Broadcaster who lost vision at 17 could ‘see’ husband’s face for first time in over 10 years thanks to new technology

A content creator and broadcaster who lost all her vision aged 17 just two months after meeting her now-husband has been brought to tears by “life-changing” technology which may allow her to “see” her partner’s face again with her hands.

Lucy Edwards, 28, who lives in Birmingham with her husband, Olly, 27, has a rare genetic condition that led to her losing sight in one eye at age 11, and in the other eye at age 17.

After “learning how to navigate again” she went on to train as a journalist at the BBC, and used social media in the pandemic to promote her portfolio, but has since gone on to become a full-time content creator and broadcaster raising awareness about what it is like to be blind, and now has a whopping 1.8 million TikTok followers.

She met her husband, Olly, a few months before going blind and has not been able to see his face since, which she has always found upsetting.

However, Canon has invented a way to apply printing technology where images can be printed on raised paper, known as elevated print, to especially help those with visual impairments visualise photographs, and Lucy is hopeful she may be able to “see” her husband and future children one day.

She has experienced the technology, by feeling an artist’s photographs, including an image of a woman with a scar on her back, which brought her to tears thinking about the possibilities for the future.

Lucy told PA Real Life: “It makes my heart flutter and gets me really choked thinking that I can’t remember the images of my husband or, I won’t ever see, with my own eyes, my children’s faces.

“But now, I just can’t even put into words how much it truly means to me.

“I love being blind now … I’ve worked really hard to be able to say that. It’s given me true vision to be able to see the world in a different way.

“I think there’s beauty in not seeing the world as well, and just feeling it, and I now have a different version of what beauty means to me.

“It’s not only by touch, but also how we feel inside.”

Lucy lost her sight in her right eye at age 11 due to incontinentia pigmenti, which according to the National Organisation for Rare Diseases, if left untreated, may cause retinal detachment leading to permanent visual impairment or total blindness.

At age 17, she was booked in for sight-saving surgery at Moorfields Eye Hospital, which did not go to plan.

Lucy had to lie on her front for three months as doctors put a silicone oil bubble in her eye, hoping it would bring back her eyesight, but in the process, they had to cut off half of her retina.

Sadly, after she had the surgery, she woke up with next to no vision in her other eye.

“My sense of self hit rock bottom and I didn’t really know who I was any more,” she explained.

“I had to kind of learn how to live again.

“I’ve had to learn how to do things again for the very first time – when everyone else was thriving I was kind of surviving, learning how to navigate again.”

Just two months before losing her vision in both eyes, Lucy began dating her now-husband, Olly.

She said: “My blindness has made our relationship stronger and I really do believe that, the way that we communicate with each other, my family, my friends, I have such close relationships around me.

“We have raw and honest conversations, I just love that my blindness has been able to give me that.”

But, Lucy cannot help but get upset about the fact she will not be able to see her husband’s face again, and has to rely on memories.

“It’s like you took a photo of my husband 11 years ago, put it in a drawer, and you’ve lost the key, but you still have this amazing image,” Lucy explained.

“But you don’t have a renewed memory of it – I think some elements of the visual memory get really blurry because you try to overwrite it … or I misremember details and little aspects.”

However, now Canon has released a way to apply printing technology, she thinks it may be possible for her to re-establish what her husband looks like.

In March 2024, she had the opportunity to go to a photographer’s exhibition, and was able to visualise the artwork for the first time due to the images being raised.

She said: “Traditional, tactile images for the blind are made from a type of paper that I used in school or are plastic, and actually look a bit nasty.

“With this new technology, it looks like a gorgeous photo, and it’s something that a sighted person would want on their wall.

“That’s so important – I care about the visual world so much – I love fashion, make-up, and my house looking nice.

“The technology basically uses different levels of paper for you to feel, and it makes it easier to picture the image.”

The images at the exhibition were also described in Braille, and she was able to “see” an image of a woman with a scar on her back.

“I was floored – it made me cry so much because I haven’t seen in all this time,” she said.

“I think for me, like up to this point, tactile models and sculptures haven’t been as good.

“I can’t articulate how much this means to me.”

On what this technology may mean for the future, Lucy said: “We’re in a world now where blind people can have photo albums of their wedding and actually feel or see them.

“It could even mean there could be tactile maps in train stations or in toilets instead of feeling around the room … it would be life-changing.

“It’s about how we now design from the ground up and incorporate universal design principles into everything that we do.

“Because, again, we’re all people – I’m not just a disabled person, I’m also a wife, I’m also a broadcaster, I’ve got so many strings to my bow and blindness is just one of them.”

Lucy’s book, Blind Not Broken, is out now, and can be found at Amazon.co.uk/Blind-Not-Broken-turning-happiness/dp/0600637654.

World Unseen, the accessible photography exhibition produced by Canon in conjunction with the Royal National Institute of Blind People, is also going on display at Somerset House in London from April 5-7.

Tickets are available here: Somersethouse.org.uk/whats-on/canon-world-unseen.