A clear view ahead!

The birds that live around my ship make me happy - when they're not crowing at the crack of dawn like Heinz, the cockerel, or waking me up in my sleep like Sigmund, the swan, because they're having a midnight snack and nibbling mussels from the ship's side. There are sounds on board that you don't hear anywhere else.

Apart from that, I love watching the birds swim and fly - when I see them. I often only see them out of focus because my eyes, especially my left eye, are quite short-sighted.

It started early on.

When I was at primary school, the teacher noticed that I made more mistakes than usual when copying from the blackboard and often closed one eye. It turned out that I was short-sighted in one eye and long-sighted in the other.

Over the years this has equalised, the far-sighted eye also became short-sighted - but far less than the other eye - over 3.5 dioptres difference.

With contact lenses, my eyes dry out quickly and become inflamed. Wearing glasses produces images of different sizes that have to be processed by the brain. This is pure stress. The consequences range from effects on body coordination (I often have a poor view of obstacles and hurt myself) to fatigue and tension headaches. All of this really affects my quality of life.

The decision to operate

I long for a clear view.

After much deliberation, I have therefore decided to have eye surgery to correct the visual defect, but this will probably not be covered by the health insurance. In the long term, it's cheaper than contact lenses and/or expensive varifocals. In the short term, it will cost a few thousand euros. If you would like to support me, I would be very happy.

The operations are scheduled for 7 + 8 November. Until then, I will continue to pray that God will heal the eyes supernaturally. I invite you to do the same. When that happens, I will donate all the money I have received for the operation to an organisation that operates on cataracts in poor countries and gives people their sight back - so that others can also see well.