Roy Imeson, Mindfulness Writer and Speaker

I was born in the UK, in the 60’s at Ladywell Hospital in Salford, Greater Manchester. I lived with my parents Brian and Shirley and my older brother Ian, who is 3 years older than me.

We lived in a “new town” semi-detached house that was built in the early 1950’s, part of the integral growth of  post war towns being built across Salford. A step away from paintings from the Salford artists Lowery. He painted simple pencil stick men and women,  cats and dogs all moving around the cobbled stoned streets alongside terraced houses.

I had a great childhood, nothing too special, attended a free state school and was surrounded by plenty of friends.

I loved the usual things a young lad in the 70’s would have done, including playing hide and seek, fire lighting and group games. One game which, when I think about it to this day, still puts a smile on my face.

Stewart, my best friend at the time and I were obsessed with Action Men figures, especially the one that had moving eyes. We would play for hours, different war games all built on imagination from the black and white war films.  

Stewart’s mum would invite me to his house for breakfast,  and we would watch black and white programs including the films from the then living Elvis Presley. One film and one of the first in colour, the paramount movies film from 1960, Elvis played a part in a war movie, G I Blues. We watched this movie and then relived the fighting scenes.  You need to also know that we did not have videos and had to rely on reading the TV times magazine to find out what and when these movies were aired.  Stewart’s mum was superb at organising our movies and play times.

After the movie, and a bowl of Weetabix cereal, we used to go into Stewart’s well kept garden and play action man kills “GI Joe”. I was GI Joe because he was an American figure and I thought I was Elvis, with my mis- fitting clothes and pair of hand-me-downs shoes that were too big. 

I loved playing games with my other mates, we spent most of the holidays playing outside, and in all weathers. Without a thought towards food, time, money, or anything other than having fun. Stewart’s mother would not let him play out with my friends, she tried to protect him from all types of harm.  I used to say I was going home, and go and play with the kids in the street. 

The one game that some children my age played, we loved and now laugh about is the game based on an American TV show called the Six Million Dollar Man, Steve Austin.

Steve Austin had a horrific accident and lost limbs and an eye. He went through new untested surgery to “rebuild him with bionic new body parts”, these body parts looked exactly the same as normal parts!

Move the thought of the body parts to one side for now, what I played as a 9 year old child was to basically run about fast, but in slow motion!

A skill that needed you all to have imagination, innocence and the belief in “bionic bodies” were real.

We thought we looked like Steve Austin with his bionic legs, arms and one eye. This eye could actually look through buildings. We definitely had imaginations and the screen writers had hit with an international audience. 

To get to the humour part, the part that as I am writing still makes me laugh at. Imagine a group of 9 year olds running at 120 miles an hour, yet in slow motion. No faster than a quick walk.  We were all running in different directions around our neighbourhood to save the world from misery and injustice. Imagine the elderly neighbours looking out of their middle class front room windows as a group of 9 year olds running around in slow motion and for no reason other than fun. I also need to add that we would also be shouting “get him” but in long drawn out statements that matched our 120 mile an hour speed that was just a quick walk. Looking into these  houses shouting as loud as we could and in association with our imaginary status of the game of catching criminals, “get him”.   

We possibly put so much confusion in the heads of the old that the local doctor was unable to prescribe sedatives for. 

Please have a look on YouTube, check the show and hopefully understand where I am coming from.

A few more significant factors that shaped my adulthood.

Food; At this moment in time, if you shopped at the local greengrocer once a day, you could buy bread, vegetables. When mum used to send us there, usually to just get us out from under her feet.  We could ask the greengrocer for the goods to be added to the bill and a little ledger book would appear. You would come home with the food in a cloth bag and a note of the cost from the greengrocer.  Most summer days I would be asked to go and get potatoes and carrots. 

Clothes; I was the younger child, by three years, I had Ian’s “hand-me-downs. These were the clothes that Ian no longer fitted into, they usually were perfect as he was told that he couldn’t damage them as I was going to wear them next. I  never really cared and when I wore them, although Ian would get a new pair of trousers, shoes or even an outfit. 

One year, for Christmas we got matching tracksuits, Ian got a red set, he supported Manchester United and because of sublingual rivalry I went for a blue and pretended I supported the other Manchester team “ManCity”. This would go directly into the “holiday suitcase.” Ready for our annual summer holidays, later in the year, where we visited Pontins.  Pontins was a reused army base in Skegness where we caught a train direct from Manchester with hundreds of other families with our trunk style suitcases.  My dad had adapted my roller skates to the bottom of these cases to allow for easy rolling.  Later in the holiday he could be found roller skating in the disco like  John Travolta in Grease.   At this point in time, he could do no wrong and was living his best life. 

Education; We went to state schools, our primary school was relatively modern in a leafy part of Salford, with low numbers in the classrooms and from what I can remember more play than learning. My pace of education and entering secondary school felt more like changing the decade to the 1950’s in both the learning environment and the understanding of learning styles.  My new school was far from modern, in its evolution from a single sex grammar school into an overcrowded mixed school with two extremely different geographical locations. 

My experience with the time in history that will help set the purpose of my adult career. The education system meant that aged 15 you could leave to get a job. By the time I came to leave school in the 80’s, the advice was swayed more towards leave and earn rather than learn and earn. 

One option for the few, was to attend a technical college to gain a higher qualification.  Another choice was an apprenticeship, these were hard to gain and they were usually offered to the friends of families.  Hardly anyone aspired to one of the few universities, they were simple for the wealthy and focused learner. 

At this moment in time we still had national industry training boards and jobs. Such as “Bin Men”, “Coal Men”and “Railway Men”.  Can you spot several trends from the early 80’s?

Women were simply separated in choices and had a different experience at school: sewing, cooking, secretarial jobs. 

Education was for either the high achievers or the wealthy.  When I was in my 30’s this realisation hit me hard and I became a strong influencer on making opportunities for all and started to push for change.

The Friday Night Dinner:  this was the day to eat Fish and Chips. A hangover from a culture and religious time.  As an early teenager, this was the best meal of her week.  I loved going to the local chippy. We’re we lived we had a local shop. In the early naughties I revisited Salford , and was surprised to see it was still open and busy.

 My go to food was chips and gravy. With the gravy poured over the top, and eaten in the street and with your unwashed hands!

Most of all, I loved riding my Chipper bike, most kids had a “chopper bike” but my parents didn’t want me to have that as it was a “big bike”. I would race along the streets and pavements hopping on and off the curbs at any moment.  In my “child like” head I was a stunt man, just like the amazing “Evil Knievel” the bravest stunt man in the world.  The stuntman would later become the most broken man in the world as he missed judged his 1975 live, televised, stunt which was to jump his motorbike up and over thirteen red double decker buses in Wembley Stadium! 

After watching the twisted body on the epic failed jump, I stopped the curb hopping and asked for a new bike.  Without fail, Christmas came, Ian got a new racing bike and got a third hand sit up and beg bike from the 50’s. It was a repainted bike with new rubber wheels and as tall as me. 

At the age of ten, things drastically changed. I was in my leafy primary school and treated each day without a care for the next.

My mother died after a bout of illness, which I believe was cancer. People just did not talk about death and definitely to a child. 

Leaving my brother Ian and I, living in a single parent family. Overnight, I became the latch key kid!

Living a life without a mum wasn’t too bad, I had a good group of friends and neighbours that looked out for us. I suddenly learnt that I could get fed at all my friends’ houses and if timed correctly, get two teas before Dad got back from his job in the City of Manchester and fed me again.

This time helped shape my personality and an understanding that to be loved didn’t always mean having a hug.

My dad carried on as a great dad, we had food, holidays, and most of all spared from grief and sadness. This grief hit me in adulthood and was more of a disappointment in the “family” who had protected me. 

Several years later in the early 80’s, my dad remarried.

With this remarriage, to my step mum, Trisha, I gained a step brother, Gareth, who is 10 years younger than me.

My life, especially my family life, changed forever.  I now  became part of an extended family. My  step mum had separated from her husband less than a year earlier, they later divorced and both remarried and stayed with their new partners for many years. I am sure there is a lesson about love in their unhappiness?

At the time of writing this paragraph, my father and step mum are in their elder years and have been married for over 40 years. They live in a rural spot, sheltered from modern life in North Devon.

Another big life changing moment happened in my early 40’s. Jump forward to 2012, on a routine visit to the local high street opticians I received a life changing statement.

”You have a black spot at the back of your eye, that I believe to be Retina Pigmentosa. This is an eye condition that will, I’m time, make you go blind”.

With this news, I walked home and sat with my family to eat my tea. This hit me harder than running into a moving car on a remote country road in the dark. You are hit and injured, without clue as to how you get home.  

I went into shock, and did not know what to say, and what I would say would be correct?

Over a decade later, I lead a new life with next to no vision and an aim to make change for the people behind that are starting a life with sight loss. Using the skills, contacts and experience from my earlier career in education. 

Like many other people living a life with “protected characteristics” I meet people that do not understand, care, or make any attempt to help.

 I make every day a good one. To help me keep a focus,  I take a week out of my life each year to undergo a long distance walk or start a new chapter.  These stories are part of my 2025 desire to change my own destiny, knowing that I am the only person that can make my own difference in my life. 

The creation of Blind Man Roy.

Why not live a life that sighted people would want me to do?

I’m 2018, on Father’s Day, my children set me a challenge to attempt to climb the UK’s three peaks, with this offer and agreement from them for a week’s holiday this grew into something epic.

For now, I will cut these long stories short, this book will form part of a series where the above stories are written in greater detail. They are written out of love to write rather than for fame or fortune. 

Over the past few years I have taken part in radio interviews and supported a campaign with the Guide Dogs UK. In 2018  my own children pushed me to make an epic adventure raising funds for the RNIB, Mind, and Guide Dogs UK. Three charities that mean a great deal to me and my beliefs.

I am always looking for my next adventure and welcome ideas and supportive offers.

This website is part of the world I wish to share and tell some stories and share some photos of the nice and fluffy part of life.

Stories and Blogs

Please read the stories and blogs on my journey to here and beyond.

Interviews

Over the past few years I have taken part in radio interviews and supported a campaign with the Guide Dogs UK plus an epic adventure raising funds for the RNIB, Mind, and Guide Dogs UK. Three charities that mean a great deal to me and my beliefs.

I specialise in the topic around the inclusive workplace, specifically in how to support an employee with eyesight loss. I have an aim to support people to have long meaningful careers, to have understanding and respectful employers.

I’m available for keynote talks, panel discussions or speaking events on topics including:

• Disability Awareness
• Living with Visual Impairment
• My Journey with Guide Dog
• Working in an inclusive world.

Alternatively, let me know what you would like to hear me speak about. I am happy talking with any audience including schools, businesses and third sector.

Please join me and help grow my world of happy bloggers and media fanatics.

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“Change will only happen if we all work together”

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