'I believe in my guide runner more than myself', says blind Indian athlete

"When I was growing up, everyone in my village would say: 'She is blind, she is a waste'," says Rakshitha Raju. Now, aged 24, she is one of India's top middle distance para athletes. "It makes me so proud," she says.

Rakshitha was born blind in a remote village in southern India and had lost both her parents by the age of 10. She was raised by her grandmother who is hearing and speech impaired.

"Both of us are disabled, so my grandma understood me," she says.

When Rakshitha was about 13, the sports teacher at her school took her aside and told her she had the potential to be a great athlete.

"I wondered: 'How? I am blind, so how do I run on a track I can't see":[]}