Being totally blind has never stopped Carl McGee when it comes to following football. In fact, he loves the game so much he supports two teams, he tells Mark Summers

HE is one of the most fervent football fans around, travelling thousands of miles a year to cheer not one, but two teams. But Carl McGee has never seen even a fraction of a second's worth of action. And he's never likely to.

The 25-year-old, from Dipton, near Stanley, in County Durham, has been totally blind since birth due to a rare genetic condition. But despite this great handicap he loves football and manages to follow both Sunderland and Scottish side Hibernian, home and away.

Carl caught the football bug from his family - his mother and father, David and Diane, are Sunderland fans - and he is well-known to followers of football phone-ins like the Three Legends.

Macar, as he is nicknamed, is a regular caller to shows on both sides of the border and was one of the guests when the Three Legends celebrated their 3,000th edition recently. He is also a driving force behind the Durham Visually Impaired Cricket Club, which has just completed its first season of league competition against other new teams across the country.

Carl, whose younger brother Craig is also blind, believes in trying to live life to the full and taking a positive attitude to a hurdle thatmanymight find insurmountable. "You can't sit back. If you sit back, you will get nothing. Life is what you make of it and you have to go out and make it yourself, " he says.

CARL, who occasionally walks with a stick, but doesn't have a guide dog, went to mainstream schools in Durham until he was 12. After an episode of being bullied, he continued his studies until the age of 16 at the Royal Blind School in Edinburgh - where Hibernian are based - coming home each weekend.

His first football match was one of the last league games that Sunderland played at their old ground, Roker Park, in 1997. He became hooked and ended up a regular at the Stadium of Light, going with his mother, cousin Claire McGee and friend Mark Dobson.

"If I book it in advance, the cost is very good. The supporters' buses, Sunderland or Hibs, are always really good, so you can't grumble, " he says.

"I couldn't pick between the two teams. I love them both the same.

When I'm at a Sunderland this Saturday, I'll have my radio to my ear wondering what is going on at Easter Road (Hibernian's ground). I'll have people texting me with what's happening. On Saturday I was at Inverness and was listening to Sunderland v Chelsea on Five Live so I knew what was happening with both games. I can't switch off.

"I started going to Hibs when I was at school. I would go to the midweek games because I was coming home at weekends, but then I started coming up for the big games, cup semi-finals and what have you. When I left school at 16 or 17 I got a Hibs season ticket."

Carl cannot picture in his mind what is occurring on the pitch but by listening to pre-match interviews and radio or club commentaries, he keeps up with the action.

"I follow games by listening to the commentary on my radio or I rely on the noise of the crowd, " he says. "The commentary is getting better for the blind and visually impaired. Sometimes, if I can't get a commentary, I'll come back home and listen to the commentary on SAFC TV or whatever.

"Football is like a drug, I just have to go. It is the buzz. I love singing songs and chanting, and meeting loads of good people."

Carl travels to Sunderland away games with the Chester-le-Street branch of the supporters' association. "They are awesome, so helpful, " he says.

"I can go to a game on my own knowing they are going to help me on and offthe bus and in and out of the ground and to and from the pub.

Hibs away games are great as well because I go with the most vocal set of supporters."

Although he has no sight, Carl says travel doesn't cause him any great problems. "You just have to have the confidence to go out there and do it. There are people at the stations who can help you and you can book it all in advance. At Durham and Edinburgh Waverley, the staff are great."

A couple of years ago Hibs played Rangers away at Ibrox on a Wednesday night. They were struggling near the bottom of the league and they won 3-0. Then Sunderland went to Chelsea on the following Sunday and they won 3-0.

"That was absolutely awesome. I honestly thought I was in dreamland, " says Carl. "Watching Hibs silence Rangers at Ibrox - there were only 500 Hibs fans there - and then going to Chelsea and watching Sunderland not just silence them, but outplay them, was fantastic. I thought I will never get two better days supporting my teams."

Blind cricket - a specially-adapted version of the game that uses a small football - has become an important aspect of Carl's life. "We will win the development league next year. It should be good times ahead.We need a couple more players, but I have got a couple of lads interested, " he says.

"I love the banter and knowing I can play the game. I watch Tantobie Cricket Club play every week in the summer and I listen to the lads talking and I know what they are talking about because I can play the game. " One of Carl's ambitions is to find a full-time job - he has had two work placements with blind charities and looks after a community radio station's webpage. Given his love of sport and regular contribution to radio phone-ins, he is keen on the media.

"It is difficult to get into work because of all the cuts. There are opportunities out there, but you have to be in the right place at the right time, " he says.

CARL believes there is a lot of discrimination against people with sight loss, people who are partially blind.

"A lot of people, when they think of disabled people, think of people in wheelchairs, and that frustrates me.

There is no disability bigger than any other, but there are a lot more disabilities out there than being in a wheelchair."

Carl, who uses talking computer software and a specialmobile phone, has encountered "some bother" on socialmedia like Facebook and fans' message boards.

"Some people are jealous, I think, because of what I do, ' ' he says. "Some people take theMickey out of my disability but it doesn't botherme. They can carry on as far as I'm concerned.

"I'm a Sunderland, Hibs and Scotland fan and I always will be. It doesn'tmatter what anyone says, I will always get to games."