Redefining ability with Argyll Paralympian

Marie Harrower, a retired physiotherapist in Oban who grew up on a croft in Lochdon, almost accidentally competed at the 1976 Montreal Paralympics - and returned with a couple of medals.

Both Marie and her elder sister were born completely blind, but their mother, who was fully sighted, made sure that wouldn’t stop them from doing anything they wanted to do. Cycling, swimming, running, riding horses - Marie did it all.

In a radio interview, Marie spoke of "great memories of playing along the shore line, up in the hills, but we had no fear, and I never remember Mum saying: ’You can’t do that because you’re blind.’

"She just had a very strong instinct that we had to be brought up as normal, recieve a good education, and be involved in all the activies we could be involved in.

"There were no restrictions, there was no fear. Occasionally when you were cycling, you go a little bit off the path and you might go into a ditch. But that didn’t matter. I don’t recall Mum saying: ’Oh, goodness, well, that mustn’t happen again.’ We just changed our shoes and off we went. It was just a great sense of freedom."

Marie studied at the Royal Blind School in Edinburgh, returning to Mull between terms. Afterwards, she trained as a physiotherapist, rising to Head of Physiotherapy at Oban’s Lorn and Islands Hospital. She travelling to island clinics by boat, sometimes with a guide dog, but sometimes not. 

Following college, Marie married Ken, a pianist and teacher. Just back from their honeymoon and working at a hospital on Loch Lomond, a colleague put her name forward for the Paralympic trials for Team GB at the Montreal Games in Canada. This was 1976, and the first year that the Games were to include blind or partially sighted and amputee athletes.

She recalled: "It seems extraordinary now, but when you were signed up for the team, you had to raise £300. I thought: ’Oh, goodness, I can’t start raising money to go to Canada.’ But one of the nurses said: ’Oh, no, you’re not going to do that. I’m going to do that. That’s going to be my contribution.

"And she did - excepting she raised about £4,000. When she started, she couldn’t stop! It was such a community thing: WRIs, church guilds, flower groups, young farmers groups. Every group you could imagine were doing coffee mornings, sponsored walks. It was absolutely extraordinary. I suddenly realised I was in the UK team. I thought: ’My word. This is scary!’ 

"There was a lot of camaraderie when you were on the track or the field, but there was certainly no camaraderie when you were on the field when you were competing. It was just an amazing experience.

"I won a silver for discus, and a bronze for shot put. I never imagined that I would get into the finals, let alone onto the podium. So it came as a huge surprise.

"I always get really quite emotional when I watch medal presentations because of that wonderful moment."

And it all comes back to that croft on Mull, and her mum, she said. "Whatever came my way, I was always keen to embrace whatever it might be. Throughout my life, I just think that she instilled into both my sister and myself this love of life.

"My husband Ken contributed a huge amount. He was incredibly supportive. The Paralympics have been wonderful, but so has having two sons. The two boys are probably the biggest achievement of my life."

The Rockfield Centre is "delighted" to host the evening with Marie to learn about "her journey, her courage, determination, fortitude, and resilience". Her talk titled ’Redefining ability: Marie Harrower’, on Tuesday September 17 at 6.45pm in the Oak Room, is free, but has a suggested donation of £5.