Cameron is a headstrong 16 year old who has never let sight loss be a barrier to his achievements.

At birth, Cameron suffered from congenital cataracts. Removed when he was 6 months old, the surgery left him with aphakia- or the lack of a lens in both eyes. This means Cameron has just over 50% vision in short sight, and even less at a distance. He wears correctional glasses and contacts to assist with this.
But this has never stopped him from living a full life, throwing himself into all of the things he’s passionate about.

Cameron is a rower, which he finds is rarely impacted by his sight loss, although steering can be a bit more of a challenge for him than others.

Going to a sighted school has not been too problematic for Cameron, using magnifiers at school and home to help him with reading whiteboards and doing homework. In fact, Cameron is absolutely flourishing at school; he’s Head Boy for his year group and has recently starred as Aladdin in the eponymous school play!

Moving from South Africa to the UK in 2021 has certainly been a big change, stepping out of his comfort zone and away from friends. But Cameron has been excited about the new opportunities that this move has brought, including coming into contact with Berkshire Vision.

As a sports fan, Cameron was intrigued by the activity side of Berkshire Vision, attending Blind Football and rock climbing. Activities like these give children and young adults with sight loss the chance to try something new with the encouragement of their peers as well as staff, offering a safe space for them to feel supported and expand their interests. A hardworking young man with a plethora of hobbies, Cameron has not been able to attend as many activities as he’d have liked so far, but he’s excited to attend more once his GCSEs are out of the way this year.

Berkshire Vision is a safety net too, any queries or questions about accessibility at school can easily be directed to the hardworking staff, who find solutions to problems both great and small.

Cameron is currently looking forward to a fresh start with A-Levels, moving to a new school will give him a nice change of scenery, as well as opening more doors towards future careers. At the moment, he’s not certain about what the future will bring, but he’s following his passions knowing that his fervent attitude will get him far in life!