It's that time again when we are getting ready for our fundraising walk to celebrate how far Maisie has come and to support and give back to our marvellous Moorfields 😃

Each year we have, unbelievably, managed to raise more and more money, becoming TOP fundraisers for the event. Because of YOU. The love and support we receive from every corner of the globe has been so humbling and we are SO proud that we have the best team cheering us on through everything. Now, because you have been so amazing, Moorfields Eye Charity is relying on Team Maisie to come through once more. We need your help and generosity once more.

We are walking 5 miles with Maisie, 3 of her cousins, her aunties and uncles and her Granny and Papa.

As many of you know, Maisie was born completely blind in her left eye because of a very dense cataract (we had no idea babies could have cataracts 🤷🏼‍♀️). It was a massive shock. On our first night in hospital I noticed that her pupil looked white, like a pearl. I raised this at her 24 hour check and the doctor said that there was no red reflex in that eye, meaning no light was getting in. He immediately referred us to an ophthalmologist and told me not to Google it. Which of course made me Google it. By the time we were seen, we were really hoping that the diagnosis was a congenital cataract as the alternatives were far more sinister. At 10 days old, we walked into Moorfields and within an hour she became a Moorfields patient for life. At 5 weeks old she had her left lens removed (but not replaced as she was too little) and we embarked on the fight to establish as much vision as we could for Maisie which involved tiny spectacles, many contact lenses and hours upon hours of aggressive, very emotional patching in an attempt to force her brain to use her very weak eye. We are lucky enough to have been supported so much by our family, Maisie's wonderful nursery and school teachers and incredible friends.

Fast forward to today and Maisie is 6! She is in a period of trialling no patching which has been life changing and freeing for her (and us). She is wonderful, confident, hilarious, fiery, loving, forgiving, sassy, creative, unique and so clever. She is so much more than her diagnoses.

Unfortunately, the vision in her left eye remains very limited. She can see well from her right eye and so we need to protect that. She has no depth perception and a permanently dilated pupil (as a result of trauma from her surgery) and so is very light sensitive in that eye. She has no natural lens in her eye so wears a contact lens which she takes out every night and bifocal glasses over the top to help her with her near vision. She remains at high risk for developing glaucoma and at some point will undergo another operation to put in an artificial lens once she has stopped growing. She apparently has a very exciting and unusual optic disc that you rarely see and has had the back of her eye photographed to be used to teach doctors all over the world!

Moorfields is always going to be a part of Maisie's life. We are beyond fortunate to have the best eye hospital in the world looking after her. I can't say enough good things about the care we have received and the research they are doing. They and we need your help. You have been so so generous in the past and we are hoping you will continue to support Moorfields so that they can continue to give Maisie the best possible care and chance of stable vision for life. The team at Moorfields, their research and their teaching is used all over the world so by sponsoring us, you will be helping people see better everywhere. Cataracts, cancer, eye injuries, degenerative sight loss, diabetic eye disease, retinal and corneal diseases and many more conditions will likely affect you or someone you love. By continuing to support us, you will be helping us, your future self, people that you know and people that you will never know.

Our youngest walker has just turned 1 (the same age Maisie was when we first did the walk!) so he definitely deserves some sponsorship 🥰

THANK YOU so much for reading and for any donation you are able to make. Please share with anyone who might have an eye interest!

Maisie, Claudia, James, Milo, Daphne, Ivan, Eleanor, Giovanni, Solomon, Jerome, Katie, Becky and Lyn x x x x x x x x x x x x x