SHARE this article on Facebook. What an incredible moment!
Meet Benny Francey.
Benny is a 10-year-old boy who "loves Harry Potter, Avengers, and is a member of his local Boy Scouts. He is a kind, sensitive and very intelligent kid."
Benny is also legally blind.
He has Leber congenital amaurosis — a condition that affects one in 50,000 newborns and left him with 20/400 sight. While he can see and differentiate between colors and silhouettes, he can't see details like words or facial features.
But eSight glasses have been developed that can change that for him.
Touted as a revolutionary breakthrough, "eSight is the only patented eyewear solution that allows people with visual impairment to see again, in a way that's often very close to normal vision. eSight is wearable, hands-free, portable, comfortable, and mobile," their website claims.
But there's a downside:
The eSight glasses cost $15,000 USD.
There was no way that the young parents, whose eight-year-old, Ashton, suffers from profound blindness, OCD, and Autism, would be able to afford these glasses for Benny.
There was no way that the young parents, whose eight-year-old, Ashton, suffers from profound blindness, OCD, and Autism, would be able to afford these glasses for Benny.
His aunt, Amanda Vitt, started a GoFundMe page to raise the money.
Donations came pouring in from all over, and within a couple of months, they had raised what they needed to get Benny a pair of eSight glasses.
The next thing they had to do was take Benny for testing.
Benny, his mother, Jenna, and his aunt headed to Toronto, Canada — one of only 21 cities in North America where eSight provides free demonstrations of their product — to get Benny into a pair and see if they could work for him.
Everyone was nervous. What if the glasses didn't work?
"We prepared him for that, you know. We still wanted to be hopeful and excited for him, but he needed to know the reality that there was a chance that they couldn't work," his aunt said.
They didn't have to worry for long...
According to his aunt, "Benny did a pre-test before putting the headset on and could not read past the second line of text. He then had the glasses put on and was able to read NEWSPAPER print!!"
The first thing he said was, "Wow."
They didn't know exactly what Benny was seeing, but they knew it was making an impact. His mother said there were tears, but he smiled at his mother and said she "had a big nose."
They all laughed.
"It was amazing. I mean, he sat there and stared for a very long time and so you could tell I guess that he was taking it all in."
They all laughed.
"It was amazing. I mean, he sat there and stared for a very long time and so you could tell I guess that he was taking it all in."
It was a dream come true.
It was very emotional for the family. "Within minutes of having them on, our prayers were answered. He could see! Something we all take for granted on a daily basis — he was experiencing for the first time in ten years," his aunt posted. They looked at family photos while Benny spent some time in the glasses. For the first time, Benny saw palm trees in the pictures of a family vacation that he hadn't even been able to see while they were there.
He'll be receiving his own pair of glasses this week.
An update on Benny's GoFundMe page announced that, "Benny's glasses are being made now and he is literally counting down the days for their arrival! He will now have the chance to see things such as a flower, sunsets, and his own reflection for the first time!" He also can't wait to see his mother again.
0 comments: