Lando Hilton was just five years old when he lost his hearing – and now he is gradually losing his sight reports the Leicester Mercury (27/04/12)
Although the 23-year-old, from Rothley, became deaf at such a tender age, after contracting a flu-like illness, he learned to live with it and has since had an implant fitted to help him hear.
But the biggest blow, he says, has been the deterioration of his eyesight following a diagnosis of retinitis pigmentosa three years ago.
The disease, which damages the eyes' retinas, could rob him of his sight altogether.
Despite this, Lando is studying for a psychology degree at the University of Leicester and hopes to become a health psychologist or researcher.
Lando penned what it was like to live a day in his shoes for a national writing competition.
So moved were the judges by his prose, which told them of his daily struggles to walk around campus, how bright sunlight hurts his eyes and how he wakes up to silence every day, that they awarded him second prize out of hundreds of entries.
In his dreams, however, life is different. He does not squint, there is no tunnel vision and he can see everything that lies before him.
He sprints across sands with boundless energy and it is there that he forgets what it is like to have no hearing or sight.
Lando captures this in his tale entitled "To all the lovely people who still have their hearing and vision".
He said: "I have no natural hearing but I've had a cochlear implant since I was eight which pretty well resembles normal hearing.
"I'm totally deaf when I take off the outer part of my implant, but I just took my hearing loss on board when I was five and didn't question it.
"It wasn't until my teens that I started to get upset about it because it affected my social life so much.
"At that age, people don't give much consideration to deaf people and they're always talking over each other, or choosing to sit in noisy places.
"But being diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa was a massive blow. I'm still very hopeful about future treatments and I have some sight, but it's pretty poor."
Lando's aim was not to make people feel sorry for him, but to give others an understanding of what it is like for people living with his conditions.
The competition, by deafblind charity Senses, hopes to empower those who do not normally have a voice.
Once he started writing, Lando said he found it difficult to stop.
"I've got a lot to say when it comes to disabilities the words just flowed. The article took a couple of hours to write and I did it during breaks from making revision notes for my psychology exams."
He said just getting around the university campus was a challenge for him, but he allows extra time to get to lectures as he walks slowly.
"The university's AccessAbility Centre helps a lot by providing note-takers and my computer is set up for a visually-impaired user."
Lando entered the competition on the suggestion of his mum, Annette, who subscribes to the Senses magazine and spotted the opportunity.
He is "chuffed to bits" at coming second and hopes other people with sight and hearing loss will realise they are not alone.
At a ceremony in London, actress Rebecca Front, best known for The Thick Of It and Grandma's House, presented Lando with a certificate. She said: "I was compelled by the stirring power of these words that have so much joy and pain, life and living and the real spirit of deafblind people's experiences at their very heart. They were very powerful words."
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