Love beyond vision - Folk Features

Loren Sears is the wife of Rob Sears, the Focus 4 Fitness Founder who has Retinitis Pigmentosa and is behind the Blind Focus YouTube channel. Here, the chartered accountant shares her side of the love story

How would you describe yours and Rob’s ‘love story’?!

We met over social media (Norwich City Football Fan Page to be exact), so a modern-day love story! All joking aside, and not to sound cliche, but we met and just ‘knew’. That was 9 years ago now!

What challenges have you both overcome together and how do you support Rob every day?

Initially for me it was the learning not to make assumptions in terms of what Rob may or may not be able to see and I guess the flip side for him was learning not to assume I would automatically know he could or couldn’t see something. Communication is a big thing we’ve had to work on, and even now there are times where we get it wrong.

What is the number one piece of advice you would give to anyone in a similar situation to you?

Talk, talk, and then talk some more! Communication is key (which is true for most relationships I suppose) but if you’re not talking about how the other person is feeling, anything they’re struggling with etc, that’s when things can start to go wrong.

What are your hopes for the future?

The ultimate hope is that a cure is found, but we both realise that’s not something that is likely to happen in our lifetime, so the only other hope would be that Rob’s progression with the disease slows and comes to a stop at some point whilst he still has some vision left.