Shirley comes to Emily’s rescue  

Shirley comes to Emily’s rescue

 
 

Coming up to 3 years ago Shirley girl, 8 year old Emily Pearson was diagnosed with a condition called Dominant Hereditary Optic Atrophy which is a condition where the optic nerves at the back of the eyes are not fully developed and therefore cannot transmit the full/correct pictures to the brain for it to process. After the full diagnosis the family were told that Emily has a visual acuity measurement of 0.66 (she can see at 6 metres what a full sighted person can see at 24 meters), but this is affected by light, colour, shading, if Emily is tired, background colouring and a whole host of other factors.

Due to her condition she has to write with a thick pen, has to use special books with thicker lines on for her to write and cannot use a normal computer. Because of this Emily always felt different to everyone else. As Lions are of course famous for their work in “Sight” related issues Shirley Lions decided to donate the funds needed to purchase a specially designed computer for her. As the picture shows the computer is now up and running and Emily is delighted.

Emily’s mother Paula said “I cannot thank the Lions enough for their financial support which has enabled us to buy the computer for Emily and this is now a difference that Emily is happy with.“