Kats Story

Hello, I’m Kat! I’m 15 years old and I have #funkyeyes. This week, I’m on work experience at iSightCornwall – and loving it!

I have an eye condition called Bilateral Coloboma which means there’s a gap in the structure of both of my eyes (not a hole – just some missing bits and pieces). It occurs in about 1 in every 10,000 babies, so I guess I was the (un)lucky one! My coloboma means that I have ‘cat eyes’ which is awesome most of the time. It also means that I can’t see too well, this part of the package isn’t so awesome.

Despite this, I reckon I get on pretty well. I don’t let my sight get in my way (unless I’m about to trip over!) and I’ve done some amazing things in life so far. Some of these things I would never have dreamed of, like travelling to Japan and France with my friends, and opening deafblind conferences in Belfast and Romania.

My aim is to show people that you shouldn’t let something like an ‘additional complex need’ stop you. My motto is “Don’t worry about things you can’t change” because why bother if there’s nothing you can do about it? One very common term I hate is ‘disability’ – nobody is disabled, we just have different needs.

“It’s a good thing to be strange, normalness leads to sadness” – Phil Lester

Saying that, I try to lead as much of a regular life as possible – going out with friends, studying, that kind of thing, however, no matter how well you do as a blind/visually impaired person, you’re always going to face some challenges. I like to call them challenges as there’s always a way around them, no matter how difficult. It’s a positive outlook that helps me most when dealing with sensory loss, and I feel lucky that there’s so much support out there. Imagine being a caveman who couldn’t see!

As long as you keep smiling and doing what makes you happy, you’ll get by. There’s always a way… let’s get #funkyeyes trending.