Katarina Johnson-Thompson

Katarina Johnson-Thompson

When I was in year three, the NHS visited my school. There was, and still is, to my knowledge, vision screening for all children between the ages of four and five years. An optician comes into the school with the purpose of identifying any child with reduced vision.

I was always very competitive and I remember the eye test almost like a game. I came out convinced I had beaten it and I had no reason at that age to believe that my vision was anything other than normal. When I met my friends after, we all gathered around, comparing letters we had seen. ‘I got W – R – O – X for the last line and the woman said “perfect”. What did you see?’ I answered ‘Same,’ knowing that I’d had a nightmare and things that I had really struggled with my friends could see with ease. Sure enough, the next week my mum got the letter confirming I needed glasses and to come into my local opticians for a proper test.

Before you know you have reduced vision, you have no concept of what you should and shouldn’t be able to see. You don’t know the difference between having to sit painfully close to the TV so you can see what’s going on, or not knowing if you should stick your hand out for the bus because you can’t see which number it is until it’s almost too late. Or why you shouldn’t play hockey because you won’t be able to see the yellow ball against the green Astroturf and you might whack a teammate in the face by accident because you have no concept of space.

You don’t know any better when you’re young, but by the NHS going into schools and funding these schemes, it gave me confidence. I found out that things I had struggled with were because of my vision and not because I was bad at them. Getting glasses meant I could take part in sports, take notes from the classrooms better and interact more socially. I can’t say how I would have progressed without this intervention but I know that after it I was a much happier and more self-assured child. So I’d like to thank the NHS. With their help, I was able to apply for free glasses and have them throughout my education and formative years, something that would’ve taken me years to pick up on and could have been a struggle for my family to afford.

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