'I Went Blind Overnight'

TV producer Vanessa Potter was in perfect health and had no reason to worry about her eyesight. But one terrifying morning she was forced to reconsider her priorities.

Leaving a local food festival with my kids, I kept a watchful eye on my two-year-old son’s yellow potty balanced precariously underneath his pram. Moments later, sensing my five-year-old daughter was about to dart away, I grabbed her hand, smiling as her fuchsia-pink hat bobbed along beside me. Although those few seconds are easily forgettable, they are a snapshot of my life at the time. One of the last full-colour memories I have. The following morning, on 1 October 2012, my life was to change irrevocably.

Opening my eyes that day, I realised something was very wrong. The air around me seemed to fizz with a static electricity that obscured the room. My mind felt slow and muddy, and I knew I needed help. It was like waking up with sunglasses on. Panic set in, my husband Ed called our GP and I was rushed to hospital, but the doctors were baffled. My symptoms were strange and my tests came back as normal, yet I knew that what I was seeing and feeling was anything but. As those first few hours passed, a dense fog enveloped me, watering down colour and obliterating all form. My peripheral vision was disappearing, dissolving into nothingness. As I waited for a proper diagnosis, other odd symptoms emerged. A creeping numbness took over my limbs, and my fingers and toes felt like they were starting to freeze into solid lumps of ice. It was like something was inhabiting my body, taking away my ability to see and walk.