Local radio station helping out blind student

Gerry Forbes and the rest of the team at CJAY 92 says they will be donating $5,000 to Ashley King's crowd-funding page to help the student, who was declared legally blind after an incident while vacationing.

A young Calgary student is getting a helping hand from a local radio station to help her pay for tuition.

Ashley King was left legally blind following a Bali vacation three years ago, and she’s been struggling to pay for classes ever since, finding it difficult to find work.

The student, in her second year at Mount Royal University, turned to crowd-funding to help her pay for her courses.

She says she tried to apply for dozens of grants to help her pay bills, but wasn’t approved for any of them.

Now, CJAY Radio host Gerry Forbes says he was touched by King’s story and is giving away $5,000 from the station’s wish fund to help her in her goals.

“I remember watching the newscast and I was thinking, ‘Wow, what a story, what a compelling story’, It could happen to any of us. Everyone vacations, you go to bars, you don’t know what they’re going to put in your drink. But to be blinded by this, wow. I thought, we’ve got this fund, we’ve done very well this year, We can just really surprise this girl and help her out.”

With the contribution, King’s target of $8,000 has been reached.

Any other money that is raised above and beyond the goal will be donated to the CNIB.

King hopes to become a television news anchor when she is through school.