“My blindness doesn’t confine me”

Mike Conyers featured in our very first edition of SNAP Matters back in 2017 as a Charity Champion raising an incredible £32,000 over 16 years.

Fast forward to 2024 and Mike has continued to go above and beyond for SNAP, pushing boundaries and taking on challenges that are not for the faint hearted. He has broken £50,000 in fundraising for the charity, now standing at £52,000 – a phenomenal sum that SNAP is incredibly grateful to Mike for raising.

By day, you’ll find Mike in Crushes Manor Clinic Brentwood, where he works as a Chartered Physiotherapist. He lost his sight at the age of 12 but that never stopped him.

Every day Mike proves that disability does not hold him back.

“I like to push myself. I like to demonstrate to people that my blindness doesn’t confine me. Many people have sight but not vision. You can see but you don’t have any sight.”

This belief has spurred Mike on to complete many challenges over the years. In 2021, he was awarded an MBE for his services to charity.

His latest challenge was the Dock2Dock, a swimming competition at London’s Royal Docks. He swam a mile (that’s 66 lengths of The Brentwood Centre pool!) in open water accompanied by his guide, Jenny Allan.

Mike joined Jenny in open water swimming two summers ago at Stubbers Activity Centre, Upminster. She guides Mike by swimming next to him and they talk to one another as they do breaststroke.

It was Jenny’s suggestion to take up a one-mile open water challenge, which to Mike sounded a long way! But Mike loves a challenge, so he thought “why not?” and they got to training! They’d swim for about an hour to an hour and a half without stopping and managed to complete a mile ahead of the event.

“On the day, there were several planes over from London City Airport so that was disconcerting and a bit disorientating. As we
headed into Victoria Dock, the water became very choppy with high winds and strong currents. I had to keep communicating with
Jenny and every time I opened my mouth, I got a mouth full of water which was quite challenging as it made me cough and  wheeze, but  we got there. We actually did it three minutes quicker than usual in 1 hour and 17 minutes. I can’t thank Jenny enough for her consistent encouragement and guidance. Hopefully Swim Serpentine will be our next challenge in 2025.”

SNAP’s Fundraising Manager, Sara, said, “Mike is an absolute superstar and the team at SNAP are awestruck by his incredible
achievements. What an inspiration! Thank you Mike and we can’t wait to hear about what you do next!”

If Mike has inspired you to take on a challenge in aid of SNAP, please contact the Fundraising Team on 01277 245345 or email [email protected].

Reaching new heights

Mike has completed lots of challenges for SNAP since 2001. He reflects on some of them.

The most exciting challenge

“It would either have to be the skydive from 10,000ft – I kept my eyes closed for that one! Or walking on hot coals, I got carried away with the adrenaline on that one and did it 3 times!”

The biggest challenge

“My biggest challenge has to be conquering Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. It took 4 days to get to get to the top. The last challenge from the base camp at 15,000ft, we had the effects of altitude sickness, shortness of breath and you challenge the escarpment and shale, at about -5°C.

“That last climb on Kilimanjaro was 80% mental endurance.

“I did some research after and only 30% of people actually get to the top. It’s mental endurance, that’s the biggest challenge.”

“We are capable of many things. We should push ourselves and demonstrate to others that we really are capable of doing lots of things.” – Mike