February is low vision awareness month, so I thought I would do this blog post explaining some of the terms used when discussing vision loss and blindness. Whenever I tell people I have a problem with my eyes and am losing my central vision, a lot of the time I am asked how that is possible and they would never have known, because I have lovely eyes and they don’t look like there is anything wrong. When we think of…
As 2018 draws to an end, it has made me reflect on the year that I have had. When I was diagnosed with Stargardts in 2017, for a good few months it honestly felt like someone had ended my life. I was lost, confused and scared for much of the rest of that year following my diagnosis and I was consumed with the feeling of ‘why me’. I was grateful when my little boy suggested that we do something to…
I have to be honest and say, I adore Christmas time, December is my favourite month of the year. Last Christmas I felt like I wasted the month by being very disorganised and dwelling on things too much and making myself stressed by trying too much to please others. This year I have already wrapped most of the gifts I have bought people and have decided that it will just be the 3 of us eating at home on Christmas…
Today is white cane day. A lot of people living with Stargardts can manage very well on a daily basis without a long cane. Of course, there are exceptions who need one, or a guide dog, as everyone’s vision loss is different. A lot of people with central vision loss do use a signal cane though, which is a short small cane that can be held and doesn’t touch the floor. This is to alert others around them that they…
Just after my diagnosis last year, I heard about a Stargardts picnic that was happening in Hyde park, where lots of people with this disease got together to meet others going through the same thing. This time last year I was not ready to meet anyone else with Stargardts, and the opportunity passed me by. The picnic was organised again this year and by now I was desperate to meet others with the same as me as sometimes this disease…
