This May, Albion's Blind team are set to embark on a five-day challenge which will see them walk from Wembley Stadium to The Hawthorns.
The group face a gruelling 120-mile trek from the home of English football to the Shrine, walking 24 miles a day on average, to raise awareness of the Albion blind team as well as vital funds for the blind football programme.
Guided by Foundation disability coaches, they aim to complete their challenge and arrive back in the Black Country for Albion's last league game of the season, against Preston North End on Saturday, May 4, 2024.
The challenge marks the 70th anniversary of Albion's FA Cup triumph over Preston in 1954 at Wembley, with the Baggies' 3-2 win that day securing the club its fourth FA Cup.
You can donate to the cause HERE.
The Blind Walk also ties in with the origins of the football club, which was previously known as West Bromwich Strollers. In 1878, factory workers from George Salter's Spring Works walked to Wednesbury to buy a football, forming the West Bromwich Strollers.
Fast forward to the present day and the Albion blind team are going strolling once again, this time to raise vital funds for the Albion Foundation and their disability sport programme.
Two-time Albion promotion winner Andy Johnson will join the group for all five days of the trek, with his company Systec Fire Engineering sponsoring the Blind Walk, alongside our partners HSBC UK, Bache Group and National Gas. The Foundation are, of course, extremely grateful for their support.
AJ recently visited an Albion Blind training session to meet the players and also give the sport a try for himself, with the team impressed by his skills for a blind football novice!
Many of them already had a bond with AJ, as several players regularly listen to his commentary work on WBA Radio.
Prolific fundraiser and avid Baggies fan, "Blind Dave" Heeley is set to join the blind team for the 120-mile walk, continuing his fantastic, selfless support of the Foundation. Dave raised over £30,000 for the club's charitable arm last summer by completing the Hadrian's Wall trek, not long after recovering from a knee operation.
"Blind Dave", Andy Johnson and the WBA Blind players will also be joined by Rob Lake for the tough challenge, with the Foundation director opting to wear a blindfold for the trek.
Rob commented: "I want to understand what it's like to be the players and "Blind Dave", and to do something of endurance without a visual stimulus. I know this will give me a sense of gratitude, a sense of perspective on life.
"It's going to be really tough but I'm very fortunate that I can take my blindfold off at the end of the day - Dave and our blind players can't.
"I want others to join in a small way with this challenge, not to feel pity or feel sorry, but to feel admiration and celebrate what they can do and understand that."
WBA Blind play in The National Blind Football League and are currently unbeaten this campaign, with four wins and four draws from eight games. The team has been running for 18 years now, with several players representing England in recent years - including Eesa Amjid who scored for the Para Lions as a teenager.
The Foundation also run weekly football sessions for blind and visually impaired children, and deliver a varied disability sport programme - including cerebral palsy football, powerchair football, pan-disability football and SEND multi-sports.
In 2023, the Foundation engaged with 2,195 participants with special educational needs and disabilities across Sandwell and the Midlands, but they need your help and support through donations, to be able to continue and develop the disability sports programme.
If you can, please donate to the Blind Walk JustGiving page here, and help support the West Bromwich Albion disability teams.
The team have a fundraising target of £30,000 and are extremely grateful for all donations received.
To find out more about the Foundation's disability sports programme, please contact Paul Glover - Paul.glover@albionfoundation.co.uk
