Community Christmas event featuring Candy Cane Lane display, Santa’s North Pole Mailbox with free personalised replies for children, and a fundraiser raising awareness for a visually impaired daughter.

In aid of our Visually Impaired daughter who can only see “everything clearly” at Christmas-time, To raise vital awareness surrounding Visual Impairments in young children & help us raise more crucial funds for a charity close to our heart’s alongside our daughters school PTFA group.

Step Into Christmas by visiting Lytchett Matravers very own Candy Cane Lane Christmas Display at McDonald Place.

Follow our dedicated display page on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/share/1EpaUmoNMJ/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Please also help us raise vital funds for Look UK charity who support Visually Impaired young people to thrive! Including our beautiful daughter.

In July 2018 I gave birth 8 weeks early, to a perfect 5lb bundle of joy. After a horrific pregnancy but an extremely easy birth, although early there were no signs of anything being unusually wrong.

As she started to take in the big wide world she was born into, I started to notice it was taking her longer to reach milestones such as holding her head up & rolling herself over. Sometimes she would follow me round the room, others it was like i wasn’t there at all unless I made a noise. All of which I continued to report to our HV. There was a few occasions where she would follow noises around the room & I noticed a wobble in one of her eyes. I kept being told, she was premature & the pregnancy was difficult, all children are very different & not to worry. I was told the eye wobble was just her muscles overworking. She began to pick up all sorts of infections, come out in abnormal rashes when quite normal things touched her skin & her first Christmas was plagued with a long hospital stay due to severe bronchiolitis needing help to breathe & feed. Backwards & forwards with every rash, infection they continued to tell me it was just because she was premature.

Unfortunately our beautiful girl continued to fail meeting milestones & by our 2.5 year check we weren’t talking more than a few words, she was in her own world 99% of the time & wasn’t even attempting to crawl anywhere, let alone walk. There was no bum shuffling across the floor & certainly no interest in moving very far.

This time I was listened too. We were sent for ear examinations which at this time came back all clear & we were referred to speech & language therapists.

By 3 years old & 6 months on the S&L waiting list, I was contacted & given an over the phone assessment. Brooklyn-Mai had over night almost started to hoist herself up on furniture & was taking steps. Albeit, wobbly & small but steps all the same so my concerns about her mobility milestones were then disregarded. I then spoke to the speech & language therapy team & they said Brooklyn-Mai was affected socially & verbally due to Covid restrictions & that I was to find a nursery setting for her. “She will catch up” were the speech therapists exact words on the phone & we will catch up with you in 12 months.

A few months later & Brooklyn-Mai started an amazing outdoor focused kindergarten. She settled in amazingly & slowly but surely she started to communicate with more words. She was still delayed in reaching ‘average’ milestones but she was catching up & no one seemed concerned, until she became more confident on her feet but started to walk into things she shouldn’t really of missed. She also started to have a lot of trips, falls & soo many accident forms were coming home.

Again, I was told it was likely a balance issue & to maybe get her ears checked over once more.

This time the DR sent referred us to the audiology team & another referral was made to the ENT team at our local hospital.

By the time these referrals had come through at 4 years old Brooklyn-Mai had started school (sept 2022) & both teams said I was to wait until she had her early year vision & audio screening done, this would then follow with any relevant referrals that were needed.

Shortly after starting school Brooklyn-Mai started to notice she was different & kept asking what was wrong.

She struggled to read, she fell behind in the majority of her subjects & she noticed she could only see properly from certain spots in her class.

Then her first sports day came in the spring 2023, thankfully a week before the vision screening was due to take place but this was unfortunately the day as a mother when I genuinely realised it there was something seriously wrong but hoped it was just minor.

Brooklyn-Mai took part in 4 races & unfortunately came last in all. She was heartbroken in regards to her egg & spoon race but when doing a long distance run around her school field, she genuinely did not even see every other participant overlap her some just once, others more than & that’s when mummy’s heart broke for her.

Though, I will always remember the most amazing group of mums, children & teachers that cheered her all the way along & to her amazing friends who some ran the outside of the track with her & others went back to finish all over again next to her.

Myself & her class teacher (who happened to be the senco lead) had a discussion about sports day, the following morning & it was said that the school nurse would contact me.

With only 6 days until vision screening day, I spoke to the school nurse on the Friday who reassured me that anything untoward would definitely be picked up in next weeks screening & to note down any further concerns I had. Finally someone was listening!

Wednesday of the following week, was vision screening day!

By 11am that day, I had a call asking me to instantaneously take her to specsavers & that a referral to the local ophthalmologist team at our local hospital had been made as both Brooklyn-Mai’s eyes had an uncontrollable involuntary movements & it became difficult to accurately test her.

By 5pm that day we left specsavers awaiting a phone call to go back & collect some glasses.

Thankfully we didn’t wait long before our first ophthalmologist appt & BM was seen within 6 weeks of the vision screening taking place. We also had a call back from specsavers within 24 hours to go & collect her first ever pair of glasses (we are now on our 5th pair).

After her first ophthalmology appt things went extremely quickly barring receiving diagnosis.

We had referrals to see specialists at Southampton hospital & another referral for genetic testing.

All these appointments came & BM handled being poked, prodded & anything else they threw at her like an absolute trooper!

BM has always known there’s a possibility something wasn’t working correctly. Since the sports day of the 2023 she has continually asked why she can’t keep up with people, why she can’t run properly, why she walks into things & why she falls over so often.

Without knowing myself, I have always only ever said that something is obviously not working correctly & we will find out what.

Since the summer of 2024 we had obviously become more certain that it was definitely her eyes so we started to say that her eyes just weren’t doing what they need to do properly. I think deep down I knew we were living with a Visual Impairment but a small part of me was clinging on the fact it may just be a simply eye condition that could be corrected with glasses.

3 appointments a year for the next 2 years & we finally arrive to the most amazing Dr. Jay Self within Southampton Hospital in April 2025 who then carried out even further tests & had a full genetic blood swab taken from BM.

We received an instant diagnosis of Nystagmus (horizontal in one eye & vertical in the other), Photophobia & Retinal Detachment in one eye & a suspected glaucomic dot.

We were told that due to Brooklyn-Mai’s poor sight, the results from that days tests & with evidence I provided of issues that Brooklyn-Mai was leaving Southampton hospital with being registered as visually impaired & bringing a certificate home to prove it.

We were told the genetic test was to confirm Ocular Albinsm but for an all clear genetic test, it would take 3 months to return the results & upto 6-8 months if anything was found.

7 months later, we are now October 2025 & we have our confirmed diagnosis of Mild Ocular Albinsm. (which also gives an explanation for her extremely fair skin & orange hair, alongside her many allergic reactions & rashes).

The support we’ve had as a family from Dorset Council’s Visual Impairment team, both Southampton & Poole Hospitals ophthalmologist & optometrist teams, the senco teachers & staff at LMPS (Lytchett Matravers Primary School) & Brooklyn-Mai’s closest friends has been absolutely amazing.

Since being registered as visually impaired ‘Look’ - who support visually impaired young people & their families to thrive in a world that isn’t very visual impairment friendly. ‘Look’ offer structured peer support for our young people and their parents / carers, through our mentoring project, support groups and events programmes have been absolutely amazing in helping me advocate for Brooklyn-Mai as an independent individual.

Please help us to help Brooklyn-Mai & 100’s of other Visually Impaired children by donating to ‘Look’ this Christmas.

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.