I met Dawn and Serena at an event held at Eureka Museum in Halifax aimed at visually impaired children. I recognised her from an Aniridia Network UK conference we had both attended in previous years, So I approached her to offer a friendly hello

Since then we kept in touch on Facebook.

Dawn lives near Liverpool but said that she loved Eureka and would be visiting again with Serena. Dawn got in touch and we agreed a date to meet there so that Violet and Serena could play together.

For me the meeting came at a great time as Violet has recently been asking lots of questions about her eye condition and has been learning why her eyes are different, why she needs multiple pairs of glasses, and gaining the confidence to explain this to others all by herself.

When I explained to Violet that we would be meeting Serena who has the same eye condition Violet said “wow we could be twins” … She was really excited to meet somebody who had the same eyes as her.

I think it did Violet the world of good to know that there are other people with the same condition and that it wasn’t just her ….. It might sound strange but I think it made things seem more normal for her if that makes sense.

On the actual day we met Violet and Serena luckily just took to each other straight away, they held each other’s hands without been prompted and guided each other around the busy environment.

Serena really took to me too and often cuddled me which her mum said was unusual for her.

From my perspective, it was really good to spend time with another child with Aniridia and to be able to chat with Dawn about all things related.

For example, Violet has managed to get a full-time EHC plan in place (formerly called a statement) whereas Dawn has not yet been able to get any supported hours in place for Serena even though she is 7 months older than Violet. So it was good to talk about these types of things and offer support from our own experiences.

By Natasha

Have you had a similar experience? Please tell your story,

To make your own personal connections like Natasha and Dawn, Serena and Violet come to our events to meet others or use our befriending scheme. to be put in touch the kind of people you want to speak to.