“We feel lucky to have found Living Paintings” – a mummy and toddler story

Hanna, mummy to 2 year old George, recently wrote to us to share George’s journey after being a library member of Living Paintings for a year now. She told us how thrilled she was to discover our tactile library.

“George was born at 23 weeks 6 days, weighing just 700grams. Whilst in the NICU he would be checked weekly for an eye condition most common in pre term babies weighing less than 1250 grams called Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). Unfortunately, it was confirmed that George had ROP.

There are two types of treatment for ROP – injections in the eyes, or laser eye surgery. It was decided that laser eye surgery would be the best for George, and we were told a lot of the time it is successful. It didn’t work the first time, so we tried again, but yet it was still unsuccessful. George took a trip in a helicopter to try and save his sight by going to see a specialist at the other side of the country.

George’s vision looked hopeful and he was sent back to our own hospital where he went on to have another surgery for a cataract. The surgery was successful, but in the coming weeks after, George’s eye started to shrink and in the end his retina detached and he lost all vision in his right eye. Luckily he can still see a little bit with his glasses in his left eye.

George is now at home thriving. I contacted our local library to ask if they had any suitable books for George but unfortunately they didn’t, so I was thrilled when I came across Living Paintings. They have books suitable for George’s age and they come adapted with voice overs, braille and 3D pictures. George loves to read them with me and scratch and feel the pictures. We feel lucky to have found Living Paintings!”

Thank you Hanna and George. We are so delighted that our accessible books bring your family delight and joy.