Coronation Street actress Lisa George has revealed that she is at risk of going blind after being diagnosed with a genetic eye condition.
The soap star, who plays Beth Sutherland on the cobbles, has said that she fears she might never be able to act again on stage after being diagnosed with NAION (non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy). According to the NHS, NAION is a disorder in which the vessels (arteries) supplying blood to the optic nerves become blocked. The loss of blood supply deprives the optic nerve of oxygen and results in damage to all or part of the nerve, causing sudden vision loss.
ITV bosses took taken measures to help Lisa by organising transport when she was unable to drive for six months, printing her scripts in big fonts and changing some scenes to help her eye sight.
Back in 2016, Lisa suffered a nasty incident while she was gardening where a heavy knot at the end of a rope struck her right eye. The sight in that eye completely went just a few days later and she was told that the sight in the bottom of her right eye wouldn't return.
Speaking to the Daily Mail after contacting a number of eye specialists over the last six years, she said: "Luckily my left eye was really good with 20/20 vision and the only thing I struggled with after that first incident was being able to read.
"Corrie were great, they printed my scripts in a bigger font to make it easier but I just wasn't getting any explanation as to what had happened. I had scans, dye put into my eyeball, but the doctors were split as to whether it was the trauma from the rope or something else that had caused the haemorrhage at the back of my eye."
However, Lisa unfortunately became involved in a second eye incident in 2022 - this time with her left eye. She had enjoyed an evening with Katie McGlynn after her 29th birthday when her left eye "went really weird" while she was driving on the M3. Describing it as a "very frightening" experience, Lisa said that she had been able to get home and get herself to A&E.
She stayed at the hospital for a week - while she dubbed as one of the "worst experiences" of her life - and underwent a CT scan and two lumber punctures. "No-one seemed to have a clue what had happened, they just said 'you've got nerve clusters' and after a week they sent me home and told me to take Aspirin for the pain," she said.
Lisa later went on to learn that, while her central vision was fine, the peripheral vision in her left eye was gone and was diagnosed with NAION. She was told to go private by her NHS eye doctor, who said there was very little funding for the condition in the NHS.
Heartbreakingly, she explained that the enormity of the situation struck her when visiting a Manchester theatre production of Romeo and Juliet, during which the stage went to blackout and the actors got on stage. "I came out of there and I thought 'I don't think I'm ever going to be able to work on the stage again' because there's no way I'd be able to see if I had to come off the stage in the dark," she said. "The panic and fear set in and I got really upset. Obviously, I'm sure they put things in place for visually impaired actors but it was a real fear and it really hit me real hard, how am I going to cope in the industry in the future?"
Source: mirror.co.uk
