大象传媒

Alex and Joe are cousins who are 18 months apart in age, and grew up in South London a few miles from each other. They have both suffered sight problems though not through any shared genetic link. Alex was diagnosed with retinoblastoma in both eyes as a toddler, with his right eye being removed as it couldn鈥檛 be saved. He had a re-occurance of fresh tumours in his remaining eye when he was 10. In the ensuing years he suffered from a cataract and several detached retinas, losing some sight with each episode. He was working for the police as an emergency call handler when one day he woke up with a shadow in his eye. It transpired that the treatments he had had in the past had weakened his eye and there was nothing further they could do. Within a few weeks he had lost all functional vision and started to learn to use a cane. He has been left with some light perception. He now works at the Pocklington Trust, a sight-loss charity. He lives with his fiancee Janey and his guide dog River who has transformed his life. Meanwhile Joe was diagnosed with a rare condition called choroideremia as a child, in which peripheral vision gradually closes in until the sufferer turns blind.He was told when he was 16 he would go blind in the next ten years which he found hard to take. After training in law, he decided to become a teacher. As he began his new job he heard of a clinical trial for gene therapy for eyes and asked to take part. He was one of only 14 participants and for him it not only halted progress but also turned back 10 years of deterioration. They have only worked on one eye and he will have his other done in due course. The hardest part for him was Alex going blind at roughly the same time as his was restored. He does a lot to promote the condition and treatment in order to give others hope and appeal for more funding.