Additional information
by Nick McKinnel Bishop (Foreword by), Liz Lenton (Author)
At last a book that gives real hope to sufferers from dry Age Related Macular Degeneration (AMD)! A retired British woman doctor, no stranger to struggling against the odds, finds herself facing a brick wall of a diagnosis that threatens her independence with progressive loss of her vision as she is discharged from an overstretched National Health Service (NHS) eye clinic with the grim news that there is no treatment for dry AMD. Liz is determined to fight back and her search for a solution begins. In the pages of this heartwarming book threaded through with compassion, humour and Liz's strong Christian faith you will meet a woman who shares honestly what it is like to have AMD, her coping strategies and exciting news of modern treatments to restore lost vision as Liz herself has experienced. At the same time, Liz opens up her life to us, painting a vivid picture of the extraordinary people and events that have been a part of her journey - overcoming financial struggles and family hardship to enter medicine at a time when women were a rarity to become the first woman RAF medical cadet, taking part in Steptoe and Edwards' original IVF experiments and even acting as Flight 'Loo-tenant' to Princess Margaret. Don't miss the chance to meet Bonici, the rascally Maltese serviceman with a heart of gold, Liz's 'hero' father who turns out to have feet of clay, the Green Lady and the Cat Lady while the story of how Liz finds and undergoes the pioneering treatment that takes her from only 'counting fingers' in one eye to being able to read newsprint will have you cheering. This book is a must for anyone with AMD - full of helpful information about the disease, new advances in treating it and useful practical tips to make life for AMD sufferers easier while Liz's story is a tonic in itself - inspiring, moving and at times very, very funny.Sold in aid of visual charities.
Author Biography
Liz Lenton was born in 1937 and grew up in wartime suburban London. After the war she went to a convent school in Belgium, shortly before spending 2 years with her parents in 'British West Africa', where she did not attend school, but sometimes submitted to home tuition by her father, aided by a PNEU correspondence course. On returning to the UK she went to a PNEU day school before becoming a border at Dr William's School in North Wales for three years. Later, she transferred to a pre-medical course at an Essex Technical college. Her undergraduate medical education was completed at St Andrews University before the split from Dundee, so she undertook the clinical part of her studies there. During her penultimate University year, Liz became the first woman RAF Medical Cadet, so on completing her pre-registration house jobs at NHS hospitals, she served a total of eight years as an RAF (not WRAF) Medical Officer. Her first RAF posting took her to Malta, where she met Stewart, a pilot, who later became her husband. After the RAF Liz became a country GP, and Stewart, a civilian airline Captain. They retired to Plymouth where Stewart joined the National Coast Watch Institution (NCI), and Liz started using her training in Christian counselling. Stewart photographed fishing boats to be used by the NCI for identification purposes, but Falmouth Maritime museum persuaded him to publish this unique photographic record. Liz helped him turn it into three books: 'The Fishing Boats and Ports' of Cornwall, Devon and Wales. When Liz was told that she had dry Age Related macular degeneration - a blinding condition for which there was no treatment - she wrote her own book to give hope to others, describing how she eventually found a pioneering surgical treatment that restored her vision.
