At age 10 Nick Tuftnell knew he was going to end up blind after being diagnosed with the genetic condition choroideremia. <\/p>\n
The condition leads to the death of light-absorbing cells in the eye. The cells die because of a mutated gene in certain ocular cells, which eventually leads to blindness. <\/p>\n
I knew my granddad had it. I remember seeing him in the latter stages of life and he was completely blind, said Tuftnell, now 38. <\/p>\n
After his condition was confirmed, Tuftnell said he had nothing to do but wait for his eyesight to slowly dim and darken over time. <\/p>\n
All the doctors could say is Your son is going to go blind, see you later, said Tufnell of receiving his diagnosis. <\/p>\n
As he grew older his eyesight has diminished to the point where he can no longer drive due to poor peripheral vision and has severe difficulty moving around at night. <\/p>\n
I cant walk around at night, its that bad, said Tuftnell. I dont have any peripheral visioneventually itll get like Im looking through toilet rolls. <\/p>\n
Tuftnell said his doctors estimated that he had around ten years of useful vision left. <\/p>\n
However, two years ago Tuftnell took part in a groundbreaking study where gene therapy was used to treat his deteriorating condition. <\/p>\n
The results of the study were published last week in the Lancet Medical Journal. <\/p>\n
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Follow this link:<\/p>\n
Man Saved From Blindness By Gene Therapy<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At age 10 Nick Tuftnell knew he was going to end up blind after being diagnosed with the genetic condition choroideremia. Continue reading