TRACEY BENDINGER | Society | Contact
City Worker Tom Hankton has worn glasses since the age of 6 has only today realised just how blind he is.
The revelation came about over a boozy long birthday lunch, as friend after friend had a go at trying on his glasses.
“Fuck, Tom, you are so blind!” Stated Tara, rather obviously before taking them off and passing them to the next person.
“Omg wtf? They’re actually hurting my eyes, your eyesight must be terrible! It’s like opening my fucking eyes underwater!” Added Sophie, who continued the pass the parcel game that was now taking place with Tom’s glasses.
The glasses continued to make the rounds along the lunch table, with a cacophony of unhelpful observations filling the air along the way.
“I feel like they’re making me cross-eyed, like I’ve had a whole box of dry white in under an hour!”
“Oi, blind boy! Can you see how many fingers I’m holding up?”
The Advocate believes Tom has a condition known as Hyperopia (long sightedness), a condition of the eye where the curvature of the cornea is flat or the axial length of the eyeball is short. It’s understood that when light enters the eye, it does not focus directly on the retina, but focuses beyond the retina. This causes near sighted images to appear blurred.
“I’m happy that I finally know how blind I am” said Tom.
“Up until now I was just wearing them as a fashion statement, but now I know for sure that I’m blind.”
More to come.