Rare Retinal Disease Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department of Health and Social Care
Lee Pitcher
Main Page: Lee Pitcher (Labour - Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme)Department Debates - View all Lee Pitcher's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
(1 day, 13 hours ago)
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Edward Argar
I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman. As a professional optometrist, I am sure his bill will be in the post. Inherited retinal diseases can lead to a gradual loss of vision and can have potentially devastating effects.
Lee Pitcher (Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme) (Lab)
My wife lives with retinitis pigmentosa. We have been together for 30 years, and over that time, I have seen how that degenerative eye disease can change the way that we live, adapt and care for each other as a family. Although there is a massive place, as we have talked about, for innovation and research and for access to investigation for treatment, once she got the white cane that she has now, that became a symbol for everybody else. People notice that she has a condition and they are much more attentive to her for that reason.
It is in the period before that where we could make an intervention around inclusion and education. Does the right hon. Gentleman agree that we could do something at that point to identify to others that somebody has a condition, which they might not be able to see, in order to help them?