Mitchell was born with a hereditary condition called Nystagmus, this means that his eyes move rapidly from side to side giving him poor vision. Mitchell also has ocular albinism meaning he has photo sensitivity and light aversion. As is common with those born with ocular albinism, Mitchell also has foveal hypoplasia, which is where the optical nerves behind the eye are under developed, damaged and tangled. Mitchell's are grade 4 foveal hypoplasia which is quite bad. These won't improve but we've heard that this damage doesn't necessarily correlate to his prognosis for long term sight. The biggest impact on his sight will be his ocular albinism. His current visual acuity is 6/600 meaning that if you place something 600 meters away, and imagine what that might look like to a person with normal vision, how little detail you might see, how blurred the think you are viewing might become, that is all Mitchell can see when the same object is placed only 6 meters away. Mitchell is registered partially sighted and has a certificate of visual impairment.

Mitchell has a team of specialists that support him. He is under a research team at Leicester Royal Infirmary who have managed to locate the specific nystagmus gene and hope to one day be able to use this information to help those who suffer with nystagmus. To date there is no treatment or cure for nystagmus.

Nystagmus is difficult to live with because it's a variable condition that worsens under certain situations or environments, for example the nystagmus can become worse under stress or when tired, in crowds or bright light. Most of those with the condition will never be permitted to hold a driving licence due to the severity of the condition. Whilst we have been told that Mitchell's acuity is 6/600 this is only based on his eye sight at the time of the test. This means that he may have better days and worse days.