{{Short description|Long-distance motorcycle rider}} {{Infobox person | name = Cathy Birchall | image = <!-- just the filename, without the File: or Image: prefix or enclosing brackets --> | alt = | caption = | birth_date = {{birth based on age as of date |55|2012|09|12|noage=1}}<ref name=visordown/><br />{{birth based on age as of date |54|2012|09|13|noage=1}}<ref name=express/> | birth_place = | death_date = 31 January 2013 | death_place = | known_for = Long-distance motorcycling }} '''Cathy Birchall''' (c. 1957–2013) was a long-distance motorcyclist credited as the first blind woman to circumnavigate the world.<ref name=visordown>{{citation|title=Blind woman becomes first to travel globe|author=Christopher Dodd|date=September 19, 2012|publisher=Visor Down|url=http://www.visordown.com/motorcycle-news--general-news/blind-woman-becomes-first-to-travel-globe/21431.html}}</ref>
Her circumnavigation on a 1990 BMW R100RT motorcycle was accomplished in one year, beginning in August 2008.<ref name=visordown/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://worldtour.org.uk/ |title=Home |website=worldtour.org.uk}}</ref> She was riding pillion with her partner Bernard Smith.<ref name=visordown/> While on this journey she also became the first blind person to reach the summit of Wayna Picchu.<ref name=Attwooll2012>{{citation|title=My greatest adventure: Cathy Birchall (interview)|author=Jolyon Attwooll|date=September 18, 2012|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/activityandadventure/9550166/My-greatest-adventure-Cathy-Birchall.html}}</ref> Birchall has been completely blind since her late twenties due to retinitis pigmentosa and was in her fifties during the trip.<ref name=Attwooll2012/><ref name=visordown/> Birchall and her partner both kept journals during the trip and eventually wrote a book about their journey titled ''Touching The World: A Blind Woman, Two Wheels and 25,000 Miles''.<ref name=express>{{citation|title=One dream, an old bike and a big adventure|date=September 13, 2012|author=Flic Everett|newspaper=Daily Express|url=http://www.express.co.uk/features/view/345615}}</ref><ref>{{citation|title='Touching the World' by Cathy Birchall and Bernard Smith|author=Jenny Cook|journal=Overland |date=14 November 2012|url=http://overlandmag.com/features/book-review-touching-the-world-by-cathy-birchall-and-bernard-smith/}}</ref> The trip actually covered 26,385 miles, as well as thirty-one countries and five continents. They were married on 20 August 2012 after Cathy was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Unknown to them, it turned out to be the same day their story was published after the publisher decided to bring the publication date forward.
Birchall and her husband are originally from Warrington, Cheshire, which is in England.<ref name=express/>
Birchall died of cancer on 31 January 2013.<ref>{{citation|title=March newsletter update|author=Bernard Smith|date=March 9, 2013|work=World Tour newsletter (worldtour.org.uk)|id=Newsletter #7|url=http://worldtour.org.uk/2013/03/march-2013-newsletter-7/}}</ref>
== Bibliography == *{{citation|title=Touching The World: A Blind Woman Two Wheels 25,000 Miles|first1=Cathy |last1=Birchall |first2=Bernard |last2=Smith|year=2012|publisher=Panther Publishing|isbn=978-0956497581}}
== References == {{Reflist|2}}
{{Long distance motorcycling}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Birchall, Cathy}} Category:British disabled sportspeople Category:English blind people Category:Long-distance motorcycle riders Category:1957 births Category:2013 deaths Category:World record holders