I live in Marburg, Germany. There I am attending a school for the Blind and visually impaired. I am going to graduate from this school in summer. After graduation I would like to study special education but where, I do not know yet.
When I was 18 years, my eye-disease, retinitis pigmentosa, was discovered. Its symptoms were evident since early childhood but it was not properly diagnosed by eye-physicians. After I was switching to another eye-doctor he clearly diagnosed retinitis pigmentosa. I was glad that the reason for my reduced vision was finally discovered. All the previous years I had manifold visual problems and nobody could tell me why I could see so poorly in certain situations. It may sound weird but the correct diagnosis lead to a tremendous improvement of my life's quality. I discovered "Pro Retina Deutschland e.V.", a self-support-group of people with all forms of retina degeneration in Germany.
There I got in contact with other people, who were challenged by similar problems. The exchange of experiences became so important to me that I decided to play an active role in this great self-support-group. Since 1999 I am contact person for young people affected by retinits pigmentosa in Berlin, Germany and in Marburg, Germany. I am eager to meet other people with this eye-disorder to do interesting things together and to exchange experiences. Thanks to REY it even works now on European level.
In my spare-time, I work a lot with computers, especially with the Internet. Moreover, I play the guitar, meet friends or listen to music (my favorite band is "Radiohead").
I hope that the Youth of Retina Europe continues to grow and that more and more people play an active role in it.