Sunday, March 23

Write on!

Well, eventually here we have the finished article that Kez wrote about me last year. Very good job I reckon for a young student, apart from one thing... It makes mention of my drinking a shandy, a vicious slur on my character... enjoy...

It’s not all dark glasses and white stick tapping

Stuart sips a lager shandy as his dog, Brett, gratefully flops onto the pub’s garishly chequered carpet. Since meeting 12 weeks ago the pair have spent every waking minute together, and have built up a vital relationship.
“You get looked at differently when using a cane or using a guide dog. With a cane people try and keep out of your way, they think you’ve got some kind of disease. But when you’re with the dog, people stop and make a fuss,” says Stuart.

95 per cent of people with sight problems in the UK are 65 or over, so at the age of 32, Stuart is unusually young to have lost his sight. He had glaucoma for 15 years, the raising of eye pressure from liquid in the eye, crushing the optic nerves. He lost the sight in his left eye 10 years ago but had some sight in his right eye so was still able to do most things.
Stuart had an operation at world-renowned Moorfields Eye Hospital in London. A high powered laser was rested on top of his eye ball which would essentially burn to the back of the eye which is where the fluid is coming out of. A side effect of the operation was that it damaged the cornea in his eye and left him blind.
“I’ve got no sight in the left eye at all, in my right I can see lights and big blocks of colour, it’s like being trapped in a fog,” he describes.
Stuart feels he is a unique case, because finally losing his eyesight turned out to be the best thing to happen to him.
“After 15 years of it going and going, to wake up the morning after the operation and have it gone was a relief, because I knew where I stood then,” explains Stuart.

Stuart is one of two million blind people in the United Kingdom. Contrary to the stigma he doesn’t spend his days bumping into lampposts or sitting in a darkened room, eating microwave meals.
“It can be isolating if you haven’t got anybody to see or do, but I made a point of saying to my friends not to treat me any differently, they don’t think about it anymore. I’m the same person I was before,” he says.

Stuart continues to dream like a sighted person, “I don’t have a dog and I don’t have my cane, I can visualise things, it’s quite strange to have sighted dreams, but then if you’re blind from birth I don’t know if you get that.” Having had sight he says, “When I go shopping and someone picks up a shirt they can describe it to me, I get a picture in my mind, but if you’ve never really known what colour looks like I don’t know how you can describe to someone what a colour actually is, so I’m quite lucky.”

Stuart volunteers for the Cornwall Blind Association, and works for their advocacy service, which helps people with sight loss secure their rights, represent their interests and obtain the services they need. Stuart used a cane for two years with a roller tip where changes of gradient on the pavement and bumps are picked up by rolling the tip from side to side. It is a very time consuming way of walking, the cane has to be swept in front of every step taken.

The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association was set up in 1931 to give blind and partially sighted people greater independence. After being matched with a suitable guide dog the visually impaired owner and dog spend up to four weeks of intensive training together until they qualify together. The owner proudly hands over a token 50p for their dog and the guide dog is awarded a white harness.
Stuart’s guide dog Brett has an imperative role in helping Stuart keep the independent lifestyle that he is used to. Stuart enjoys comedy stand-ups and is in the process of writing his own sets and searching for a willing audience. He is also a member of a shooting club and takes part in national shooting competitions, using pitch changes to signify where the target is. Everywhere Stuart goes, Brett, goes too.
Stuart is taking computer classes and is six weeks into learning Braille, “If you can imagine sic dots on a domino, Braille is made up of those but just in different proportions, you have to relearn the alphabet,” he describes. Talking software on computers and mobile phones means that Braille is not depended on as much as it used to be. “Gadgets and gizmos are very important to me, I can voice record peoples names and addresses on my mobile phone, its an organiser and has built in personal satellite-navigation,” explains Stuart.
Stuart owns his own house and is extremely self-sufficient. He planned ahead while he was going blind, doings things like putting dials on his washing machine so he can feel the different settings. Stuart’s wide screen television remains in his lounge and his dark eyebrows rise as he jokes how its only use now, is that it heats up the room.
He goes on to describe how while out for lunch with friends he managed to spear himself in the eye with an asparagus stick. Being blind is a portion of Stuart’s character, but it’s not what defines him, its humour and banter that make up the most part of his personality.

K. Clark 2007

5 comments:

Lisa said...

Great article! I enjoyed every word. *hugs*

Stephie said...

Walking into lamp-posts? Nah, walking into scaffolding is more your style! Good read, thank you! xxx

Inner Vision said...

Having read your profile we realised that you are one of the very positive persons we have come across in life. Keep it up.

Shadab Husain said...

very good post, though I came a little late!

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