Strongman Chris Colbert, a student at The Royal National College for the Blind (RNC) has launched a bid to help fellow visually impaired young people.
Chris, 19 from Doncaster, was registered blind at the age of 4 due to a genetic condition, Leber’s Congenital Amaurosis.
He is due to compete in the contest for England’s Most Powerful Man 2020’ and is using his training goals to raise funds for the vital upgrade of the RNC’s on-site student gym.
The gym is specially adapted for use by visually impaired students at the College for their general fitness as well as those studying for sports and personal trainer qualifications.
Chris is studying Level 3 Personal Training at RNC and will enter his final year at RNC in Autumn 2020.
All of RNC’s residential students returned home in March 2020 – with remote support during lockdown – and Chris has used his time wisely to train in his garden using specialist weights.
His current personal best is an impressive 240kg and he has been receiving one-to-one training from nationally acclaimed strongman Andrew Lumley as well as his gym, ‘Viking Power & Strength’, both in Doncaster.
Chris hopes that the public will get behind his tough training schedule and donate towards the new student gym via this appeal on the RNC’s Facebook or Just Giving pages. He said:
I am 100% committed, determined and raring to go so please donate to my appeal and this will make me work even harder
Aaron Rees, Teacher in Charge of Sports and Recreation at RNC, added:
The student gym is a vital part of the facilities here at RNC, both for teaching and general fitness for the students. But it requires specialist kit due to the needs of its student community and those training to become sports/personal trainers need access to the latest equipment that they’ll be working with, once they qualify and leave RNC for new jobs.
To help raise funds for RNC’s new student gym, please head to Chris’ JustGiving page: https://justgiving.com/campaign/chrisstrongmanchallenge
The image of Chris was taken at a contest in 2019.