Help Kiwis like Holly live the life they choose.

This Blind Week, will you donate so we can continue to be there for people like Holly?

Most people are giving $50 - please give what you can.
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When you give to Blind Low Vision NZ you help give more Kiwis like Holly the practical and emotional support they need.

Holly was only 10 years old when a brain tumour left her almost entirely blind. That was 20 years ago.

Because of people like you, we were there for her then, and we are still here for her now.

As a child, Holly needed help to learn how to use her white cane to get around, to relearn things she once knew – like making herself a hot drink – because everything is different when you can’t see what you’re doing.

She learned braille so she could pursue her education. And she was overjoyed to be given a laptop with special speech-to-text technology that made her studying so much easier.

In her early twenties, Holly had a guide dog named Laura. Holly had Laura to help her navigate her university campus.  Laura was also by her side as Holly volunteered running a music group for people with intellectual disabilities and prepared for applying for jobs to start her career.  

(She says that the people she volunteered with loved her guide dog, making Holly very popular. The other students loved Laura too.)

Holly loves music and adored the opportunity to play at music gigs, entertaining audiences with her guitar.

Volunteering and music performance are two things she’d dearly like to do more of.

Now, 20 years later, Holly is married and has recently moved to a new town.

She’s had continued help from Blind Low Vision NZ, most recently she had support to familiarise herself with her new neighbourhood.

“I was taught where the shops are and where the doctor is and stuff like that,” Holly says. It is important to her to have that independence. “I didn’t have to rely on my husband or my mother in law to take me everywhere all the time because I don’t like relying on other people. I want to be able to do it myself,” she says.

Holly will keep on using Blind Low Vision NZ’s support, at all stages of her life, to continue to live the life she chooses. With the help of people like you, we’ll be there for her. And for you if you ever need us.

Please donate now to give others like Holly the support they need to live the life they choose.

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