Dear Mike.

Thank you for replying to my e-mail message. I would indeed by happy for you to put my story onto your homepage, as so below I will give you a brief account of my experiences.

My name is Andrew Starr, I work for the Employment Service, a government agency in Britain, at an office in Harlow, Essex, England, where I administer payments to people on government training schemes. I have two brothers, one, Christopher, a year younger than myself is unaffected but the other, Ian, is also affected, having had bilateral retinoblastoma and impaired vision in the right eye. I live with my widowed father David in Harlow.

I inherited Retinoblastoma from my mother, the late Mrs Jean Starr, who was born in April 1942 in south London. She was treated with radium and had had both eyes removed. When my parents married, they were not fully aware of the nature of her condition, as my late grandparents were not told the full details. My mother managed to bring up 3 children and to become the first (to the best of my knowledge) totally blind dog breeder to exhibit a dog at the Crufts dog show in England.

I was born on 18 January 1962 at the Nelson hospital, Merton, south London and by Easter of that year I developed the "cats eye" effect. Alarmed, my parents consulted with the local general practitioner, who, not quite knowing what the problem was, decided to keep the problem under observation. It was then noticed that my pupil had become cloudy, and an attempt was made to make an appointment at the local hospital in Sutton, who unfortunately could not arrange an appointment for a further month. The doctor arranged for a visit to a consultant in Harley Street, and I was admitted to Moorfields Eye Hospital in London for treatment.

I was treated with Cobalt-60 plaques and cyclophosphomides by Mr Hugh Stallard, and the left eye had to be removed. The right eye however was saved. I continued to have quarterly EUA's at Moorfields and later at St. Bartholomews hospital, London, until about 1970 when I went on to annual checkups in outpatients.

Because my late mother had to go to boarding school as a child my parents decided to send me to a school for the partially sighted an Walthamstow, east London. I started this school in September 1966 at four and a half years of age.

During my school years I learned to use magnifiers and later at 7 years old progressed to my first low vision aid. My school life was much as anyone else's, other than the problems caused by impaired vision at that time 3/60.and 22 mile journey to and from school every day.

At the age of 14 I was integrated into the comprehensive school in London that was located near to my school, and continued my studies there. It was at that point that I first experienced the problems of the vision impaired in a world designed for people with normal eyesight. I found it difficult to read overhaed projections and blackboards even with a telescope, and lighting problems caused reading problems with my low vision aid, principally shadows. Also I suffered from some discrimination from teachers (not much of this though) various taunts and other unpleasantness from other children.

After going into further education at a college for the vision impaired in Hereford, and a long period of unemployment in which I went on a government training scheme, I finally managed to get my present job. Unfortunately before I got a job, my mother died of malignant melanoma in August 1984.

My eyesight does affect my work, although I do have special equipment in my office to help me with my job. I have a PC equipped with Zoomtext to interface with the various computer systems that I have to use and a CCTV machine to magnify documents. Other than that I use an LVA to read and a telescope to help me to use public transport, although I still have trouble sometimes, as it is still difficult to read bus numbers and train times, and getting lost in unfamiliar places is a major problem, also my eyesight is deteriorating in my right eye, due to a radiation caused cataract that will eventually require surgery, this is particularly troublesome as I am also an amateur musician and it is becoming much harder to read the music, and also I am bothered by bright light especially in winter and on bright summer days.

Things like watching TV can be a problem too, I have to sit very close to a television to watch it, as using the telescope is uncomfortable as the image is too bright to conformably view through it. Magazines are a problem too, many are printed in fine print which I am now finding virtually impossible to read. It is very difficult to properly describe who RB has affected my life, it certainly has denied me some possibilities such as driving and some career options, the problem being that I am so used to coping with the various problems of eyesight loss that I rely can't begin properly. In fact some of my colleagues at the office wonder how I get by, an excellent memory helps to avoid having to read the various codes and circulars, and as I have pointed out to various friends at some time or other I have had lots of practice!

The knowledge that RB is a genetic disorder sometimes weighs hevily on my mind especially as I discovered from my parents that it is a 'dominant' type problem and knowing this to me at least is very unconfortable.

I hope that my story will prove interesting to other readers of your homepage, I have tried to be as detailed as possible but did not want to write too much as it would take too long to download. Anyone wishing to write to me can do so at ANDSTAR@aol.com.

Sends Andrew some Email.at andrew.starr@dial.pipex.com