Reading blind man to compete in Ashes cricket competition

Moshfique Ahmed, 42, has lived in Whitley Wood all his life and served as a night security guard at Asda in Lower Earley.

He was healthy and well until his life drastically changed when he had a brain haemorrhage in August 2017.

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Mr Ahmed has since been able to recover to play cricket at a professional level.

He said: "I was working as a security guard at Asda until I had my brain haemorrhage.

"When I woke up three weeks later from the coma, which was caused by the haemorrhage, I was in John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, my sight was completely gone.

"The hospital got me physios so that they could help me just to sit upright on the bed. That took them a few days. I also had no strength to walk. [sic]

"My legs were very weak. I couldn’t hold anything. My arms were also weak too, so until I was discharged the physios helped me, then I managed to sit on the wheelchair then I was on the Zimmer frame."

Two weeks later he was discharged from the hospital and returned home.

Mr Ahmed said: “I couldn’t do my normal stuff, and it was really difficult and hard to cope with it.

"When I went back home, I met up with a very wonderful lady called Isabel Redfam from Reading adult social care services.

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"She was amazing to me over the time that she has helped me. She helped me to use a normal walking stick and then a white long cane.

"Isabel helped me to familiarise the roads in my local area outside with the cane how to cross roads how to listen out for cars how to get on the bus how to get off the bus, and the whole structure of the inside of the bus so I was able to find my seats.

"I cannot thank her enough for her help because she gave me the confidence to do things on my own. She helped me bathe, get about the house and build mt life back.

"Isabel is one of those people that played a great part in my blind life besides my wife and my three wonderful children.

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"She also showed me how to use my own mobile phone with VoiceOver, and introduced me to the Reading Association for the Blind and Berkshire Vision."

Mr Ahmed also thanked a woman called Gabs from the Reading Association for the Blind, who he said helped and inspired him to do more.

He gradually got into visually impaired cricket thanks to a man called Stuart and Jeannette, a cricket club secretary.

Moshfique Ahmed, 42, from Whitley Wood, is a blind man and cricketer who is due to compete in Australia in November. (Image: Moshfique Ahmed / Blind Cricket England and Wales)

He played in the International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) World Games in Birmingham last year, making his international debut against Pakistan.

Mr Ahmed has been selected to play for the England Men’s Visually Impaired Team as they travel to Australia this November for a multi-format Ashes series.

Mr Ahmed hopes his story will inspire others to live their lives without being sad and despairing.

He said: “So many blind people don’t get out of the house. My life has turned around, I wanted to commit suicide when I first went blind, now I’m on top of the world.

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“I’m privileged to wear an English shirt and call myself an England cricketer.

“I’m delighted to live in a country where blind people are looked after so well.”

Mr Ahmed departs for Australia on November 11. He has played for the Berkshire Stags and Kent Spitfires at club level.