Posted 12:48 am Sunday, September 04, 2011
Saving Sight Offers Needy Eye Exams
Melissa Lanier, community relations director for The Lighthouse (formerly East Texas Lighthouse, for the Blind) wants us to know Michelle Boyd's story.
As a child, Michelle would look up on sunny days and see what she would describe as a sky full of stars. She thought that seeing spots of light was normal.
Sometimes she barely could see well enough to read.
Her mother had suffered a stroke and her father worked several jobs to take care of Michelle and her seven siblings. They could not afford to take her to an eye doctor.
"I suffered my whole life with trying to memorize everything," she told Ms. Lanier.
Despite limited vision, Michelle graduated from high school and college and found work in an investment firm.
And then one day, "everything went blurry. It was late and dark and I kept saying, 'If I can just get home, I will go to doctor tomorrow."'
She was diagnosed with Stargardt disease, an inherited juvenile macular degeneration that causes progressive vision loss. The disease is often detected during a routine eye exam that typically takes place during childhood.
Had Michelle's condition been detected earlier, doctors could have possibly slowed its progression and arranged for her to get visual aids.
Now legally blind, Michelle is a vocational trainer for the visually impaired at The Lighthouse in Tyler.
Ms. Lanier says too many people lose their vision or struggle with being visually impaired because they are not getting eye exams.
That's why PATH and The Lighthouse, in cooperation with Trinity Clinic Eye Center, have formed Saving Sight. The new organization provides eye exams, eye glasses and vision aids for people who cannot afford them.
Information about eligibility to be served by the program is available from the sponsor organizations.
Donations to Saving Sight can be made online at www.tylerlighthouse.org. On the same website you can also register for the Saving Sight Golf Tournament, the organization's first fundraiser.
The tournament is set for Sept. 26 at The Cascades in Tyler and will feature Jeremy Poincenot, last year's blind world golf champion.
