Fifteen years ago, I began to lose my central visual field, as a result of damage caused to my optic nerves during the early stages of multiple sclerosis.
This impairment, which I share with the 1.5 million people in the UK who have macular disease, including age-related macular degeneration, is a cruel robbery. Although basic navigational sight often remains intact, it can make it impossible to recognise the face of a loved one from a few feet away, or read the text in a book.
For me, it means I exist within an immediate bubble of my near vision. I can function independently at home (I struggle to see small details, for example print on a page or a screen, but use software or camera-based magnification…
