This is my son, Simon. He died on 7th April 2005. When he was 8 years old, he lost an eye in an accident; two boys playing, throwing stones at one another. Unfortunately, Simon got hit in the eye and it had to be removed.
Later on in life, his "good" eye became affected with retinal cone dystrophy. The end result would eventually lead to blindness. Not much is known about this disease and there is an ongoing research into the effects and results.
Simon couldn't see any future for himself as a blind person and gradually gave up and passed away. Before that, he had been creating pictures on his computer with the "Eye" as the main theme. During his visits to Professor Alan Bird MD, FRCS, FRCOphth, from the Institute of Ophthalmology, UCL, he went through some pretty scary experiments, all in the aid of trying to find a cure. These pictures are now the property of Phil Sherry, Simon's brother, who holds the full copyright, and the family have got together to try and find ways of accumulating money to help others who are suffering the same disease.
These are just a few of Simon's pictures. When you see them in their full size they are amazing. The detail is tremendous. The best size is A4 or even A3. When they are printed on glossy photo paper they really are stunning. Altogether, there are probably well over 500. Some of them are slight variation, but all in all, they're great.
The family, that is Carol, Simon's mother, Helen, his sister, David and Phil, his brothers, and me, are in the process of producing a calendar for 2008 using some of Simon's pictures. From there, we hope to sell individual prints, and maybe greeting cards. We have already established a web address and Phil, who just happens to be a web designer, is going to set about creating a web site.
Our next step is to apply for charity status so that every penny collected will be there to help those of similar disposition to Simon.
The charity and the calendars were launched on 10th October at Liverpool Hope University. About 60 invited people were there. It was a great success with plenty of sales and some very large donations. We were sponsored by Busy Bees nursery allowing us to use there premises, Evolution, who printed the calendars, MPL for funding the printing, Roger at Sincdesign for designing the calendars, Village Hotel Group for the Champagne and Impress Digital who made the advertising banner.
We thank every one for your tremendous help, support and generosity.
The more publicity we get the more we can help those with failing eyesight.