve done it before.”
There isn’t a lot Matthews hasn’t done and he
doesn’t consider his blindness a disability.
“I think disability is in the eye of the
beholder. I choose not to let my disability stop
me from doing anything. I tend to have the
attitude that I am not blind, I just can’t see.
Yes it is a pain in the arse but it is a disability
with a small d.”
His blindness hasn’t stopped him doing
much. Matthews has cross-country skied
in Norway, cycled thousands of kilometres
through France and Ireland, driven a racing
car around Brands Hatch at 80km/h, and
played Judo, cricket and football.
Future ambitions include running a marathon
across the Sahara and at the North Pole, while
triathlon is another sport he is keen to have
a crack at. Matthews is a qualified sports
massage therapist but since his move to New
Zealand he has carved out a new career as a
motivational speaker.
He has talked at school functions, the
University of Auckland Blues awards at
Government House, a Breast Cancer Trust
fundraiser and various other functions.
A medal for New Zealand at the Beijing
Paralympics in September would give him
plenty more speaking material.
Matthews hopes to compete in the 1500m
and 5000m in Beijing and to do that he needs
to achieve the qualifying standard by July. To
have a realistic chance of another medal, he
reckons he needs to run under 4m 10s for the
1500m before then.
If he does make it to Beijing and wants to
add another gold medal to his collection, he
will have to figure out a way to beat Henry
Wanyoike or Henry Bloody One-Eye as Kerr
calls him.
Wanyoike is a Kenyan runner who beat
Matthews into second place in the 5,000m
in Sydney and won gold in the 5,000m and
10,000m in Athens in 2004. While there are
no doubts that he is a talented athlete, Henry
One-Eye has been the subject of much debate
amongst the Paralympics community.
“My guide runners at Sydney and Athens
know a thing or two about what a blind runner
should look like and they are all pretty certain
he has some useful vision,” says Matthews.
“He was running perfect lines and pulling his
guide at the same time. When they crossed the
finish line his guide collapsed in a heap and he
danced around him, ran to the outside of the
track, jumped over a speaker and grabbed a
flag off someone.
“But what can you do? He hasn’t been caught
yet so you have to be philosophical about it.”
Matthews and his wife are also philosophical
about the chance of their baby inheriting RP.
On October 24 this year in Auckland Hospital,
after a 17-hour labour, Rob and Sarah become
the proud parents of Thomas Matthews.
He is a perfectly normal healthy baby, the
spitting image of his father, and there are no
indications yet that he will lose his sight like
his father and grandfather before him.
“There is a blood test we can do to find out if
he has the faulty gene and we will go and see
the specialist this year but we are not really
thinking about it too much,” says Matthews.
“It is a dominant gene which means there is
a 50-50 chance of passing it on to our baby,”
says Kerr.
“My gut feeling is that everything is fine but
we will just have to wait and see. We decided
if we conceived naturally then we would take
the risk. Rob’s an impressive man and his
father was too. Nothing has stopped Rob in
his life.
“And if Thomas does inherit RP then I can’t
think of a better man to help him through it.”
If you are interested in becoming a guide
picture: al guthrie
runner to help Rob qualify for Beijing you can
contact him through his website:
www.robmatthewsmbe.com