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Meet Mike O'Brien
There are so many days where I just want to pretend that I’m not going blind.
But my fading vision makes itself known when my daughter waves to me from across the yard and her face is blurry. Or when I realize I can no longer see clearly enough to play catch with my son from the same distance.
Moments like these hit hard.
My name is Mike. I’m 41 years old, a husband, a dad — and I’m living with retinitis pigmentosa (RP), a rare blinding disease that slowly steals your vision.
Vision loss has changed far more than what I see. After my diagnosis at 32, I began living with constant uncertainty about the future. I experienced my first panic attack. Some days, the emotional weight of losing my vision feels isolating and overwhelming.
This is the best my vision is ever going to be. It’s only going to get hazier from here. It’s a hard truth that I’m working to accept.
But even in the middle of the fear and uncertainty, there’s something else I hold onto: hope. Hope that the research happening right now could lead to treatments that slow vision loss. Hope that breakthroughs are getting closer. Hope that maybe — just maybe — I’ll have more time to see my beautiful wife and watch my children grow up.
That hope is exactly what the Foundation Fighting Blindness provides. By driving groundbreaking science, emerging therapies, and providing community support, the Foundation helps people like me feel less alone while accelerating urgently needed progress toward treatments and cures.
What I want most is for the Foundation to succeed in its mission — and it gives me hope knowing they are relentlessly fighting for families like mine every single day.
- Mike O'Brien