Running For the Visually Impaired with Eavan O'Neill

Wild Ideas Worth Living

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4.7 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 5 December 2023

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Eavan O'Neill started running at 21 years old when she was diagnosed with Stargardt Disease, a rare degenerative disorder that leads to visual impairment and blindness. Although there is currently no cure and she can't slow the progression of her symptoms, Eavan leans into running as an incredible source of joy, and a powerful way to connect with the running community.

Transcript

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0:00.0	That's how I see the world now is through running and races, even though I'm not able to see my surroundings as perfectly as I might be able to if I had 20-20 vision. I feel like I'm seeing with like, this is so
0:17.3	cliche, but like my heart, I'm running, my body's pumping, it's working and I don't really need my eyes for that. I have everything else.
0:29.2	Evan O'Neill didn't start running until 2020 when she was 21 years old. It was the same year she was
0:35.2	diagnosed with stargart disease, a rare degenerative disorder that leads to visual impairment
0:41.2	and blindness. Evan describes her vision as a cake
0:44.7	that someone has punched a hole in the middle of. The center of her field of vision
0:48.6	is empty, while her peripheral vision is clearer. There's no cure for Stargart disease and there's
0:54.5	nothing Evan can do to slow the progression of her symptoms. To help cope with
0:58.7	her diagnosis, Evan took up running. She started with just a few miles,
1:03.4	and it quickly became an incredible lifeline
1:05.7	and source of joy.
1:07.8	Soon, Evan had multiple races under her belt,
1:10.6	and earlier in 2003, she ran one of the most famous marathons in the world.
1:15.0	I'm Shelby Stanger and this is wild ideas worth living
1:19.0	an REI co-op Studios production.
1:28.0	Evan O'Neill, welcome to Wild Ideas Worth Living. Thank you, Shelby. I'm psyched to be here.
1:31.0	I'm excited to talk to you. I mean, I think most of us take for granted the fact that you know
1:35.8	we can see here feel taste touch and in 2020 you were diagnosed with StarGart
1:42.0	disease which I understand from my limited
1:44.4	knowledge that it means you're losing your vision but you're still running which is
1:49.1	awesome yes talk to me a little bit about first kind of what happened.
1:54.6	Yeah, sure.
	...

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