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Javelin star Dan Pembroke hopes cutting-edge gene therapy can save his limited eyesight as he seeks to smash the world record at Paris 2024 following a remarkable journey from Olympic hopeful to Paralympic champion.
Pembroke has battled deteriorating vision – and the threat of going completely blind – for most of his life after being diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa aged just six.
The genetic disorder affects the retina and has left the 33-year-old with only 10 per cent vision.
Despite his impairment, Pembroke was poised to represent Great Britain at the London 2012 Olympics before a snapped elbow ligament ruined that dream and caused him to reassess his priorities.
He embarked on a four-and-a-half-year sabbatical to see the world while he still could and then returned to win F13 gold as a Para athlete at Tokyo 2020.
“I’d grown up with this thing in the back of my mind going, ‘I’m going to lose my eyesight when I’m mid-20s’,” Pembroke told the PA news agency ahead of his second Paralympics.
“It’s been deteriorating since I was born.
“There are certain interventions that are coming about now and I’m actually part of a trial in my right eye.
“They injected gene therapy into the back of the eye and it has stabilised the condition so far, which has been amazing.
“Hopefully they can do the other eye now because it was part of a trial. Maybe I won’t lose my eyesight in its entirety.”
Spotting migrating humpback whales from cliffs in north-western Australia and meeting wife Martina in Sardinia were among the highlights of Pembroke’s “very awesome adventure”, which also included time in New Zealand and south-east Asia.
He only had a year to train for Tokyo but topped the podium amid a torrential downpour thanks to a Games-record throw of 69.52 metres.
“I’ve never seen rain like it,” said Pembroke. “It was like Armageddon.
“Looking back on it now, when I was competing as an able-bodied athlete, my eyesight was bad enough then to compete in the category that I’m in and since that point it’s actually got worse.
“Maybe if I’d found Para sport earlier, I wouldn’t have gone travelling and done all of those things.
“When I got diagnosed with the condition, what that instilled into me is that if I want to do things with my eyesight, I should do them now because who knows when my vision will go.
“It’s acted like a catalyst for me to do the things I want to do in life.
“Sometimes it really gets me down. (But) as much as it takes away, it gives, I find.”
Pembroke, from Hereford, last year claimed the world title in Paris before retaining it in May in Kobe, Japan.
He returns to the French capital with ambitions of breaking the world record of 71.01m to keep hold of his Paralympic crown.
“I’m so close to it,” said Pembroke, who has a tattoo of an eye containing the Agitos symbol and the words ‘RP (retinitis pigmentosa) made me fly’ on his right bicep to commemorate his maiden Paralympic success.
“Last year, I was 51 centimetres away from it, which was so frustrating. Hopefully in Paris, I’m going to crack it.
“Everyone’s going there to beat me. I do feel that pressure sometimes but I do feel as though I thrive on that pressure and if anything it just makes me throw further.”
