Blind Man Walking

The inspiring story of blind Irish athlete Mark Pollock's attempt to become the first blind person to race to the South Pole.

At the age of 22, Mark Pollock, a handsome young athlete and academic, suddenly lost his sight. He was plunged into darkness and depression but rebuilt his life over the next ten years.

On the tenth anniversary of his sight-loss he takes on the toughest challenge of his life in attempting to become the first blind man to race to the South Pole.

This documentary follows Mark for the year, throughout his training and his attempt to get to the South Pole. What unfolds is a highly personal, often emotional and ultimately uplifting story told against the epic backdrop of the Antarctic.

The film starts on the tenth anniversary of Mark losing his sight. He decides to take on a challenge that he finds truly inspirational, the South Pole Race. The race will involve skiing for up to 16 hours a day, pulling 70kg sledges, in temperatures as low as -50C, for over a month, completing around 1000km in the process. All of this takes place in the coldest, highest, windiest environment on earth, Antarctica.

Over the course of the following 9 months, Mark must train harder than ever before and must raise the €150,000 entry fee. Blind Man Walking follows his story as he puts in the hours of training - involving heavy workouts in the gym and hours upon hours of dragging tyres in the Phoenix Park and on Dollymount Beach, and the great difficulty in raising the race entry fee as the recession closes in.

When the team get to Antarctica, the documentary tells of the immense pressure that the conditions exert on their bodies as they struggle for 16-hours a day to put one foot in front of another.