Teenage 20/20
I didn’t have the most standard teenage years. My mum had really bad eyesight, and had to go in
for an eye operation. She was already blind in one eye from an operation that went wrong as a
child. So she was really fearful of having this operation done. She went in to have the operation
on her good eye, the only one that she could see out of, and the operation went wrong and she
was left with an infection in her eye and no vision. I had to grow up very quickly as my dad was
in Switzerland. I was doing the weekly shop for myself. I was arranging to get to school and
back. I was, for all intents and purposes, pretty self-sufficient at the age of 13. What really killed
me was going to see my mum in hospital, and her saying, “Oh, that’s a nice green t-shirt you’re
wearing.” I walked out and burst into tears because I was wearing a red t-shirt. She was just
trying to make small talk to be kind.
Eventually, her eye did get better because my dad got in contact with the consultant who did the
operation. He basically took out a part of her eye and then put a prosthetic part in, but she was
told, “Sorry, you can never fly again because of the build up of pressure. You can’t go to see
your husband.” My dad would fly back to England on a Friday evening, then get in the car with
my mum the next day to drive 650 miles so that she could then spend a week or two in
Switzerland. Then, he would drive back over to England over a weekend to take my mum home
and then fly back to Switzerland the next day. It was a pretty tough time.
My dad spoke to worldwide ocular surgeons and aviation specialists for a second opinion, and
they said my mum should be ok to fly. They started with a short flight to Jersey. After they tested
this, they gradually built up the length of the flights bit by bit to get her confidence back.
Luckily, she can now fly again. My mum is a fighter, bless her.
for an eye operation. She was already blind in one eye from an operation that went wrong as a
child. So she was really fearful of having this operation done. She went in to have the operation
on her good eye, the only one that she could see out of, and the operation went wrong and she
was left with an infection in her eye and no vision. I had to grow up very quickly as my dad was
in Switzerland. I was doing the weekly shop for myself. I was arranging to get to school and
back. I was, for all intents and purposes, pretty self-sufficient at the age of 13. What really killed
me was going to see my mum in hospital, and her saying, “Oh, that’s a nice green t-shirt you’re
wearing.” I walked out and burst into tears because I was wearing a red t-shirt. She was just
trying to make small talk to be kind.
Eventually, her eye did get better because my dad got in contact with the consultant who did the
operation. He basically took out a part of her eye and then put a prosthetic part in, but she was
told, “Sorry, you can never fly again because of the build up of pressure. You can’t go to see
your husband.” My dad would fly back to England on a Friday evening, then get in the car with
my mum the next day to drive 650 miles so that she could then spend a week or two in
Switzerland. Then, he would drive back over to England over a weekend to take my mum home
and then fly back to Switzerland the next day. It was a pretty tough time.
My dad spoke to worldwide ocular surgeons and aviation specialists for a second opinion, and
they said my mum should be ok to fly. They started with a short flight to Jersey. After they tested
this, they gradually built up the length of the flights bit by bit to get her confidence back.
Luckily, she can now fly again. My mum is a fighter, bless her.