Charity worker hails guide dog for giving her new life
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Lisa Halley carefully inchednched her way to the top of a New York skyscraper – climbing up the outside of it to a dizzying 1200 feet above the busy streets below.
And then she planted both feet on top, a wide smile on her face.
It was yet another hair-raising challenge completed by this astonishing 33-year-old woman – and all the more incredible because she is almost totally blind and profoundly deaf.
But she has not let her disabilities stop her from taking on breathtaking feats that would leave millions with sight and hearing weak at the knees.
From skydiving to wing-walking – and becoming the first deaf-blind student to graduate from a British university – there has been no holding her back. So becoming the first deaf-blind person to climb New York’s Edge skyscraper in February, the world’s highest open- air bui lding ascent, was al l in a day’s adventuring for defiant Lisa.
“All my life I’ve been told what I can’t do,” she said. “Try telling me that now and I’ll prove you wrong.”
She told how her life has been changed forever by her best friend – a guide dog called Jumble.
Lisa said: “She has given me the confidence to do anything. I still can’t believe what I have achieved in the seven years since I got her. Jumble gave me a reason to live.” Lisa, f r om Dundee, had grown up pr ofou nd l y deaf – but, at 22 in 2011, she wa s diagnosed with incurable rare genetic disease Usher’s Syndrome, which meant she would lose her sight too.
Lisa said: “When I was diagnosed, I was in a really dark place. To find out I was going blind as well was terrifying. At first I was told I couldn’t go to university, I couldn’t travel, I’d lose my eyesight and that was that. There was no support, just a shut door. When I asked the consultant what I could do, he gave me a piece of paper with the word ‘ Sense’ on it, a charity that might help.”
Her diagnosis coincided with the loss of her beloved grandad Michael at 78. She said: “He always told me I’d be the first person in the family to go to university and one day I’d be able to hear birds singing.
“I got cochlear implants just after he died, which I turned on by his grave. The first noise I heard was birdsong. In his memory, I swore I’d go to uni.”
With her sight deteriorating, Lisa passed a Higher National Diploma but was determined it wouldn’t be the end of her educational road.
She had already started showing her determination to travel and her head for heights – completing a hands- free circular skywalk around the 1815ft-high CN Tower in Toronto while volunteering at the Pan Am Games in July 2015 and taking a chopper trip of the Niagara Falls.
Back home, she was accepted for a one-year Ahead course to prepare her for a full psychology undergraduate course at Dundee’s Abertay University.
A month after starting it in 2016, Lisa decided it was time to contact Sense and met guide dog Jumble.
She said: “Almost overnight the world was mine again. She became my eyes, my ears. She protects me every day. She gave me my independence back and we started a whole new chapter in my life.”
Lisa has since been wing-walking and parasailing. She’s trekked the Grand Canyon and abseiled off the Forth Bridge. She’s gone husky-sledding in Sweden and volunteering has taken her to tennis’s Davis Cup and the Commonwealth Games.
“The world is so big, I wanted to see as much of it as I could before I go into my darkness,” she said. “I have lost over 90 per cent of my sight. If I’m walking through crowds, it is like coloured balls being thrown at me as I can’t see bodies, only the colour of clothes.
“I’ve no peripheral vision. I don’t know when it’ll go completely, so I’m determined to complete my wish list. I guess I’ve a bucket list of sorts, knowing the clock’s ticking, but it’s not a sad thing, I want to inspire others.”
Apart from her daredevil side, Lisa has also become a fitness fan. She said: “I’d never run before in my life but, with Jumble, I had the confidence to buy my first pair of trainers. I’ve completed the Glasgow half-marathon and charity runs.”
For her dissertation at university, Lisa wrote about the impact guide dogs can have on mental health.
One of her ambitions is to appear on TV with Jumble to help boost support for people with her disabilities. Her telly hero was dog lover Paul O’Grady and she was stunned by his death after meeting him at Edinburgh Playhouse in March. She said: “He saw Jumble and came to say hello. It’s so sad. He was the nicest man.”
Lisa now works as a guide dog speaker, sharing her story in schools and businesses.
Jumble is due to retire in August and Lisa is on the waiting list for a new guide dog. She added: “Jumble’s retirement is terrifying but, for the life she’s given me, I feel so blessed.”
See guidedogs.org.uk for more details.