'I have the same condition as Strictly winner Chris McCausland - it all started with one subtle sign'

Strictly Come Dancing winner and comedian Chris McCausland completely lost his sight at the age of 22 due to a rare eye condition.

Chris has been applauded for his ability to learn the routines without any visual aids and even performed a poignant dance with Dianne Buswell that imitated his experience with blindness.

The celebrity has been spreading awareness of his condition, retinitis pigmentosa (RP), an eye disease that is genetic and causes gradual vision loss.

Drawing attention to the disorder has been vital for viewers at home, including Sarah Brandt, who was diagnosed with RP at the age of 25.

"I'm registered blind, I don't have any useful vision in my left eye," the 50-year-old said. "It's completely blurry, and in my right eye, it's around four per cent, and it's like looking through a straw."

Sharing the story of the deterioration of her sight, Sarah, who lives in Chorlton, said: "It started off with night blindness during my late teens when I started driving, and I couldn't see very much as soon as it got a little dark anywhere. I couldn't see things like steps or kerbs, as it starts with your peripheral vision, so top and bottom and side to side.

"My dad has the same condition, and initially, he was told he couldn't pass it on to his children because he had a gene that wasn't passed on, but when I started having the night blindness, we thought it was probably the same thing." Sarah saw an Ophthalmologist and was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa (RP) - she is the only one out of her three siblings to experience sight loss.

According to the National Eye Institute (NEI), RP is a group of rare eye diseases that impact the retina (the light-sensitive layer of tissue at the back of the eye). RP causes cells in