​Never Blind To Possibilities

Hein Wagner throws himself into extreme adventure activities to inspire people living with blindness. His daring trysts have been across land, air, river and sea.

- Motlabana Monnakgotla

Hein Wagner, entrepreneur, global speaker and adventurer, has cycled up rocky mountains, jumped off flying planes, run on ice and negotiated Africa’s fiercest rivers.

He has successfully completed challenges such as the Absa Cape Epic, the Antarctica Marathon, the Two Oceans and New York Marathons, and the Ironman and Cape Town Cycle Tours. He has also rafted down the rapids of the Zambezi River, and climbed the highest mountains of the Western Cape. Now 46, he has had more adrenaline-driven experiences than most.

But Wagner is blind.

He was born with a rare, inherited eye disorder called Leber Congenital Amaurosis resulting in vision loss at an early age. The doctors discovered it when Wagner was six months old.

When he was six years old, his parents made a tough decision – to send him away to a boarding school 100 kilometers away from home.

“It was a hard thing for me, I was just used to the family home – I could move around on my own, I could just get by on my own, I could sort myself out. My parents decided to send me away… To me, it was quite traumatic, I got lost. At home, I could find my way anywhere, the bathroom, kitchen and bedroom, it was comfortable,” says Wagner.

“As a small child, you kind of don’t understand why. Later, you realize the decision was harder for my parents to make; they had to send me away but it paid off. It was the ideal place for me to work with teachers qualified to educate blind kids, and also meet other blind children with similar challenges.”

School was a precious learning experience, but the hardest part was in his teenage years, especially on weekends.