Elsie

“I’d been living with glaucoma for some time and was coping with it, but around three years ago I experienced a sudden and catastrophic deterioration in my sight, which coincided with a change of circumstances in my personal life, which meant I had to adjust to living alone.

“I first noticed there was something seriously wrong when I tried to back the car out of my drive and the lamppost at the bottom kept changing sides so that one day it hit my car, causing a not insignificant amount of damage! “I’d always been quite sporty and my social circles revolved around badminton and golf. I quickly realised that these things needed good eyesight. Because my social life revolved around sports clubs, I lost a lot of friends. They were supportive at first, but there are only so many times people are prepared to find your golf balls for you before it becomes a drag! “My life and my social activities begin to shrink rapidly, it seemed as if everything had changed quite suddenly and life was closing in, it was frightening. I felt bored, useless and really down – it was all too much to cope with at once.

“The hospital registered me partially sighted and I was referred to social services, who referred me on to My Sight Notts for social interaction. I began attending the Thursday Social Group every Thursday, it got me out of the house and meeting new people, which was what I needed. “I met other visually impaired people coping with far worse sight loss than me and this inspired me to pick myself up and get on with living my life, albeit it a different life from what I’d lived before and what I expected to be living.

“The Thursday Social Group opened my mind up to new possibilities and I began to explore different ways of spending my free time. I could have sat at home looking at the four walls, sinking deeper into depression, but I chose not to. The Social Group and Arts classes have opened up my world again to all sorts of new possibilities.”