Amazing Melina inspires her family

MELINA’S husband Colin is the closest person in the world to her – and he is constantly overwhelmed at how well she’s able to navigate her surroundings thanks to her remarkable blindsight.

He says she can see movement, outlines, and shapes.

She knows if daughter Stephanie is sporting a new hair style and can tidy the house a bit “without tripping over shoes left on the floor”.

However she cannot see faces and will never be able to cross a road by herself.

She can see the her outline in the mirror but still has to ask her carer if she is tidy enough to go out.

Melina – who used to be a medical secretary – will never be able to return to full-time work.

She has carers and uses a computer to read her emails and correspondence.

Colin, a lab assistant at Wishaw General, said: “Melina’s amazing sight has taken us to some amazing places.

“It’s an amazing turnaround from when intensive care doctors told us her body was shutting down and they would have to put her in an induced coma.”

Stephanie, who is now training to be a nurse at Edinburgh University after being inspired by her mum’s story, added: “My mum is hugely inspirational.

“She gets a great feeling from being able help scientists roll back the frontiers of research into sight.

“All I have ever known is mum being blind.

“Who knows what the future holds in terms of what other sight she may develop.”