"How will she cross the road?": the race for a cure for 10-year-old Eve's progressive vision loss

Ongoing research key to prevent futher detoriation of 10 year old's eyesight

Tara Rooney with her 10-year-old daughter Eve who has early-onset retinitis pigmentosa (RP). 

The first inkling Tara Rooney and her husband Alan had that their daughter might have visual impairment came when Eve was transitioning from cot to bed. Despite the bedroom door being ajar to let in the landing light, Eve would feel her way to the bathroom with her hands.

An eye test at school when she was four revealed slight stigmatism but Tara couldn’t shake the feeling there was something more. “I brought her to an optician who noticed pigmentation at the back of her eye,” says the Dublin mum.