I’m Cait, and I was born with a range of eye conditions that have slowly but surely taken the majority of my usable vision. You are probably thinking ‘That must be so hard’ ‘How does she cope with losing her sight’ and honestly when I was younger I often thought ‘Why me’ but looking back now, visual impairment has given me so many unbelievable opportunities that I would never have had if I was sighted, such as playing multiple sports at international level, driving supercars and having a dog by my side 24/7 that can come with me everywhere!
But this outlook hasn’t always been the case, and during my childhood, support was pivotal to changing that ‘why me’ mindset to a ‘why NOT me’.
Why Me!?
My sight loss journey started from birth, I was born with aniridia, secondary glaucoma and nystagmus, a sight loss trifecta that essentially meant that I had very poor vision and due to the glaucoma my parents were told I would have no vision by the time I was a teenager – thanks to advancements in medical technology I am now in my 20s and still have a tiny bit of usable vison which is just amazing!
I can’t imagine how it must have felt for my parents to be handed their newborn baby, only to realise her eyes didn’t look right and to be told their child had sight conditions that would steal her sight and that she needed surgery at five days old to release some of the pressure from the back of her eyes.
But my mum, in particular, was amazing. She took it in her stride, making sure that any surgery I needed to slow down the progression of my sight loss was consented to. I was advocated for at all my appointments growing up, and she made sure I knew that my sight loss would never hold me back. She was literally, and still is, superwoman, and the reason I have been so successful in life.
As I got older, I became increasingly aware that I couldn’t see like everyone else and just how different I was. Having an SSA (Student Support Assistant) by my side all the time throughout school, using a laptop, a magnifier, adapted worksheets, learning braille and learning how to use a cane, to be quite honest, I hated standing out and feeling different, and I always thought, “Why me?”
As much as my family and friends supported me, they could never fully walk a day in my shoes, because I was the first and only one in my family to have sight loss. I needed someone who had been through what I was going through, and that’s when my mum found the LOOK mentoring project. It’s a programme in which visually impaired young people aged 11–29 are matched with visually impaired adults aged 18–35 to form a connection with someone who “gets it” on a fully monitored platform.
The mentors are trained to support their mentees by answering any questions they have, but also by simply supporting them and getting to know them in a mentor–mentee partnership.
Changing mindset
My mentor was amazing. They were the person I could turn to about anything visually impaired–related because they had lived it. Even though our eye conditions were very different, we were matched based on similarity: we were both musicians, my mentor had a guide dog, and I was just starting my relationship with my first guide dog myself. We would talk most weeks about small wins, any questions or worries I had, and also about my ambitions. We set goals for the partnership that we could work on throughout the 12-month mentoring period.
My mentor offered external guidance at a time that was very isolating due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They taught me the importance of advocating for myself and really supported me in becoming confident and accepting of my sight loss. My mindset changed massively. This was five years ago.
Now I am a mentor, on the other side of the partnership, and the only way I can describe how it makes me feel is that it is an absolute privilege. Being a mentor has allowed me not only to give back to LOOK for everything they have supported me with, but also to be that external VI person for my mentees that my mentor was for me when I needed them the most. Being a mentor has taught me so much about communication, empathy and has generally been such a positive experience. I love getting to know my mentees, being their biggest cheerleader and supporting them in any way I can.
The LOOK mentoring project has changed my life from both sides of the partnership: building confidence and gaining support as a mentee, but also giving back, supporting, encouraging and guiding young people who remind me of my previous self as a mentor. You aren’t alone as a mentor; the LOOK team are always on hand if you need anything, and there are frequent learning and development sessions you can attend to widen your skill set while mentoring.
If you want to find out more about becoming part of the LOOK mentoring programme, click the button below.
