Weathering life’s storms – a mother’s story

PUBLISHED - 6th April 2025

This spring, Torch has launched a very exciting new initiative, aimed at reaching visually impaired children around the UK with the stories of the Gospel – with the assistance of a very cuddly little flock! Using lamb teddies embedded with recordings of Bible stories, Torch will be helping young ones experience the good news for themselves.

Young Joseph will be the first recipient of a lamb, so we spoke to his mother Kerryanne about the project and about the unique challenges faced by parents of children with sight loss.

‘As soon as Joseph was born at home, we knew something was not right with his eyes. He couldn’t open them and I was told this was normal.’ Having four older children, Kerryanne knew that this wasn’t the case. When Joseph did open his eyes, the iris wasn’t visible and concerns grew. It wasn’t until a trip to the GP at two months old that he was referred to ophthalmology experts and the extent of the issues was discovered. ‘Joseph has conditions in both eyes: microphthalmia (small eyes), coloboma (a cleft in the eye, which he also has in his iris and retina), nystagmus, as well as a cataract and abscess in his left eye,’ explained Kerryanne.

Through Kerryanne’s dedication to her son’s health, he has received diagnoses and healthcare, however with his ongoing eye conditions, she doesn’t feel that there is enough support available for parents of children with sight loss: ‘Society is the biggest challenge, people’s attitudes to blindness and visual impairment, and the lack of funding or support is really frustrating. Our society is not accessible – it’s not Joseph’s blindness that makes him disabled, it is society that makes him disabled. My role is to give all my love to Joseph and support him to become as independent as possible and [make sure] that he does everything just as if he had full sight.’

Kerryanne doesn’t feel that there are enough resources dedicated to youngsters with visual impairments, explaining that even if it is possible to source them, it can be very time consuming to get hold of anything: ‘As a carer this can be exhausting, there is a lot of gate keeping within visual impairment which means there are barriers or a lack of information given.’

As a Christian family, Kerryanne is passionate about resources that can help Joseph access faith in ways that work for him: ‘We read books to him, we have a custom made tactile sensory Bible playmat from Maydor, who are amazing.’ Kerryanne loves the idea of further tactile Christian resources for children with sight loss: ‘I’m very excited about that because it will allow Joseph the chance to build his faith and that’s what’s important, [I want] Joseph to have the same chances as everyone else and having a faith and having Jesus in your life is important.’

Kerryanne’s devotion to supporting Joseph’s spiritual development is what led her to Torch Trust and our Hope for All audio lamb project. As she explains: ‘I Googled about visual impairment and God and Torch came up on the search. I was looking for information to help support Joseph interacting with God more. We feel blessed that we are getting the lamb from Torch Trust, I think it will help Joseph to have something tactile, to hold it close to him and also be listening. Audio is really important to him and helps him engage.’

Faith is clearly a vital part of Kerryanne’s life and her desire to give Joseph every opportunity to discover that for himself is wonderful, as Kerryanne herself puts it: ‘It’s important when you go through the storms in your life, having that grounding in faith is what helps you get through it… being visually impaired, being isolated, lonely, facing challenges everyday is what this community deals with but having Jesus can support in combatting that.’ Amen!