So one of the things that I wanted to write about on this blog is sight loss. The reason for that is as back in 2010 I was diagnosed with Stargardt’s macular dystrophy, a degenerative eye condition that leads to the loss of the central vision and blind spots.I was 23 when I was diagnosed and in the middle of completing my PhD in ocean science. There have been a lot of ups and downs since the diagnosis as my eye sight has deteriorated and I thought it would be useful to share some of these experiences for other young people who might be going through similar experiences.

When I as first diagnosed I did a lot of searching for information to see how other people are effected and what they are doing with their lives to see how it might impact me in the future. At the time however there was very little information out there regarding macular dystrophy in young people let alone people actually writing about their own experiences. So I thought I would start this blog about some of my experiences and things that I have found helpful as my sight has got progressively worse. This blog certainly won’t be exhaustive but will contain tips and reviews about technology and aids so hopefully will be helpful. As the wider blog is about more than just sight loss I will copy all of the sight loss relevant text to this page so hopefully it will be easier to read gif you are using screen readers.

It would also be awesome if you are experiencing sight loss or know people who are for you to leave a comment, there may be things that you do that I may also find helpful!

One thing to remember though, and I suppose this is a caveat with this blog, is that everyones conditions and experience with sight loss is different as everyone that is effected by sight loss may be effected differently. However, having met a few other young people recently with similar conditions despite the differences in our level of sight we were tackling many of the everyday challenges in a similar way so although there are lots of differences there is still a lot we can learn by sharing our experiences.