I pay tribute to Alex Patterson and his teenage daughter Jana, who are both from Ballymoney. Alex is a 54-year-old father of two teenage daughters and is a former youth worker. In his mid-40s, his sight began to deteriorate, and he was diagnosed with cone-rod dystrophy in 2019. He is now registered as severely sight-impaired or blind.

Alex has spoken about the social isolation that the diagnosis led to and some of the challenges that he has faced. He is a prolific campaigner on the issue of pavement parking in Ballymoney and beyond. Last week, after a send-off by the Lord Mayor, Micky Murray, he walked from City Hall all the way to Stormont, where he was welcomed by my colleagues from the Infrastructure Committee, Peter McReynolds MLA and Andy McMurray MLA. Alex raised over £1,400 from his endeavour, and he has three key asks. He wants to support the ongoing work of Deafblind, which has been a massive support to him since his diagnosis. He wants to raise awareness of the challenges and consequences that pavement parking causes for those who are sight-impaired. He wants to highlight the impact on those from the blind community of dogs being off-lead in public areas.

I pay tribute to Alex and his daughter Jana for their brilliant walk. Thankfully, the weather was kind to them. He has raised over £1,400 for Deafblind, and we should be mindful of the blind community when we park and in how we engage with its members.