Vision for Denon

At the age of 3 years old, our son was diagnosed with Keratoconus and Retinitis Pigementosa, two distructive and vision robbing eye diseases.

No one can tell us how long Denon will have vision for. As this is hereditary I can tell you that two uncles of mine were legally blind by late teens. Unfortunately there is no data on them at the same age as Denon. It would appear though, that Denon is loosing vision rapidly and may be more advanced then my uncles at a similar age.

Keratoconus is a condition in which the cornea (the clear front surface of the eye) develops a conical shape, causing your vision to blur. There is now treatment available within NZ, Corneal Collegen Cross-linking. The public system has long qualification periods and Waiting Lists. We cant afford the vision it will cost our son if we wait. We are hoping to raise funds to have this procedure done privately. It will be expensive, unlike other patients - his age dictates that he will need to be fully anesthetized, adding the cost of a full theatre team on top of the price tag

Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a rare, inherited disease in which the light-sensitive retina of the eye slowly and progressively degenerates. Eventually, blindness results. Although there is no current cure, we have been referred by our Opthalmologist to Privately see a Genetic Specialists in Auckland. The hope is to identify the gene causing the disease and become registered on the Genetic Registry.

Once we are on the register - we can expect to be contacted once a cure for this gene is identified. Our Ophthalmologist is confident that this could happen in the next 3 years - but we will need to go to London or New York for treatment

Please help us to fight these terrible disease.

It breaks my heart to have started a Vision Bucket List for our boy. When asked what he wanted to see, he gave us a few great starting points. We will share these updates as they come to hand

Please help us to get Denon the best treatment as soon as possible. Any donation will be gratefully received and used to pay for Private treatment for Denon. Time really is of the essence, and we are blessed to have the opportunity to be able to find Private Treatment for Denon.

Any funds left over will be donated to RP research