"Our idea was that we would continue to run the shop and post office but not be so actively involved," David said. Sadly that was not to be. Instead he was diagnosed with advanced and irreversible glaucoma, which is robbing him of his sight.

However, with the determination and the pioneering spirt that runs in his family — his great-grandfather was a Boer War hero and deputy viceroy of India, and his mother was one of the first women to fly across the Sahara — 62-year-old David is refusing to let his medical problems defeat him and has even gone on to participate in a sporting victory over the Auld Enemy.

Valerie already knew there was something wrong with David's sight before his diagnosis. He kept complaining about his glasses and one day she found him with his head in his hands and he admitted he could not even see the invoices he was supposed to be reading.

He had already been to his optician in Edinburgh but it was an optician at Vision Express in Eastgate who noticed the extent of the problem and told him he should go straight to his GP.

When the glaucoma was diagnosed, David's doctor could hardly believe how advanced it was and the Patersons had to accept things would have to be different. David had expected glaucoma in one eye but both were affected and though drops helped, deterioration was inevitable. He presently has just eight per cent vision in each eye. "I'm fairly good in the morning but it's kind of like looking through polythene and as the day goes on it gets thicker and thicker," he said. There is an operation for glaucoma but sadly David is one of the people who would not benefit from it and has to use eye drops four times a day. However, a trip to Edinburgh brought the couple into contact with people who could help.

"David was having a problem putting his case up in the rack and blinking a lot. Then this gentleman came up and said: 'Excuse me. Do you have a problem with your sight?'" Valerie said.

The man, who had recognised the signs as he was partially sighted himself, worked with the Highland Society for Blind People at Ardconnel Street in Inverness and was able to help David and Valerie with practical advice, including an assessment of potential hazards within the couple's Victorian home just off the Cannich road.

David has also been taught how to use a white stick and even been taken out blindfolded — something he describes as terrifying but instructive.

"Everything about the Blind Society is so upbeat," Valerie said. "There isn't any word 'can't' to them. When there's a problem they just find a way round it." On the return journey from that trip to Edinburgh, the couple found the man seated next to them was an optician who specialised in glaucoma. "To meet two people who could help on the same journey was amazing," Valerie said.

One of David's main fears was that his worsening eyesight might force him to abandon his golf. A former Edinburgh Accies rugby player and East of Scotland tennis player, whose other past sporting interests include fishing, cricket and squash, it was with immense relief that the 14-handicapper discovered this did not automatically mean an end to his sporting life.

Thanks to the Scottish Blind Golf Society he has been able to continue playing and even represent has country at golf.

David and other SBGS golfers are partnered with sighted golfers trained to describe where they should hit. But for golfers like David the art of visualising their shots is nothing new.

"In most sports you actually see what you want to achieve before you do it, and if you have a strong enough vision invariably you will do it. That's true for a lot of things in life," David said.

He is classed as B4 — the least severe category of visual handicap — but is edging towards being B3. "As a B4 I'm restricted in what I can play in blind golf but I don't want to be a B3 because I like playing my games at Muir of Ord and I wouldn't be able to do that," he said.

Presently the only SBGS golfer in the Highlands, David is keen to recruit other visually impaired golfers for matches in the south. If that happens, perhaps other local vision-impaired golfers can emulate his international success.

David Paterson with some of his golfing trophies. Iona Spence

Just a year after becoming a member of the society, David was recruited into the 13-strong national squad that defeated England in the Auld Enemies Cup in Cornwall last month.

David speaks with pride of the moment he stepped up to tee-off and was announced to the crowd as David Paterson of Drumnadrochit, though he jokes that might not be an acceptable definition to the people of Glenurquhart.

Despite his "incomer" status, the former Lothian banker is a well-established member of the local community in Drumnadrochit, having moved there 13 years ago to become sub-postmaster.

During that time the post office made the news world wide when then Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy launched his 2001 Westminster campaign there with a pledge to protect rural post offices — a manifesto priority resulting in phone calls from around the world, including Germany, California and South Africa.

David also made an unexpected move into the wine business with the Loch Ness Wine Company, using wine imported from France and appointing himself as chairman of the business. So when Allan Leighton, the chairman of the Post Office, came to the Highlands and handed over his chairman's card, David could give him another in return. "He sort of did a double-take of it and I said: 'Not quite as big as your organisation,'" David laughed. David was president of the North of Scotland division of the Federation of Sub-Postmasters, which was then the largest division nationally. "It was a really interesting part of my life," David said.

"I spent a lot of time at conferences, mainly to save the sub-post offices here, or at least make sure people had some sort of compensation. The thing was you had no control over what the Post Office was doing because it was coming straight from Gordon Brown. He was wiping out the post offices as fast as he could — at least that was how it seemed.

"Losing the pension business was inevitable but shocking. We had worried elderly people phone up at 10.30pm asking about bank accounts. Even now a lot of people don't have bank accounts and with the banking crisis there are going to be a lot who don't have access to banking other than through the post office, because the banks don't want them."

The local post office was also a place where people would come for advice on issues from dealing with family deaths to finding a local address. "If it makes money that's fine, but it should be a public service," David said.

The local post office, he believes, is a central and essential part of the community. "Having a post office is great because you see all the people coming in and out from the village," he said. "You got all the chat in the morning so you knew what was being built and where. That was really good fun. And you knew who had had a good night out the day before."

As a sub-post master, it was also difficult not to know a secret or two about the local populace — for example who was receiving sheriff's letters — or heavily scented ones.

However, it was not just David who could pick up on information at the post office. He recalls the time a distressed tourist arrived to tell him she had hit a deer while driving down from Cannich.

"Suddenly about four bodies appeared from nowhere in the shop and said: 'Where did this tragic event take place my dear? We'll take care of it for you,'" David laughed.

"You could see the tread of rubber as about four vans shot out of the post office and were racing each other to get to this deer."

c.macleod@inverness-courier.co.uk 

Printer friendly version

Email this article to a friend

Bookmark this

---