Make a wish

 Recently we received a visit from the Make a Wish Foundation, a charity that provides special experiences for children with life-threatening illnesses.

To map the contours of Asa’s “wish,” two women from the foundation quizzed him on his tastes, preferences, and ambitions. 

Asa's ambition is to be a pilot or a truck-driver.

Living the dream

Unfortunately, neither driving nor flying will be open to him as careers. In the UK, drivers have to have at least 6:12 vision (equivalent to reading a license plate at 20 metres). At present Asa’s vision is 3:60 in the right eye and 1:60 in the left. On this basis, he’s been certified as ‘Severely Visually Impaired.’ 

On some versions of the certificate those words are followed by “(Blind)”.

View from the London Eye. (What does it look like through Asa's?)

But blind he isn’t. 

The law defines these things liberally. While visual ability varies along a spectrum from species-optimal to complete absence of light perception, British law has only two categories of impairment: Impaired, and Severely Impaired. So Asa, with his very imperfect, but very useful vision, gets lumped with those who can’t see at all.

Yesterday, around dusk, Asa took his push-bike out for a spin behind our apartment block. 

Nobody who saw him trundling gaily back and forth would have taken him for blind.

In solidarity with Asa and others with this disease, in September-October I will be walking -- not flying or driving -- in Africa to raise money for eye cancer. [2]

For more information, or to sponsor us, please visit Life and Sight for Ethiopia.

 

URL: https://africanbushtrek2014.everydayhero.com/uk/life-and-sight-for-ethiopia  
 
Notes

[1] The DVLA also requires a field of vision extending 120-degrees horizontally and 40-degrees vertically. That’s problematic for people with retinoblastoma, since tumours often create significant blind spots.

[2] There's more information on the the eye-cancer initiative I've been involved with in Ethiopia here and here.