We Didn't Need Our Sight To Fall In Love

Sight loss affects more than two million people in the UK. Sue Thomas talks to two people who didn’t let blindness stop them finding each other.

- Sue Thomas

As Harry Hitch and Pat Mason sit holding hands, completely at ease with each other, they chat non-stop as though they’ve been together for decades. But in reality they’ve only known each other for two years. And when they first met, they were a complete contrast to the cheery couple they are today.

In June 2016, neither was feeling particular positive about the future. Harry, 90, and Pat, 76, were reeling at two devastating changes in their lives. Having both been widowed four years earlier, their lives also mirrored each other in another way.

Harry and Pat had been diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a painless eye condition that causes you to lose central vision, usually in both eyes. Sight loss usually happens gradually and doesn’t affect peripheral vision, meaning sufferers will still have some side vision.

AMD currently affects more than 600,000 people in the UK and is the leading cause of vision loss. By 2020, it’s predicted that almost 700,000 people will have late-stage AMD in the UK.

For Pat, the condition has left her with very limited vision and she is unable to make out faces. Glaucoma had left Harry almost completely blind in one eye before his AMD diagnosis. Then in 2014, a blocked blood vessel in the retina of his other eye robbed him of his sight.