Blind courage drives pairs tilt

Lorin (left) and Dean Nicholson.

TWO blind brothers will appeal to the Sunshine Coast tonight to help them in a world first – to ride 4000km across Australia.

Lorin Nicholson and brother Dean hope to raise $300,000 in the month-long “Blind Courage” tandem bicycle project behind pilot cyclists, which they say equals one dollar for every vision impaired person in the country.

Lorin, an acclaimed country singer, will perform at the Caloundra RSL tonight and speak with patrons about his trek which starts from Perth later this month.

The 47-year-old husband and father-of-four suffers from retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic birth disease that was a complete shock to his family.

Younger brother Dean and younger sister Louise were also born with the same disease. Their eyesight is less than 10% each.

Three other siblings have perfect eyesight and do not even wear glasses.

“We were taught to ignore to some degree the belief that just because we were blind didn’t mean that we couldn’t do it,” Mr Nicholson said.

The Nicholson brothers will join 2009 Australian masters track cycling bronze medallist John Eder and mountain biker Grant Williams on the month-long adventure from Perth to Sydney.

All money on the fundraiser that starts on March 29 will go towards Vision Australia.

All raffle proceeds from tonight’s performance, starting at 6pm, will go towards the Blind Courage project.

For more information, go to www.blindcourage.com.