Lennie Peters blind but not handicapped

Press, 24 February 1977, Page 4

Lennie Peters blind but not handicapped

Mr Lennie Peters of the| Peters and Lee duo is blind, |f yet few' people watching him|* perform would guess it. Off the stage Lennie Peters t also looks confident and he If refuses to think of his blind-|b ness as a handicap. “I’m not;! blind, I just can’t see,” he s explains. [v He says that his lack of [1 sight does not restrict himk and he stiil goes diving and I whatever else he feels likelii doing. “If you’re determined,iv you can do anything,” he t said. |v Lennie Peters found that It lack of sight is a problem [b when performing on stage as'h it limits his movement. Hejo tried moving about the stage |e once and promptly fell off.ln though not. without flair. “lid jumped on to one tabled somersaulted to another and e then rebounded on to another if table.” *c

He never tried to repeat! that particular act even though i was much applauded;' at the time. Lennie Peters was not born[' blind. At the age of seven he'! lost the sight of one eye when h he was run over by a car. ' Ten years later he lost the[ sight of the other eye. “Li was mixed up with some!] layabouts and one of them pitched up a brick,” he said. 1 Later in hospital the sight i in the recently damaged eye : was being restored. How’ever, ’ the patient in the next bed i was hanging out of bed. “I ’ thought he might fall on a 1 big iron trolley so I lifted' him back into bed and split[l open what they’d done to my 1 eye. He lost his sight per-'" manently. “The other guy It died a week later,” he said. I ( He discovered that he could |, easily’ master the piano,” and', from then on “it was pubs top clubs to recording.” Il

I He met his partner. Diane! [Lee, while she and her cousin; [were working in the north of! [England. The duo performed; [with him and when Diane! Lee’s cousin decided to work' lon her own, she joined [Lennie Peters. [ They first appeared together! in a Sunday concert with I Rolf Harris in 1970. Now on their first tour of| New Zealand. they are[ appearing with Harry' Secombe. They have not| worked with him before I although they have appeared! with many' other enter-; tainers. i They have already per-[ formed at Hamilton, Auck-I [land, Nelson and Wellington.; They will be appearing atj two more concerts in [Christchurch before travelling! ito Dunedin for their last; [New Zealand concert then on Ito Australia.