A blind man from Perthshire has successfully completed his Duke of Edinburgh gold award.
Will Kent, from Forgandenny, cycled, horse-rode and sword-fought his way to the award, which he received at a ceremony earlier in July.
The inspirational 21-year-old suffers from Stargardt disease, a genetic condition that affects the macula of the eye.
However, despite his loss of sight, it didn’t stop him achieving the award.
‘I’ve always enjoyed the outdoors’
Will said: “In terms of the expedition section, there weren’t really any adaptions for being blind or partially sighted, which was interesting at times.
“One aspect being that I had to look at the map and plot a route – I ended up leading my group far off-course.
“I’ve always enjoyed the outdoors so doing a Duke of Edinburgh Award was a good opportunity.
“When I completed my gold award, I was proud – but exhausted.
“I do a lot of walking with my dogs and walking on my own – a lot of people assume I’m not blind because I’ll walk anywhere, so much so my nickname is Strider.”
As part of the award, Will had to volunteer, pick up a physical activity and complete a residential section – which involves carrying out an activity with strangers.
This included horse riding, cycling and helping out at a dog shelter.
“I worked at a local dog shelter helping out where I could for my volunteering section, though the dogs were always misbehaving.”
Blind man sword-fights his way to Duke of Edinburgh gold
“For the residential aspect I struggled to find a place that would accept me and my sight loss.
“Eventually, I was able to go to the Ancient Technology Centre in Dorset, which was great.
“It involved fighting with swords, which I liked.”
Will has long enjoyed the outdoors.
However, at times this has almost got him into trouble.
“Before I was completely blind, me and my family climbed Snowdon mountain,” Will added.
“I saw a clear and snowy path that nobody else seemed to have noticed, so I went towards it.
“Suddenly, a hand grabbed me and yanked me back.
“As it turns out, it was a cloud!”
