Mark Pollock (born 29 February 1976) is an international motivational speaker, explorer, and author from Ireland who became the first blind man to race to the South Pole. As part of a three-man team called South Pole Flag, alongside Simon O'Donnell and Inge Solheim he took 43 days in January 2009 to complete the Amundsen Omega 3 South Pole Race. Pollock asserted his disability had slowed him down but they finished fifth overall from the six teams that finished the race. He had participated against nine other teams, including that of BBC personality Ben Fogle and the Olympic gold medallist James Cracknell, a friend of Pollock. An avid rower Pollock has won bronze and silver medals at the 2002 Commonwealth Rowing Championships in Nottingham, England and has also written a book titled Making It Happen. Early life and background Pollock was born to Barbara and Johnny in Holywood, County Down. When Mark was five, he lost the sight of his right eye and was forced during the remainder of his childhood to avoid contact team sports to preserve the vision in his left eye. He was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution where he was a keen rower. In 2002, Pollock graduated from University College Dublin with a Masters of Business Studies. He later studied Business and Economics in Trinity College Dublin, where he became a champion schools rower and captain of the university's rowing club but aged 22 he lost the sight in his left eye and was then suddenly blind. In 2010, just weeks before his wedding, Pollock fell from an upstairs window, breaking his back and fracturing his skull. This caused bleeding on the brain and resulted in paralysis. Blindness Pollock has been blind since the age of twenty-two when his left retina became detached. This had a devastating effect on him as he believed at the time that blind people could not have a life which he perceived as normal – that they could not participate in sport, work, study, socialise or date. Before his operation he had been about to embark on a city job in London, UK but after it he was left with no option but to return home to his mother. Coping Pollock enrolled in a course to help come to terms with his disability. He left for Dublin with his guide dog Larry and began putting himself forward for job