Ken Reid was just 26 when he was told that he was going blind, and there was nothing that doctors could do about it. Unusually, he said it felt "like a relief". "My experience isn't typical, but I had been struggling to cope for so long.
Pre-diagnosis, I had been adapting, and adjusting, and having close shaves. "Once I had a diagnosis, I was able to start adapting my life properly to living with sight loss and deteriorating vision." Mr Reid, now 64 and a former chair of the RNIB in Scotland , is among an estimated 1,800 people in Scotland living with Retinitis Pigmentosa - one of the most common forms of inherited retinal disorders (IRD).
READ MORE: Sweden's elderly don't have to sell their homes for care - how did they do it? Fining no-shows 'not the answer' for missed GP appointments problem Michael Mosley's 5:2 diet worked for me - but what does the science say? It is caused by a genetic mutation which leads the light sensing cells in the eyes to gradually die off, causing progressive and - so far - incurable sight loss. Scientists at Edinburgh University hope they might be on the cusp of changing that, however, after unravelling previously unknown details about the role that the gene, RPGR, plays in regulating how these light cells function. Dr Roly Megaw, the academic ophthalmologist who led the work, believes it could pave the way to a drug treatment which might restore sight.
He said: "The approach we’ve taken is better understanding of RPGR’s function in the eye .
