This article was written for us by Jill Hailey about her experience of watching her grandson, Michael, seeing colour for the first time.
Can you imagine what it would be like to be colour blind? To view a world which is just dull with less colour detail? My grandson Michael is colour blind. He doesn’t wonder at rainbows, or the beauty of red roses. Well he didn’t until one Saturday a few weeks ago when he was handed the gift of colour! For the first time in his 21 years he can view life in technicolour.
And thereby hangs a tale. Michael’s mother – my daughter Jo Hailey – is a professional photographer and her company, Striking Places, was commissioned by Jez Levy to help promote his new business, when he opened Eyes on St Albans, in Marshalswick. She created a 3-D virtual tour of Jez’s amazing shop to enhance the presence of Eyes on St Albans on Google Maps.
Working with a qualified optician, prompted Jo to ask Jez if he knew of anything that could help Michael, which in turn reminded Jez that he had been attempting to talk to EnChroma in America – a company that has developed the technology to help overcome colour blindness. He immediately phoned EnChroma and followed up with an email, with links to the virtual tour created by Jo, explaining that he knew of someone who needs help. EnChroma responded almost immediately. A retail agreement was entered into and sample lens despatched.
So, on that momentous Saturday we all presented ourselves at the Marshalswick shop. Michael took a test to determine which kind of colour blindness he has and donned the special glasses! His reaction was amazing as he experienced full colours for the very first time – in fact I don’t think he stopped grinning all day.
And it was a first for Jez as well. He said: “I am delighted to be able to help someone with colour blindness, especially, in Michael’s case, a young person from St Albans who is studying Film Production at University”. Safe to say I think that Michael is the first local person to benefit from the EnChroma technology, which has never before been on the UK market.
The test that Michael took is available on the Eyes on St Albans APP, which can be downloaded through Google Play or the Apple APP Store.
Thanking Jez, Michael commented: “It’s amazing how much can change just by being able to see more colours. Everything jumps out at me and puts me in a fantastic mood.”
Our thanks go to Jill for writing this – Michael seeing colour for the first time was an emotional experience for us all . You can watch our video of the experience for yourself – how it works in store and what happened when Michael put the glasses on.
Please do contact us if you’d like to find out more about seeing colour or book an appointment.
