Eye on the Cure

In my seven years with the Foundation, I’ve had the privilege of meeting countless families living with retinal diseases. Through those interactions, I’m constantly reminded that these conditions don’t just impact the lives of the people who are personally affected. They also alter the lives of the people – spouses, parents, siblings, friends – who love them.

If you have a loved one who has been diagnosed with a retinal disease, I wanted to share with you something I think you’ll find worth checking out. On Monday, March 5, at 1 p.m. EST, the Foundation Fighting Blindness will host a “chat” – a live, online Q&A session – called “Coping for Caregivers” with Susan Meyers, author of the memoir Check This Box if You Are Blind: A Brother, a Sister, a True Story. Susan is not only a fine writer; she’s the older sister of Andy, a 48-year-old man who was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa back in the 1960s, when families had few, if any, options for helping one of their own navigate life with low vision. As this feature story makes clear, Susan’s book is a warts-and-all account that doesn’t shy from recounting how difficult it was for the Meyers family to deal with Andy’s challenges. During the interactive session, Susan and chat participants will explore the broad caregiver role from a non-medical standpoint, including practical, helpful and positive ways that people with vision loss and the people who love them can take care of each other.

If you’d like to participate or just sit in on the chat, you can register here. “Coping for Caregivers” will be the first in a series of FFB chats that will take place in the next coming months. I’ll keep you posted about upcoming chats.