CORONATION Street star Lisa George fears that she could go blind after she was diagnosed with a devastating eye condition.
The actress has NAION – non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy – which causes sudden vision loss in one eye.
Lisa, 51, has played Beth Sutherland on the ITV soap for 12 years.
Coronation Steet bosses have rushed to support Lisa and have taken measures to help her, including printing off scripts in bigger font and have even changed scenes to make things easier.
“I always think there are people far worse off than you, and I’m just grateful I can still see but we don’t know what could happen in the future,” she told MailOnline.
Lisa had an accident in 2016 when she was gardening.
She was hit in her right eye with a heavy knot at the end of a piece of rope.
A few days later she was unable to see out of her damaged eye, and she was later told by doctors that she had lost part of the sight at the bottom of the eye.
She was hit with the news that her sight would never regain her full sight.
Over the next six years Lisa desperately saw specialists and doctors in the hopes of healing her eye.
“I just wasn’t getting any explanation as to what had happened. I had scans, dye put into my eyeball, but the doctors were split as to whether it was the trauma from the rope or something else that had caused the haemorrhage at the back of my eye,” she said.
Things took a turn in 2022 when the vision in her left eye started to distort.
She was driving home after celebrating former Corrie co-star Katie McGlynn’s birthday when she suddenly struggled to see.
Lisa said that she “couldn’t tell whether the lorries in front of her were merging” as she drove along the M6.
Luckily she was able to get to A&E but ended up staying in hospital for a week in what she called “one of the worst experiences of my life”.
She had a CT scan of her head, two lumber punctures and she said that she wasn’t able to take her diabetes medication, which made her very unwell.
Lisa said that the doctors weren’t able to tell her what had happened to her eye, but suspected she had “nerve clusters” and prescribed her Asprin for the pain.
She then saw another NHS eye specialist who confirmed that the peripheral vision in her left eye had completely gone.
It was suggested that she could have NAION and she decided to go private.
As she went through more tests, she had her driving licence taken away in 2022 as it was dangerous for her to get behind the wheel.
She praised the Corrie team who organised transportation for her to get to work, but she was worried about whether or not she was still able to do her job.
Lisa said her “biggest worry” was filming at night as she was scared she might trip over a cable or miss a pavement curb.
She said how in one scene she had to walk down a set of stairs, but was struggling to see them.
Luckily, she asked the director if they could tweak the scene and she said that they made all the adjustments that she needed.
She was finally diagnosed with NAION in November last year.
Just 11 per cent of people in the UK suffer with the condition, which can leave some fully blind.
Lisa’s doctor told her that she would never get her full sight back and that the damage was irreversible.
Adjusting to her new normal, Lisa was hit with a bout of panic when she went to watch Romeo & Juliet in Manchester earlier this year.
There was a moment at the end where the entire stage faded to black and she realised that she might not ever be able to work in theatre again.
She said that it made her worry that she wouldn’t be able to cope in the acting industry with poor sight.
But she’s determined not to let her disability get her down and she’s “accepted” what has happened.
“When it first happened I was so petrified but I can’t worry about what could or couldn’t happen, it’s no way to live. I’ve just got to get on with it.”
