Thread: Today is #WorldSightDay & I know there are kids & adults for whom it’s a devastating blow to lose their sight right now. I’m one of those people & it’s something I live with everyday. I don’t talk about it much as I don’t believe illness should take over ones life.

I want to talk about the experience of people who are not born blind but those dealing with having been blinded losing all their sight or a percentage of their sight. There’s a certain squeamishness in society in talking about this.

I lost the sight in my left eye. I’m lucky I still have a working right eye. However partially sighted people ‘feel’ just as much loss as the blinded. There is no emotional hierarchy of loss. Indeed believing that others are worse off can stymie psychological recovery

Society doesn’t understand the impact of loss of sight. For instance cluttered footpaths, cyclists & cars parked on footpaths can be treacherous. Random attacks on blind people are not uncommon as gurriers see them as sitting targets.

Sight loss is a very emotional experience & that should come as no surprise given how 60% of our experience of the world is via the eyes. Also the optic nerves are wired directly into the brain. In some ways it’s like a brain injury.

Another facet of blindness & partial blindness is that it’s not immediately obvious to others & tends to be forgotten or ignored. If you can’t see others’ lack of sight you tend not to take it into account. Those with sight loss don’t like to bring it up.

A bizarre & common experience of being blinded is that many well meaning people tell you stories of people they know (usually v distantly) who have had sight loss. This leaves the blinded person confused - what are they meant to do with this information?

When I lost my eyesight I was treated by Dublin’s Royal Adelaide Eye & Ear Hospital. The staff there are amazing from security guards to consultants. These are people who genuinely care. That was wonderful.

One feature of treatment was digital photography of my eyes to show how the infection which blinded me was progressing. The photographer would spend ages chatting with me about the technology & showing me how things work. That was an unexpected pleasure.

Whilst in treatment worst case scenarios were shared with me because I asked for that. It was scary & isolating. However whenever I was spotted in the waiting room a nurse would scoop me up, give me a hug & install me in the nurses office until the consultant saw me.

The consultant was wonderful & asked me if I’d mind being an example for his students. I was happy to help. I didn’t once get charged for tens of thousands of € for medical care - that’s a sign of how our country can be amazing.

With the possible loss of all my eyesight I felt a desperate need to return to the love of my life - drawing & painting. That catalyst has grown into a situation where I am now a professional artist selling my work all over the world.

The hospital saved my remaining sight & I will always be incredibly grateful to them & my fellow Irish men & women who pay for the hospital. The thing that stays with me is the genuine care & love the staff of the Adelaide gave me.

I continue to draw & paint. It’s both an urgent need, my life & a commitment to dealing with the psychological anxiety & depression that was escalated by the experience of losing sight in my left eye.

My message in all of this is we are lucky in our specialist Eye & Ear hospital, that you are not on your own, that it’s important to mourn sight loss & that you should grab life & do what you love as soon as you can. My motto - Fight the Good Fight!