Teen woke up one day completely blind after eye condition diagnosis aged nine

Kitty Hinde, 19 woke up blind just weeks after meeting her new boyfriend Sam, 22. Kitty, who has been visually impaired for most of her life due to glaucoma, said the experience brought them "much closer".

She said: "I never thought I'd fall in love blind. I met my boyfriend at the same time I was losing my vision. I was blind a few weeks into meeting him. We were kind of thrown into that together. Some of the times I woke up blind for the first time I was with him."

Kitty, from Manchester, was diagnosed with glaucoma following a routine eye test and underwent various treatments, including a cornea transplant, to preserve her sight. She explained: "I had eye drops, immune suppressants. I had drainage tubes in my eye to bring the pressure down."

As she entered secondary school, her eyesight deteriorated further. She confessed: "I have been preparing to go blind all my life."

At the age of 14, she had a transplant in her right eye where her damaged cornea was replaced with healthy donor tissue. Kitty said: "The transplant was to give me more of my vision back. It worked for two years before my body rejected it."

In the spring of last year, Kitty began to experience days where she would wake up unable to see. She explained: "I woke up after sleeping a lot for quite a long time and couldn't see.

"I woke up after less sleep and could see. It started happening once a month, then once a week and now it is every day. As soon as thought I was coming to terms with losing my vision I'd have a day where I could see."

Kitty met Sam, a sound engineer, in a nightclub in May 2023. When he found out about her deteriorating eyesight, he was immediately supportive. Kitty shared: "It made us so much closer."

Adjusting to blindness has been