‘I am blessed with the NCBI... it is the light in the darkness for me’
NEW ROSS MAN WHO LOST HIS SIGHT PRAISES THE NCBI’S HELP
A MAN from County Wexford has highlighted how the support of the National Council for the Blind (NCBI) helped him live again after losing his sight 10 years ago.
Joe McPhillips, from New Ross, went blind when he was 33, as a result of Diabetic Retinopathy, and said his life was turned upside down in a matter of weeks.
‘My right eye haemorrhaged in 2008 and my sight was gone in a matter of weeks,’ he said, recalling a traumatic period in his life.
‘It was totally unreal,’ he added.
‘I went from bright to dark, literally, and I found it hard to come to terms with the fact that my life was changed irreparably.’
When his sight went he went through a myriad of emotions, from aggression and depression, to addiction.
‘I have eased down a lot on the booze now but I hit it hard for a while,’ he said.
Ten years on and Joe says he has made some peace with his newly altered circumstances and has learned, painfully, how to live in his new world.
Central to his success in adapting to a new way of living has been the National Council for the Blind of Ireland (NCBI).
‘ The world is a different place now, it is mind bending to be honest, but I have the NCBI at my back and the support, confidence and courage I get from them helps me do what I do,’ he said.
Like anyone who has never experienced sight loss, up to the point where his own sight went, Joe had no idea how much emotional and practical support the NCBI, which is Ireland’s national sight loss charity organisation, gives to people who have impaired vision.
‘I had never heard of the NCBI before I lost my sight, to be honest, but I have gone from somebody who hadn’t a clue what it did, to somebody who needs to know everything I can about it, as it is now so important in my life,’ he said.
When he first lost his sight, Joe was terrified of going out but with the help and friendship of the charity’s Community Resource Workers, he learned the necessary skills to enable him to get out and about again.
In particular, he acknowledged the support he received from the organisation in Wexford and said it gave him a new sense of independence and skills that he will have for the rest of his life.
‘I was trained in using the long cane and it is invaluable to me,’ he said.
‘I get out and about and it has boosted me no end,’ he added.
Joe has moved house twice since losing his sight but says he learned tricks along the way to help him memorise new places.
‘It’s like a new mental map in your head,’ he said.
‘I find young people to be very helpful; they might see me veering off course and into a bollard, or onto the road for instance, and say ‘ hey, mister, you’re going wrong there’,’ he added.
The fact he doesn’t look blind means Joe can get himself into ‘all sorts of scrapes’, however, he says that in general ‘people are great’.
He said his participation in NCBI’s Independent Living Skills training programme has taught him how to cook safely: ‘Well, boiling water and people who are blind are not the best of companions!’
‘I can make a cup of tea without scalding myself and this just adds to the independence I have,’ he said, referring to the benefit of the training he has received.
‘ The NCBI has lots of aids available which make life so much easier and safer.’
Ironically, Joe never had a computer before going blind but now uses one every day.
‘It’s a funny old world,’ he said.
‘Computers connect me and I make use of all the Apps that are compatible with assistive technology,’ he added.
‘It’s amazing what technology can do. I can read bank statements and bar codes on products for example and it gives huge privacy and autonomy.’
Ten years on and Joe says that while his new life is not the one he would have chosen, he has adapted to it and is now living ‘a good life’.
‘I won’t pretend it’s all rosy but the human spirit is incredible; you can adapt to almost anything,’ he said.
‘You have to accept what’s thrown at you otherwise you will never get on and I am blessed to have NCBI - I would have gone mad without it; it is the light in the darkness for me.’