Charlie Hughes’ fundraiser walk from Nanango to Brisbane

A young man, “stripped of his life” the day he received a rare diagnosis, has an inspiring plan to raise awareness and funds for people battling blindness in the bush before his own sight runs out.

A courageous, blind young man from Nanango is preparing himself to trek 230 km from Nanango to Brisbane, with the goal of raising funds and awareness towards regional blindness healthcare.

A young Queensland man’s life was “taken in one day”, when doctors told him he would soon be blind.

Now, he is training to walk more than 200km from the South Burnett to Brisbane to raise awareness about the limited facilities and support available for blind people in the bush.

Charlie Hughes, moved from Caboolture to Nanango in 2019 to work as a forklift driver but in January 2020 his life plans changed drastically as he was diagnosed with Retinitis pigmentosa (RP).

The 33-year-old was surprised to fail his employer’s vision test and referred to a specialist in Brisbane, who delivered the devastating news.

“They took everything off me that day; my work, my driver's licence and I could no longer play cricket,” Mr Hughes said.

Mr Hughes is planning to walk from Nanango to Coorparoo in November 2023.

“For the next six months, I went into depression mode and shut off from all of my friends and family.

“I stopped playing sport, ate unhealthy food and gained a lot of weight.

“It is a genetic, degenerative disease and I could wake up totally blind any morning now.”

Mr Hughes said his social worker Timothy Walsh helped improve his mental state by reintroducing him to regular physical exercise.

“I have started walking further every day and have set myself the challenge of walking from Nanango to the Vision Australia HQ in Coorparoo,” Mr Hughes said.

“I want to prove that people with blindness can achieve anything they want and can do the same things as the average person.

“I have 30 per cent of my sight left, I want to do this now and see as much as I can,” he said.

He will begin the journey on November 11, 2023, and plans to arrive in Brisbane by November 17, 2023.

“There are no doctors or specialists in the region and I hope that changes,” Mr Hughes said.

“I want to raise as many funds for Vision Australia as I can.

Mr Walsh said this grand goal had given Mr Hughes life purpose.

Mr Walsh said preparing for this tremendous challenge has given Mr Hughes' life a new purpose.

“We will be training daily for the next two months, Mr Walsh said.

“We started off by doing 1 or 2 km walks and yesterday he completed 19km with another client of mine who has epilepsy,” he said.

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If you would like to donate to Mr Hughes’ fundraiser click here.