From Stroke to Worldchampionship Gold — Support Jo's Journey
Jo Boardman lost her sight to a stroke in 2025 — now she's training to represent New Zealand as a blind archer at the World Championships
Auckland
From a stroke to a shooting line
In September 2025, Jo Boardman had a stroke. She survived but the damage was in her visual cortex, and she came out the other side with cortical blindness. Her eyes work. Her brain can't read what they send it.
She was 48. She runs a successful Wellness business in Auckland. She was the person other people leaned on.
Recovery from cortical blindness isn't the kind where you wake up one morning and things are back to normal. You rebuild a life around a different set of inputs. You learn to trust touch and sound and spatial memory in ways that sighted people never have to think about.
Blind Low Vision NZ introduced Jo to archery a few months into her recovery. It's a sport with a formal pathway for blind athletes tactile sighting, a spotter to call the arrow, a foot marker to square the stance. The target doesn't move. The process is repeatable. It turned out she was good at it.
Now she's training to represent New Zealand at Para-athlete level. The goal is gold in all events.
Wayne Boardman's involvement (page creator)
I'm Jo's husband. I'm running this page to support her campaign and will manage the funds, post regular updates, and make sure every dollar goes directly to her World championship participation
Use of funds
Your donation funds specialist VI archery equipment, coaching, club fees, competition entries, domestic and international travel, a trained spotter at every shoot, physio and strength work, and classification costs on Jo's road to the World Championships.
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Latest update
Where your support has gone — and what's next 18 July 2026
A proper progress report for everyone who has backed Jo so far.
First, thank you. $150 in donations has come in from people who want to see this campaign continue, and every dollar raised is being put to work. Here's exactly where the money has gone to date.
The biggest outlay was the initial archery equipment — bow, riser, and everything needed to shoot competitively — at $1,978.01. Joining Auckland Archery Club cost $138; that's Jo's training home, and where coach Caroline runs her sessions. The classification eye test, a required step on the pathway to competing as a VI archer, was $163. A new bow string was $50. And coaching with Caroline is $30 a session — four sessions so far, $120 in total.
That brings the total invested in the campaign so far to $2,449.01.
The training is paying off. This week's session was spent measuring and locking in the exact positions of Jo's tripod sight and foot locators, so setup at the range is fast and identical every time which matters, because under competition rules, once the tripod is set up, Jo is the only person allowed to adjust her sights.
The next milestone is the big one: National and International classification in Christchurch, 21–23 August. This is the classification Jo needs to enter formal competition, and we're currently working out how to get her there.
We'll keep reporting back as the road to Christchurch and beyond it, the World Archery Para Championships takes shape.
Latest donations
Thank you so much for your donation, and luck on your archery journey, hopefully our paths will cross in the archery scene.
thank you so much for your donation.
Thanks Team Redfern, your support and donation are greatly aapprciated.
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