A reporter got to grips with some of the obstacles faced by blind people, when he took a stroll down his local high street blindfold.

The stunt was to draw attention to World Sight Day, when Mike Flynn, of the Bucks Free Press, wandered along the "flat" Wycombe shopping centre.

He told readers: "What I hadn't taken into account was the 'fear factor' that comes from losing your most relied-upon sense. I was plunged into a completely new and very strange world.

"Of course I didn't, and still don't, have any real idea what it feels like to be permanently blind. But it made me aware that, to a blind person, the smallest of tasks can become a real challenge.

"Under normal circumstances, a stroll from one end of Wycombe High Street to the other could probably be negotiated in less than five minutes.

"That it took me four times as long to do exactly the same trip blindfolded is perhaps not surprising. What is remarkable is that despite being denied sight, I noticed more on that walk than any other I have taken around the town centre."

He added: "I had been so preoccupied with my own lack of sight that I had not stopped to think what others might have made of me. I was only blind for an hour but my perspective has changed for good."

The main focal point this year for World Sight Day was Seoul in South Korea where there are vision-screenings for disabled children and cataract surgeries.

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