Ex-Kempie teen (19) fights total blindness – expensive op needed

Allen Grove resident Amy Botha (19) has lost sight in both her eyes due to a rare brain condition.

Now she is fighting against time to raise enough funds for an operation that will hopefully help her lead a somewhat normal life again.

“I just thought I needed new glasses,” this former Hoërskool Kempton Park learner tells Express.

It is clear that she is a strong woman, as she tells her terrifying story in a calm voice. Her mother Natasjha and little sister Angie (9) sit next to her for support. In the corner, an African Grey parrot chirps cheerfully, blissfully unaware.

Last year December, eye tests showed there was nothing wrong with Amy’s sight. A CT scan and many blood tests also couldn’t find anything.

Finally, an MRI scan confirmed she had Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension. This rare genetic disease mimics a brain tumour where there isn’t one. Symptoms include extremely painful headaches and, such as in Amy’s case, blindness.

Her only hope now is to receive a shunt, which will drain some of the cerebral spinal fluid pressing onto her brain. Unfortunately, the damage to her left eye is already too extensive and its sight will never be restored. Amy’s only hope now is her right eye, in which she only recently lost sight.

As the family has no medical aid, they need help from their community to pay the operation of about R250 000.

“It felt like being hit,” Amy says about first losing her sight. She holds a cup of coffee in her neatly manicured hands but doesn’t take a sip. Her medication makes her too nauseous to eat, sometimes even causing hallucinations.

Before her disease, the blond-haired brown-eyed teenager led a normal life. She went to the shops with her friends, hoped to pass her driver’s licence and dreamed of becoming a teacher. Now, she can’t go anywhere without assistance. She will never be able to drive again and was unable to study education at Unisa, as she could never write her final matric exam.

“I am not angry. I decided that it won’t help to sit in a corner and cry.”

Amy’s equally strong mother gets tears in her eyes as she listens to her strong-willed daughter.

“She is so young. I wonder if she’ll ever get to see her husband or her babies. I just want her to have the normal life she dreamed of as a little girl.”

Natasjha urges others to visit a doctor immediately when they experience problems with their eyes.

“We will never know if we waited too long.” She has since started a Facebook page, Help Amy get her Shunt, to raise awareness about her daughter’s illness.

She wished to thank Amor Schoeman from the Child Medi Organisation, who helped schedule the MRI and necessary doctor’s appointments when she finally understood what was happening to Amy.

At the end of the interview, little sister Angie pipes up: “Although we fight sometimes, I love my sister. I pray that she will be OK. I do not want to lose my sister.”

To donate to Amy’s cause, readers can visit her fund-raising page goo.gl/RMRWwh, or use the following banking details:

Child Medi Organisation FNB,

Cheque Acc no: 626 325 810 56

Branch code: 250655

Swift code: firnzajj, Ref: Amy