As they prepared to travel to Paris for the Paralympics, David Prior and Barny Weeden spoke to Neil and Lora Fachie about settling in Altrincham, overcoming the trauma of a mugging, and combining training with first-time parenthood
Lora and Neil Fachie are possibly the most ordinary superhumans you’ll ever meet.
If you’re ever out walking close to the Navigation Road area of Timperley, there’s a chance you’ll see them out, often heading in the direction of the tram station.
Lora, 36, will have a dog on a leash and often a baby strapped to her chest.
Husband Neil, 40, will sometimes be pushing a pram and usually be carrying a sports bag.
It’s only when you look a bit closer that you’ll spot the Great Britain badges on their tracksuits and bags.
And it’s only then that you notice that Lora is almost completely blind, and that Neil is visually impaired to the extent he needs a white cane as soon as the nights start to draw in.
But Lora Marie Fachie MBE OBE and Neil Michael Fachie MBE OBE, to give them their full titles, are also bona fide sporting legends.
Collectively they have amassed an astonishing 26 gold medals. Lora competes in tandem road and track events and is a double Paralympic gold medallist, a three-time road world champion and a former track world champion.
Neil has competed at every Paralympics since 2008 - Paris will be his fifth Games - and has won two gold medals and an extraordinary 20 world titles in tandem para-cycling, the most recent coming in Rio in March.
That they are both competing at Paris 2024 at all - we met them a week before they travelled to the Games - is something of an achievement.
Back in March, Neil, Lora and Lora’s long-time cycling partner - or ‘pilot’ - Corrine Hall were returning to their accommodation after a day competing at the velodrome in Rio during the UCI Para Cycling Track World Championships.
They were just 100 metres away from their hotel when they were mugged.
“Suddenly, I was aware that some people had run in from my right-hand side and I heard Corrine scream and say: “Just take it, just take it”,” Neil said.
“I was grabbed by my bag and flung to the side. I was detached from Lora, and she was very upset, as clearly she had no idea what was happening.
‘There were guys trying to get my bag off me, so I just let it go. I was aware Lora was really worried that I had been taken away. She had absolutely no concept of what was going on. I couldn’t see, so I didn’t know if they had weapons on them, all I know from discussions afterwards is that there were three of them.”
During the traumatising incident, the Fachies lost all their passports, Neil’s phone, wallet - and the silver medals they had won that day.
“Looking back on it, the perpetrators knew what they were doing,” said Lora. “They’d clocked on to the fact that there were slightly vulnerable people coming to and from the hotel, and we were an easy target.”
The distressing incident led to Lora and partner Corrine withdrawing from the championships, meaning they missed out on events that would have assured them of qualification for Paris.
Thankfully, Lora had accrued enough points from other events to eventually secure her place, and looking back now, she is remarkably sanguine about the incident.
“People react very differently in those situations,” she said. “Initially I didn't deal with it well but I put it to bed very quickly and wanted to put it behind me. I didn't want those world championships to be defined by what happened.”
The incident was not the only challenge presented to the Fachies as they prepared for Paris.
With support from National Lottery funding, they have previously been able to devote themselves entirely to para-cycling, with all the single-mindedness that elite sport demands.
But since the Tokyo Paralympics in 2021, the Fachies have welcomed a happy addition to the family: Fraser, who is now 21 months old.
Like his mum, Fraser has the same hereditary sight loss condition that has rendered Lora almost completely blind since the age of five.
“My mum, both my brothers and I all have it, and Fraser has inherited it from me,” said Lora.
“It will deteriorate - I was born with more sight than I do have. Now I have very little: I've got light perception, so I can tell if the sun is out, but it's nothing useful and I would never rely on it. I do remember as a three, four and five year old being able to see more.
“We're still trying to establish what Fraser can see, it's very hard at this age. He can certainly see high contrast, but we know he will have very similar sight to me unless some magic science development comes along. But I've learnt from the best in my mum, she is a great role model.”
It is awe-inspiring to watch as Lora prepares and then spoon-feeds lunch to Fraser, with guide dog Tai an ever-present by their side.
Lora, however, sees her particular situation in the context of any first-time mum.
“It's challenging for everyone, I don't think anyone does it and goes 'that was easy',” she said. “Everyone has their own challenges. There's no right or wrong way to parent, that's the biggest thing.”
Just before Christmas they moved to their third home in the Altrincham area, having originally moved to Manchester to be closer to the Velodrome (Lora is from Liverpool, Neil from Aberdeen).
“We love it here,” said Lora. “We're both big foodies so we love all the restaurants - our go-tos are Phanthong, Blanchflower, MOST Bakery and Oxford Road Cafe, and Kickback Coffee on the canal was our saviour when Fraser was born.”
Fraser’s arrival has meant that both Lora and Neil have had to become more creative with their training regime, with much more training now taking place in their converted front room.
“There are days like this morning where one of us rides a bike while the other one does duties and then we switch around,” says Neil. “I'm on the track in the Velodrome three times a week, Lora tends to be there once a week.”
“We have to be a lot smarter with how we train,” Lora agrees. “I'm more endurance-based, so pre-Fraser I would spend three or four hours a day on the turbo-bike. I just can't justify that now. In many ways it makes you train better because you appreciate the time you've got to train and you dedicate that time solely to training. If you've had a good or bad training session, it's irrelevant, because Fraser still needs us to be parents.”
Lora reads a story in Braille for CBeebies
Their celebrity status has grown since they thrillingly won gold within an hour of each other in Tokyo three years ago, spawning a beautiful photo of the golden couple.
Lora has read a bedtime story in Braille for CBeebies, while last October they travelled to Windsor Castle to receive their OBEs for services to cycling.
“We got our MBEs separately at Buckingham Palace, Neil off the Queen in 2013, me off Prince Charles in 2017, so to then be able to go to Windsor Castle and receive our OBEs together was pretty special... not many couples get that opportunity.” This time Princess Anne did the honours.
With trusted pilots Corrine Hall and Matt Rotherham leading their tandem bikes, Lora and Neil have high hopes for Paris.
“I wouldn't go to the start line not hoping to win,” says Lora. “That's in my nature. Realistically, I have four events and three of them I'm medal competitive in. I hope I can bring back three medals.”
Photography: Laura Marie Linck
