Tracks of My Life with Paul Fuller

Tracks of My Life is a show on RNIB Connect Radio presented and produced by Toby Davey where he invites a guest to take us on a journey through their life, sharing the tracks that mark important moments which bring back memories to them.

Their chosen tracks of their life might include the first track they can remember hearing, the first track they bought, a number of tracks that mark moments in their life and the final track, a track that they would like to pass on which might give people hope for the future.

 In this trimmed down podcast version of Tracks of My Life Toby is joined by Guide Dog owner Paul Fuller who Recently joined Scope as their Executive Director of Partnerships after a long career as a graphic Designer working for the BBC and then Sky.  

We start Paul’s Tracks of My Life journey with a track from his parents record collection which he has on permanent loan that takes him back to early childhood memories growing up in Kent and the start of his love of drawing and painting.

after school Paul went to Art College and on graduation at the age of 21, he landed a dream job as a graphic Designer for the BBC.  It was only a week after  Paul started at the BBC that his parents rang him up and invited him home for supper to tell him that he had choroideremia a hereditary eye condition that would lead to blindness sometime between the ages of 30 and 70.

Paul continued working at the BBC for a while before moving to Sky and it was at Sky that Paul met his wife Jackelyn and within a very short period of time they got married and started a family.  

Sadly during 2012 and around the time of the London Olympic Games Paul was diagnosed with cancer and spent quite some time at the Royal Marsden Hospital and it was a certain Bob Marley track that Paul would play every morning to help him get through the day.  Thankfully with the treatment and care from the Royal Marsden  hospital Paul battled through the cancer and decided on his return to Sky that it was time for him to leave Sky after a very successful and wonderful time working for the broadcaster.

It was around this time that Paul’s eye sight started to deteriorate even more and he and his wife decided to go travelling around the world and it was on his return from their travels that Paul was matched with his first Guide Dog Bolt who has been life changing for Paul.

Having taken early retirement from Sky for a number of reasons Paul thought about becoming a Trustee for either the RNIB or Guide Dogs but he did not feel that this was the right thing for him and maybe there was something else he could do in the 3rd sector and it was a recruitment firm that had aligned Paul to a Trustee role at Guide Dogs who asked him if he had really retired as they thought he might be the right person for a role at Scope.  After a Zoom interview and meeting during the early stages of the Covid Pandemic Paul decided to take up the role of Executive Director of Partnerships at Scope.

Finally Paul will reflect on his very positive  glass half full outlook on life  and like the title of one of his Tracks of My Life tracks - life is what you make it!

You can catch the hour-long version of Tracks of My Life with Toby’s guest’s music tracks in full by tuning in to RNIB Connect Radio every Tuesday at 7pm, repeated on Thursday at 1pm and Sunday at 8pm.