Client Stories

Nino and Elese Gatto are very familiar faces in Griffith, New South Wales. For the past 18 years they have sold jams and pickles from a stall in town to raise funds for local people who are blind or have low vision.

Last year alone the Gattos presented us with a cheque for $5,000. The Gattos were inspired to support Vision Australia soon after the birth of their grandson, Ben, who was born with Leber's congenital amaurosis.

What he sees at six metres resembles what someone with perfect vision views at 60m. He also has nystagmus, which causes involuntary eye movements.

Ruby Wood has lived in the same Melbourne house for almost 60 years. When she was declared legally blind in 2005 due to age-related macular degeneration, the 86-year-old feared she would have to move: "I didn't want to go. I didn't want to lose my independence."

"I had a little peripheral vision so could still get about and do my things," she says.