Hello, my name is Jas. I am 18 years old and on September the 15th I will be swimming 10km (400 lengths of a 25m pool) to raise money to help find a cure for retinitis pigmentosa (RP), an eye condition which will take the sight of my god brother, Finlay.  

Below is Finlay's story.  This is really important for me - I have known Finlay my whole life and I would love to make a difference for him and others with RP.  Please spare what you can.  Thank you:)

My name is Finlay Macleod.  I am 18 years old, and I have a degenerative eye condition called retinitis pigmentosa (RP). Over time my eyesight will degenerate until I go totally blind. 

I first discovered there was something wrong aged 9. That Halloween whilst ‘trick or treating’ I would constantly trip up and bump into obstacles, having never really done so before. After a period of thinking I was just clumsy, we ended up seeing a specialist at The Moorfield Eye Hospital, and soon received the diagnosis. 

RP affects the photoreceptors (the rods and cones) at the back of my eye. Due to a faulty gene, over time my photoreceptors will die, and my vision will deteriorate. This process began with my night vision and has now started to affect my peripheral vision. It will eventually affect my central vision as well.  This has affected many of the things I love doing, such as sport before an after school in the winter when the light is poor.  And I can no longer enjoy playing sport under floodlights, like five aside football with my local East Sheen friends.

Since my diagnoses we have been raising money for the charity Retina UK. Thankfully the scientists associated with Retina UK - including teams at my hospital, Moorfields, are working tirelessly on different treatment paths - all thanks to the money raised from kind people like you. So far Retina UK have been able to provide £16 million pounds to fund the development of new and exciting treatments. Any money that you can donate will go to help fund further research into treatment paths, which may even see me taking part in a clinical trial and provides me and every other RP sufferer with the hope that will soon be a treatment or cure for the condition.

Treatments, including the recently licenced Luxturna for gene RPE65 mutations, have proven that current research is moving very encouragingly in the right direction. People who have been treated with the new Luxturna drug have had significant improvements in their vision and light sensitivity. Treatments like these are starting to be developed with trials to try to treat people with all varying forms of RP. The money we raise contributes greatly to these research projects allowing them to keep exploring different avenues for treatments. 

What looked impossible when I was diagnosed 9 years ago now shows signs of hope. So, I thank all of you who for the support you give me - and others affected by retinitis pigmentosa.  And a big thank you to my special friend, Jasmine, for helping raise awareness of my condition and for taking on such a monumental challenge for research - I couldn't contemplate swimming more than 10 lengths. 

Good luck Jas, you're a legend!  xxx

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