Source: My UM

In her thought-provoking article, “Three Days to See”, American author Helen Keller told her experience of becoming deaf and blind as a result of an illness. Something similar happened to Joe Wai, who graduated from UM earlier this year. Three years ago Joe was diagnosed with LHON (short for Leber’s Hereditary Optic Neuropathy), which caused his vision to drop to below one hundredth of a normal person’s vision. For a time, Joe felt devastated. He even thought about ending his life. Now he has finished his studies, got a degree, and is working at a job that is a good fit for his specialty. What got him through that dark period?


A Blur within 20cm

In 2009, Joe passed a very competitive entrance examination and got admitted to UM’s Faculty of Business Administration which was a dream come true for him. He worked hard and actively participated in various extracurricular activities. Everything was great until the nightmare began. During the exam period in the second semester of his sophomore year, he found his vision becoming blurred. “At the worst of it, I put one of my fingers 20cm from my eyes, and I couldn’t see it clearly,” Joe recalls.

Quit School in Search of Treatment

The sudden rapid vision loss not only forced Joe to give up driving, which he enjoyed very much, but also made his life difficult in many ways. “Sometimes when I was walking on the campus and heard people say hi to me, I couldn’t say hi back because I couldn’t see them,” says Joe. “But maybe they thought I was being incredibly rude and arrogant.” An introvert by nature, he became more and more withdrawn until one day he woke up to find himself at the bottom of a deep dark pit. That’s when he decided to take some time off school to look for treatment.

Counselling and Treatment Rebuild Confidence

Luckily for Joe, he was never alone. “My mom was always there for me, and that got me through all this,” Joe says. His cousin also wrote a letter to UM to tell the university about his condition. After receiving the letter, the Student Affairs Office (SAO) immediately followed up on Joe’s case. The SAO arranged for staff to help Joe adjust to his new life and also arranged for staff to go to Hong Kong with him to look for treatment. Joe told us that the weekly counselling with the SAO helped him gradually release the stress and become more confident and positive. A year’s treatment failed to restore Joe’s vision to normal, but he decided to go back to school.

Persevere until Graduation

Because of his severely impaired vision, Joe worked harder and longer than other students. He always had to sit in the first row in class. He printed out blowup versions of the teachers’ presentations to study. His teachers also did their best to help this brave young man. In the end his efforts paid off. Earlier this year he received his graduation certificate. The SAO then contacted the Labour Affairs Bureau and helped him find a hotel job that is a good fit for his specialty. You would’ t be able to tell it by looking at him, but even after a year’s treatment, his vision in both eyes is still much lower than normal—with only 50 per cent of the normal vision in one eye, and 10 per cent in the other. Still Joe is very grateful that the worst is now over. “At least now I can get by every day with what vision is left in my eyes, and I have a good job,” Joe says. Joe hopes his story can inspire UM members to live in the now, no matter how hard the “now” gets, because as clichéd as it may sound, after the rain there always will be sunshine.