I Was Blind But Now I Can See by Vendon Wright

When I was six years old I started wearing glasses to correct my short sight. My perception of my low vision changed when I was twenty years old and found out that my brother had suddenly gone blind. He was told that he was suffering from Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP), a disorder that slowly destroys the pigment cells in the eyes. There are three different strains of RP and the one my brother has runs in the male line of a family. So far, there are no known cures. My brother's eyes deteriorated quickly which confused us all. I soon became curious and convinced myself to attend an eye appointment to determine whether there was more wrong with my eyes than just being short-sighted. At the age of twenty-one I was also diagnosed with RP. Since then I have been slowly going blind, not knowing when my world would finally fade away forever. Finally at the age of twenty-eight I was also registered blind. Then to everyone's surprise, my sister was registered blind two years later.

Despite the problems it has caused me, I have managed to keep a positive attitude towards life. I hold a 4th degree black belt in Taekwondo and I was the first registered blind person in England to achieve this level of excellence. After studying Taekwondo for over twenty years, I now teach many classes of my own. At present I have twenty Black Belts.