‘Fight for my eyesight gave me a perspective on life’

Gordon Brown has been troubled by eyesight problems ever since he suffered a head injury as a schoolboy.

The future prime minister was on the receiving end of a boot to the head while playing rugby at Kirkcaldy High School, losing the sight in his left eye and vision in his right eye.

Despite four major operations, Mr Brown has endured limited vision for most of his life.

But at the pinnacle of his career, after taking over from Tony Blair as prime minister, crisis struck. His vision deteriorated significantly, and although he struggled on at first with his day-to-day duties, and kept the problem a secret, he sought medical assistance – which revealed serious damage to the retina in his “good” eye.

He recalled: “When I woke up in Downing Street one Monday in September, I knew something was very wrong. My vision was foggy.

“That morning, I was to visit the City Academy in Hackney. I kept the engagement, doing all I could to disguise the fact that I could see very little – discarding the prepared notes and speaking extemporaneously.

“Straight afterwards, I was driven to the consulting room of a prominent surgeon at the Moorfields Eye Hospital in London.

“To my shock, in examining my right eye, he discovered that the retina was torn in two places and said that an operation was urgently needed.

“I asked him if an old friend, Hector Chawla, could be invited to give his opinion too. I was already prepared for surgery when he examined me and said he was convinced that the tears had not happened in the past few days. They were not new but long-standing.

“His advice was blunt. There was no point in operating unless the sight deteriorated further. Laser surgery in my case was more of a risk than it was worth. Both surgeons agreed that this was not the time to operate.

“I am grateful that the retina has held to this day and I feel lucky beyond words.

“Even if I felt fate had dealt me a hand I would not have chosen, my time in and out of hospital – and the fight for my eyesight – gave me a perspective that I still feel helps me to be more understanding of difficulties facing others in a far worse position than me.”