Local families grateful for Lions Club support
World Sight Day on October 10 had special significance for Dave and Colin Booker of Cold Lake.
Dave has been losing his vision over the years due to retinal detachments, cataracts, and glaucoma. He also injured his one good eye recently, requiring emergency surgery. His vision impairment forced him to retire from his career as a camp chef.
His son Colin, meanwhile, has vision problems of his own. Though his conditions are not related to Dave’s, the hardship of not being able to work, coupled with what Dave believes is insufficient support for their disability, creates some
hardships.
Colin has the better eyesight of the two, Dave says. When they are out together, Colin is able to read things like prices for the two of them.
Colin’s vision is improving thanks to weekly vision therapy sessions. The therapy is available in Edmonton and costs $300 per visit.
Colin initially received the therapy in Lloydminster. At first, Dave says, the course of treatment was supposed to be 10 or 15 sessions. Dave says delays in finding the right support, and the fact that the therapy is no longer available in Lloydminster, had made the situation worse.
“He was diagnosed with his double vision and everything three years ago, and AISH or none of the other agencies would help cover the cost,” he said.
The new clinic in Edmonton had to re-start his therapy from scratch, and now they’re looking at 50 to 60 weekly sessions to complete the program.
The Grand Centre Lions Club stepped up with funding to allow Colin to get the therapy. Helping people with sight and vision issues is a major project of Lions International and its local clubs around the world.
The Grand Centre Lions directly assist several people in the Cold Lake area who may be in a similar situation to Colin’s. Thanks to the support from the Lions, Dave says, Colin is improving.
“It’s getting a lot better. He’s he does his hour every week, and then he does quite a few hours at home during the week—home studies to continue it,” Dave said.
“It’s going better with his vision, and the headaches are just about gone. But he still has a long way to go.”
Dr. John Barclay is the Cold Lake optometrist who provides regular care to Dave and Colin. He says World Sight Day brings awareness to how important sight is for everyone.
“One of the main focuses is with this vision therapy and what Colin’s been going through,” Barclay said. “Eighty per cent of learning is visual and studies show that that one in four, or 25 per cent of school age children have some form of vision problem.
“So if 80 per cent of learning is visual and 25 per cent are having problems, it’s definitely an issue that needs some awareness and for us to help out as much as we can.”
Barclay explains that binocular vision, or using both eyes to receive images and transmit them to the brain, has two parts.
“One is just how the eyes move together. It’s called ocular motility,” he said. “You have six muscles on each eye, 12 all together trying to work to keep the eyes straight and move along like a path for reading. Some children have issues coordinating these muscles to keep their eyes moving smoothly across the page to read.
“The second part is your visual perceptual and that’s your brain taking the images from each eye and putting them together to understand what you’re seeing.”
He explains local practitioners can do some testing and even some vision therapy. “But for any moderate or severe cases, there’s specialty clinics that help with that.
“That’s where I call in and the Lions Club comes into play, as we don’t have the very specialized care for that in Cold Lake or the Lakeland area.”
Barclay recognizes the cost of the therapy is prohibitive for some.
“There’s not really Alberta health care coverage for it,” he said. “If there is any coverage, it’s minuscule, like maybe 5 per cent. So it’s mostly out of pocket expenses for this type of thing.
Barclay said monitoring changes in vision is important for people of all ages. Regular eye exams can provide an important window on eye heath and other health issues including high blood sugar, diabetes, and some forms of cancer.
Meanwhile Dave Booker said the support of the Grand Centre Lions has made a big difference for Colin and other people in Cold Lake.
“They were so great about it. The Lions Club were amazing,” he said.