Last week Sue Mason, who is blind, lived her dream of speeding around a motor racing track. Reporter MICHAEL PURTON was there to see her in action.

WHEN 51-year-old Gravesend resident Sue heard charity Kent Association for the Blind (KAB) had arranged for her to be driven around Brands Hatch in a race car, she was ecstatic.

For Sue, who has been blind for four years, whizzing around the track at 135mph was both the fulfilment of an ambition and a way of showing that “losing your sight does not have to be the end of your life”.

She was driven in a BMW M3 by Brands Hatch chief instructor Gary Palmer, and said: “It lived up to everything I hoped it would be and more.

“We got up to 135mph and Gary’s driving was brilliant. If you were late for work, he would definitely get you there in time!”

News Shopper: Sue with the BMX M3 she whizzed around Brands Hatch in

The Damigos Road resident, who drove for 25 years before losing her sight, has loved cars since she was four years old.

She said: “I was given a doll and I remember wanting this bright red car for the doll to go into, so my passion for cars and motor racing has just always been there.”

KAB volunteer John Franklin organised the experience for Sue after she told him it was a dream of hers.

The 70-year-old, who lives in Lyndhurst Way, Istead Rise, said: “I was taking Sue to KAB headquarters in Maidstone and we drove past Brands Hatch.

“I told her we were passing it and she said ‘it’s my life-long ambition to go thrashing around there’.

“A short while later, I went into Brands Hatch to sort it out for her, and when I told her she was chuffed to bits.”

KAB has supported the visually impaired in Kent since 1920, and John, a retired building company boss, has been volunteering for the charity for eight years.

He was there to see Sue speed around Brands Hatch, and says “it was fantastic, she was so happy”.

News Shopper: Sue and John celebrate her lap around the Brands Hatch track

For Sue, who used to run her own picture frame making business, KAB and John have helped her come to terms with the loss of her sight and continue to live an active life.

She said: “Around 12 years ago I went for a routine sight check at the hospital and they told me I had optic neuritis.

“They said my sight would go in a year, but it just got worse over a month and then stayed the same, and was ok for around eight years.

“Then, four years ago, I lost my sight completely very suddenly over about two weeks.

“Without KAB it would have been much harder, as I would be stuck in the house and not getting to do so much.

“KAB is brilliant and so is John. He is a one in a million.