Yet, there are very few little girls like Morgan.  She has Coats’ disease, a condition which typically only affects boys in one eye.  At seven months of age, Morgan was diagnosed with the disease in both eyes, leaving her with no vision at all.

 

“We started to suspect something was wrong when Morgan was four months old,” her mum, Belinda, explains.  “She didn’t seem to recognise us when we walked into a room and she was picking things up and holding them to her face.” 

 

At her six-month health check, Morgan’s GP referred Morgan to an ophthalmologist who told the family to get her to Sydney straight away.  An hour later, the family left Tamworth for the Children’s Hospital at Westmead, where Morgan was put under anaesthetic for a full examination.

 

Shortly after, the medical team delivered the news that Morgan had Coats’ disease and was blind in both eyes.  “When Morgan was first diagnosed we really didn’t know what to do or how to best support her,” Morgan’s dad, Danny, recalls.

 

Medical staff urged the family to make what turned out to be a life-changing call to RIDBC.  “There we were after receiving this news that our daughter was blind, and the staff at RIDBC were just so comforting and supportive,” says mum Belinda.  

 

“We enrolled Morgan in RIDBC Teleschool that day and she started her sessions less than a month later.  The whole service has been so impressive – not only the resources they send out for Morgan, but for the rest of us too.  It’s not just Morgan learning braille, but her older sister, Mikeeli, Morgan’s grandma and I are all learning too.”

 

With your generous support, funds raised from the Coleman Greig Challenge will go towards RIDBC Alternative Format Publications (AFP) service. This service assists people who need to access printed materials in their choice of alternative format such as braille, large print and 3D tactile objects.  This important service will support children like Morgan.