The Day I Got My Sight Back

I was in this black hole, and this light appeared.

And you can't believe it.

You can't believe that what you're seeing is light.

And I moved my head to the left..

..and I saw just a glimpse of blue...

..and it dawned on me, "Oh, that must be the sky!"

I hadn't seen anything for 12 years.

But I did actually say to Mr Liu, I says,

"If at all possible..."

"..then as soon as you take the bandages off",

I says, "The first person that I want to see is me wife."

'For some people who are blind,

'there is a remarkable surgical procedure

'which offers them the chance to see again.'

'The patient's tooth is fitted with a tiny lens

'and implanted in their eye.'

How long has the longest person been blind for

who's come in front of you?

Oh, well, they could have been blind for...decades.

For decades? Decades, yeah.

And they come to you and they get their sight back?

Yes, that is the case, yeah.

For Ian Tibbetts, this procedure is a last resort.

He faces a lifetime of blindness and will never see his twin sons,

unless the surgery he is about to undergo actually works.

The operation don't bother me.

The nervous bit's going to be Thursday

when them bandages come off, whether I can see or not see.

That's the nervous bit.

Pepper, behave. DOG BARKS

Just close that to.

DOG BARKS

This is my wife, Alex.

Where are they?

One's by me. The other one's on the other chair.

Now, which one's which?

This one's Callum. Callum.

The eldest of me sons, my twins.

And there's Ryan.

For most of his adult life,

Ian Tibbetts has been slowly going blind.

'About 14 years ago he had a corneal abscess on the right eye.'

They said he'd see again after a month

after he had the treatment, but it never did.

Ooh! Sorry!

Oh, straight in my jaw! Watch what you're doing!

And then the left eye

has just been going down for the last six, seven years,

slowly going worse and worse.

I'm totally blind in one eye...

and the other, I can just make shapes out.

Every operation on Ian's eyes has always ended in failure.

But now there is hope.

After months of assessment he is about to undergo the radical surgery

which might allow him to see again.

'The most precious thing to see in life'

will be seeing my sons grow up day by day without struggling.

People keep telling me they're cute, they're gorgeous.

I can't see them.

There's a lot of things he wants to see,

but seeing the boys' faces is the first thing he wants to see.

He wants to see them, he says, even if it's only once.

For the first time ever.

The surgery Ian faces is drastic.

Called OOKP, the entire front of the eye

is replaced by something very different.

At the heart of this new eye is a plastic lens inserted into a tooth.

Because it is the patient's own tooth,

the lens will not be rejected by the patient's body.

'They told me that it involved taking a tooth,

'placing a lens in the tooth and putting it in your eye.'

Now, I've had some very, er,

good nights on the beer

and even that, I couldn't have even dreamt that up,

so how they actually dreamt that up I don't know.

I'm very, very proud of it.

It's my little sapphire.

And although the disfigurement does bother me,

I'd be lying if I said it didn't...

..it pales into insignificance, because I can see.

'The procedure only works

'for patients with rare types of corneal blindness,

'and only one surgeon in Britain performs it.'

What sort of vision does OOKP give you?

It can be very good.

Some patients see all the way down the chart.

What, even the smallest letters?

Yes.

Daddy!

Daddy, kiss!

'Ian is about to leave for the Sussex Eye Hospital in Brighton.'

Daddy, a kiss.

'Like all OOKP patients, he will need two operations

'to restore his sight, separated by several months.'

'The first is tomorrow.'

You be good boys for Mummy.

Oh, I'll ring you when I get down there. OK.

Right, get me seat belt on.

'Ian's father-in-law Brian is driving him down.'

Here we go, mate.

It is hot.

No... No turning back.

Bye-bye, Telford. Yep.

'It's a chance.'

'In his mind, then, he knows he's done everything he can

'to try and get his sight back.'

In the future, if it doesn't work, he can say, "At least I tried."

'I'm nervous for Ian. I'm, er...

'I don't want it to fail, yes, so I am nervous, yes.'

Here you go, son. Cheers, Brian.

If this operation doesn't work for him, that's it.

It's finished, that's it.

There's nothing else at the moment anybody could do.

The percentage of success is good.

What I normally quote them is two-thirds to three-quarters

see well for a very long time.

OK, then, my lad, this is it.

Ah, thank you very much.

Hang on in there. I'll give you a bell in the week or something.

Yep, OK. And if you want anything, don't ring me.

OK? Cheers.

Yes, thank you very much, Brian.

OK. Good luck, kid. Yeah.

Ta-ra. Thanks a lot.

I couldn't get in quick enough, I really couldn't. I just...

I thought, "This is my chance, this is my chance.

"Just think, in four months' time, I might be able to see."

I've prayed for this day.

And now it's here...

I'm quite nervous.

More nervous than...

More nervous than I've ever been, like.

Where's Daddy, Ryan?

He's in hospital.

Having his eyes done.

I'm scared to death they are going to pick up on me,

being nervous, after what happened to Ian with his last op,

when he died on the table.

OK, now take deep breaths.

'In 2007, Ian had an extreme allergic reaction

'during an operation for a detached retina.'

Lift your arm. Deep breaths.

'For several minutes, his heart stopped.'

Take a full breath and hold.

Every operation he has now he's got that going through his head that...

that could happen and he could die and this time not come back.

He did tell us that he died on the operating table

and they had to revive him,

but we have done a very thorough assessment

as to the agents he might have been allergic to,

and we definitely will be avoiding those agents.

But he is very frightened.

He is amongst the most anxious of all the patients

I've operated on so far.

SHE SIGHS

Ah, yeah, he'll be all right.

Just going to hope and pray that nothing happens.

I should be OK.

Do you love doing it?

I love seeing the results,

but the process of doing it...

..sometimes can be challenging.

How are we doing, Jim?

OOKP is not a new procedure,

but Christopher Liu has refined the techniques

over the past 16 years.

He only operates on a handful of patients a year,

since very few are suitable for this extreme surgery.

OK, happy? Yes, thank you. Lovely.

In the first step, one of Ian's teeth,

along with a piece of jaw bone,

is cut from his mouth and shaped into a block.

It's actually quite a small tooth for a big man, isn't it?

OK, team, I think we can only use a small cylinder

because the tooth root is quite narrow.

'A hole is then drilled through the root of the tooth.'

So here we have a nice specimen.

It's a bit on the narrow side, but that's how he was made.

'Next, a plastic lens is coated with glue and set into the hole.'

That's what he will see through.

'But the tooth won't be implanted in Ian's eye in this operation.'

Keep lifting up.

'Instead, it is sewn into a pocket of skin below his other eye.'

OK, so that's where it's going to live.

'By the time Ian has his next operation a few months from now,

'it will have grown its own soft tissues.

'It can then be removed and stitched into Ian's left eye -

'the eye through which it is hoped he will one day see.'

TWINS SING

SHE SIGHS

Come on.

'It is now three hours since Ian's operation began.'

OK, so this is the piece we are going to use.

'A piece of skin has been cut from the inside of his cheek,

'which will shortly be stitched over his left eyeball.'

'In time, this will form the front of his new eye.'

ELECTRONIC BEEPING

'But before the team can continue, Ian's neck begins to swell.'

What's the problem? Swollen, swelling?

OK... OK

Yes, yes, I understand.

Can we lower it, please?

Patient's got swelling round the neck

and that's an indication of something

that he may be allergic to.

'The swelling rapidly spreads to other parts of Ian's body.'

Is he swollen everywhere now?

'Despite all the precautions taken,

'it seems that one of the drugs he's been given

'is triggering an allergic reaction -

'exactly what Ian feared most.'

Well...

What time is it?

Ten past...

So...how safe is this man now?

'Given what happened in his last operation,

'Ian has been using a breathing tube this time.'

'Although his neck is swollen, there is no danger of suffocation.'

He's, um...

..having an allergic reaction to something.

From what I know, for the moment I can continue the operation,

and then he will need to be transferred to intensive care.

'Christopher completes the operation,

'stitching the piece of cheek over Ian's left eye.'

'From now until his next operation, he will be totally blind.'

I'm just going to inspect, to make sure everything is all right.

Now we can see how swollen the neck is as well.

Oh, it's not too bad at all.

And that's the new skin, white because there's no blood,

so that has been stitched on nicely.

'Immediately the operation is over,

'Ian is transferred to intensive care.'

Basically, what we are doing is we are taking over his body

and keeping him safe until the swelling is reduced

and we can take the breathing tube out.

Hello, may I speak to Mrs Tibbetts, please?

'You are, yes.'

It's Mr Liu here, phoning from the Sussex Eye Hospital in Brighton.

'Yes.'

So Ian's operation has been completed

and you remember that he told me

that he died on the table and was resuscitated?

OK, so we were very, very cautious today.

But he still had some kind of allergic reaction

so, to be very cautious,

we have transferred him across the road to intensive care. OK.

It's not like it was last time, is it?

It's not life and death?

'No, no, no. I spoke to the anaesthetist'

and he told me that he is not worried. OK?

So it's not a full-blown anaphylactic shock.

CHILD WHIMPERS

OK. Come here, come here...

'It takes nearly losing them to realise how much you love them.'

I can't put in words for how much I love him

and how much I'm proud of him.

And how much I want him to see.

After 48 hours in intensive care,

Ian has recovered sufficiently to return to the ward.

While he waits for his next operation a few months from now,

he will have no sight at all.

Good morning. Good morning, Mr Tibbetts.

Good morning. You're back with us!

OK, now don't expect to see. Remember you've got

a piece of new skin over the eye.

Now lift your chin up,

face the world boldly and squarely.

That's it.

How are you?

A little sore. Mmm.

Mr Liu does everything possible for his patients.

Everything, he goes that journey with you and we all trust him...

..and know that he will do that for us.

Is that tender at all?

So that's wonderful, that's where the tooth is, OK?

Yeah. And also the optical cylinder.

Now we have a look at your left eye, OK?

I'm just going to prise this open a little.

And it's wonderful

because underneath it's acquiring a blood supply nicely, OK?

Can I have a look at where the skin has been taken from?

Where did we take the skin from?

Right cheek. Right cheek, OK.

'It felt like it took all the side of my face off.'

It was that sore.

And he'd probably only taken a couple of inch,

but every time I felt the scar....

Ian, so far, so good, OK? Well done.

OK, thank you. Fabulous.

'Well, it can be a challenging time after stage one...'

'..but generally they manage because they all hope

'and yearn for stage two when they can see again.'

But I never promise a result,

because it's better to under-promise and over-deliver.

When people expect too much, then they can only be disappointed.

Bit strange today.

Missing the boys already.

Just been going through a few photos albums on the side here

that I've got to put back in the cupboard.

I just found that one of him.

I think that was '98,

before the main trouble started with his eyes.

16 years ago, he'd be a lot thinner, bubbly, confident.

She was in a pub, actually.

Blind date type thing.

After the first couple of times

we'd seen each other, it just clicked then.

Really haven't looked back since.

And that one's just one I found of the two of us

that I actually don't mind looking at myself on.

He used to love to run, he used to be always on his bike.

He'd go everywhere on his bike.

I was in the room sat right next to her while she was giving birth.

Cried my eyes out.

She's had a lot to cope with over the last few years.

If it wasn't for Alex and her family...

..dunno where I'd be.

Hello! Go on then, go and get him.

Ah! Ha-ha!

Ah!

Daddy missed you pair, you know.

You done the eyes.

Daddy's got a poorly eye, look.

Watch yourself a minute while Daddy gets it up, then.

Where are you?

Give it to Daddy a minute, you can have it back.

If you hold it like that, look...

..and you go like that.

Here you are, then.

See, you use it like that. You'll have to hold it

a bit further down for you, though, because it's a bit high.

It's a bit high for me to do it.

Look, Daddy, look, Daddy.

ALEX: Daddy can't see.

Daddy can't see, babs. What you got?

Show Daddy, what you got?

Puffa Pete. You got Puffa Pete!

It's nice just to listen to them sometimes.

Daddy can't see you.

I want to see your eye, I want to see your eye.

Daddy has to feel for you, see.

'The eye is truly wonderful.'

'And the way it's connected to the brain as well,

'and to the person's mind and soul.'

It is truly incredible.

The first time I did a cataract operation was quite a big deal

because I was cutting into an eye and removing a cataract.

I thought, "Yeah, that's quite a cool thing to do,"

but also there's a great big responsibility

because that person's sight depended on my carrying this out properly.

I think to have sight and then to lose it,

you'd really miss it.

Big time.

I never ever dreamt that anything like this would happen to me,

especially at such a young age.

All the years I was blind, it was...

trying to subdue the panic,

it was a constant feeling of panic.

"Keep calm."

I used to keep telling myself to keep calm, keep calm...

Don't...

Because the frustration is unbearable.

I used to do quite crazy things like pot-holing and scuba-diving...

..and your life can literally change in one second.

But I just thought, "I can still get about.

"I can still go in and feel and touch and smell

"and hear different things."

So it's not beating it, it's accepting

that now there are different things

that will give you pleasure in life.

For me I was dead,

I was dead and yet I was breathing. That's how it felt.

For several months, Ian waits for his second operation.

But each day is a struggle

as he tries to come to terms with total blindness -

a condition that might be permanent if the operation fails.

When you can stab it.

There! You keep chasing it round the plate.

There...

Stop.

There.

That's it, you've got it.

'He hates losing his independence.'

That it? You've got one more chip over the far side.

And it can also be hell for the one watching.

Trying not to do everything...

..but at the same time, he's expecting it.

Trying to give him that little bit of independence,

but only if he is willing to take it.

'Like being in a prison cell.'

Quiet.

Echoes.

And dark.

Sometimes I don't want to even wake up.

'When it comes to emotions, he can be a closed book.'

He's even said that sometimes,

that no-one knows how much he's crying inside.

Daddy? Daddy, can you see me?

'I want him to be able to see everything the boys can do.'

They know that Daddy can't see,

but they forget just what that means -

that Daddy can't read to them,

that Daddy can't see new pictures they've done.

He just can't see.

They're the miracle he's missing.

You have a good night, sweet pea.

Come here, you.

'Tonight, Ian returns to Brighton for his final operation.'

'24 hours after that, his bandages will be removed.'

Just think - next time you do this, hopefully...

..I won't need to follow you because you'll be able to see.

'I've counted these days down.'

'I've counted every single one down day by day.

'To now.'

I'll give him a kiss.

Good night, sweet pea.

'The operation don't bother me.'

'The nervous bit's going to be Thursday.'

'When them bandages come off.'

'That's the nervous bit.

'That's what's been playing on my mind now for the last few months.'

'Three days to see, hopefully.'

'I don't know.'

'Really don't know what'll happen.'

All right, then, Ian...

Oi!

Good luck, and I'll see you in the morning before you go down.

If you can manage to be awake then it would be advantageous.

I don't know when I'll be awake.

Good luck, anyway. You'll be all right.

We'll see you in the morning. OK, mate?

I'll be awake, they wake me at six o'clock. Cheers.

See you later, mate.

Give us a kiss, then.

'If the worst comes to the worst,

'I'll just knuckle down and that's it.'

'I just can't say what it'll do for Ian.'

He's the one that's got to live with it.

Live with the darkness if that's the case.

I do actually get slightly anxious...

before OOKP surgery

because it's such a big undertaking, surgically,

and it also means so much...

to patients.

It's a big day, cos, hopefully...

this will conclude... OOKP surgery for him.

And hopefully tomorrow when the bandages come off then...

he'll be able to see, fingers crossed.

I do...have some anxiety.

And sometimes I say a prayer.

Despite the challenges, there is one less concern.

Ian recently had further extensive allergy tests

and there is now little risk

of a reaction to any of the drugs used in the operation.

'I know he's in good hands...'

'..but that just doesn't...

'That's not going to stop me from being nervous.'

OK, here we go.

That's good.

'For several months, Ian's tooth, fitted with its lens,

'has been sealed under his lower right eyelid.'

Are we OK now?

'Christopher Liu now removes and prepares it

'for stitching into Ian's left eye later in the operation.'

So my job now is to take away

excess soft tissues...

but still leaving some for use for stitching.

'To avoid any damage to the tooth and its lens,

'Christopher makes a template.'

So we'll be using this for surgery

until we really need the real lamina, and this

is now going into a bath of fresh blood

for the next couple of hours, so it'll be nourished.

'The concentration...'

'..is total.

'And I really dislike distractions.'

'You have to make very, very fine movements,

'and you need to keep your focus.'

'Christopher now peels back the skin grafted over Ian's left eye

'and begins to remove the entire front of the eyeball -

'a procedure that cannot be reversed.'

Right. Can I open the eye now with the blade?

Take one minute break.

OK, ready when you're ready.

'The tooth, along with its lens,

'is finally implanted into Ian's left eye.'

Fine, thank you very much.

'The piece of skin from Ian's cheek is then stitched back over his eye,

'leaving a hole for the lens -

'the window through which it is hoped Ian will see again.'

'The entire operation has taken four hours.'

'So we've completed the operation.'

We'll, um, wait to see what happens tomorrow when we...

take the bandages off.

I feel like as if I've got a ton of butterflies in my stomach...

..and they're fighting to get out.

And then he'll either be able to see or not?

Yeah, basically.

At quarter to two, Christopher came with a nurse

and he said, "I'm just going to take a look at this,"

and, as after most operations,

I thought he was just coming to check the op site,

you know, see if it wasn't bleeding or whatever.

And I was lying back on the bed, of course,

and he took the pads off and I had my head back...

..looking at the ceiling, I suppose,

and I saw this white burning light.

So...really severe, it was painful - white.

And, of course, I was looking at the ceiling!

And I didn't realise it, I just thought it was white.

And I'd never seen light, you know, so it was "Whoa, what's that?"

And I glanced over to the left for some reason.

I think, you know, to get away from the light,

I went like that...

and there was a window to my left.

And I could just see, "Is that blue?"

"Am I looking at a colour?"

And it dawned on me,

"Oh! That must be the sky."

I felt as if somebody had opened up my grave, really,

and I could get out.

My jaw must have dropped open

because Mr Liu said, "You can see, Bunnie, can't you?"

And I said, "Yes, I can."

I did actually say to Mr Liu, I says,

"If at all possible...

"then as soon as you take the bandages off,

"the first person that I want to see is me wife."

So he come in and he just lifted

the bottom edge up of the, of the bandages,

and I just thought,

"Oh, my God, this is it!"

So he took bandages off and...

I saw Jill for the first time.

I've got tears running down me eyes, trying to...

..focus and see me wife and then...

..Jill had got tears running down her cheeks and eyes

for a different reason, and she just sat on the bed

and she went, "So, what do you think?"

And I says, "Well, I can see."

She says, "I know", she says, "What do you think of me?"

And I says, "You look absolutely gorgeous."

And she did.

Where will you be when the bandages come off?

Hopefully in the room.

God help him when he has to see me for the first time in ages.

Are you nervous about that?

No, he should know what I look like by now.

He should remember what I look like, I should say.

I might have put a bit of weight on, but...

I'm not that... I just hope he's not that disappointed,

but he should remember what I look like, I haven't changed that much.

Hello, Mr Tibbett? Yeah. We've come to do your dressing.

This is Rama the nurse and then Mr Liu, he is also here. Yes.

How have things been?

Not too bad. Been comfortable?

Bit sore. Bit sore.

Where, on the eye?

Yeah, I've got a slight headache, but not too bad. OK.

Ian, is it OK if I...

..remove the bandages for you now? Yeah. OK.

Now at the moment, I'm removing your bandage.

Now don't expect too much, OK?

Because there's blood and a scab there,

which all needs to be cleaned off.

Just cleaning you.

Do you feel able to open your left eye?

Or is it all a bit stuck?

I don't know, I haven't tried yet. Can you try for me?

Open wide, please.

So I've just taken off the scab,

so I don't know whether you feel you're seeing a little now or not.

Nothing at all, yet. Nothing.

Look at me - do you see anything?

No. No. OK.

NURSE: I'm going to sit you up a bit.

Right, we're going to try again.

I'm going to lift your lid up and clean this a little.

Do you see anything at all?

Just white. Mm-hm? And a bit of...dark at the top.

Right. Do you see me moving my hand in front of you at all?

Just. Which way? Left and right.

Which way?

Up and down. OK.

Just about... Yeah, yeah. That's good, that's good.

Do you want to have a look at your wife

and see if you can see her?

I can make out a slight shape there. Yes. Can you see her face, though?

No. No?

Go a little closer, go a little closer.

No.

All right. Well, we're going to leave it like that for the moment

and I'll come back to see you later today or tomorrow, OK?

How do you feel? A bit nervous. Yeah.

Don't be disappointed, though, OK?

Because...this is not necessarily how it's going to be.

We're hoping for much better things.

Yeah. All right?

OK, any questions? Is this normal? Yes, it can be like that.

They get the sight...

You know, their sight comes back? Some do, yes. Good, good.

We're not saying that that is it. Yes.

And he did see something. Yes, he can see... He can see...

For sure, he can see light and dark

and he was able to discern the direction of hand movements.

So... Just seen your hand then. Yeah, so do you see?

There is something there, so we'll just have to wait a bit.

Got to fine-tune it.

NURSE: I'm going to put a little bit of eye shield over your eye, Ian.

We... We have to take each day as it comes.

Um...of course, so far,

it's a disappointment for him and his family.

INTERVIEWER: And for you?

Yeah, I'm disappointed as well, but I'm not giving up hope,

because it's only day one.

So we have to be realistic.

I could have... I could have kissed Mr Liu.

I could have kissed him. If I'd dared, I would've done.

I'd never seen Brighton, and I thought,

"I'm going to open the window and shout 'Hello, Brighton!'"

And I did - I opened the window and shouted "Hello, Brighton!"

And all these people turned round, and I waved.

I was just spelling everything -

"Oh, Gill, look...all about eyes!" Posters up...

"Oh, Gill, look - 'hygiene.'"

"Oh - K-E-1-9."

"Oh - T-O..."

She said, "Would you stop it?! You're like a 40-year-old man,

"who's reading like a five-year-old child!"

He said, "Now, what does that say there?"

He was pointing to a notice on the wall.

I knew what it was, but I couldn't see it.

He said, "Don't worry - your brain is just registering sight."

And as I moved away, I said, "Oh, I know what it said.

"It said 'cataracts'."

Then I saw a Smart car.

HE LAUGHS

I said, "What the hell is that?" and pointed to this.

And she smiled and smirked and she went,

"Oh, that's what we call a Smart car."

I said, "It doesn't look very smart to me!"

And I looked at the clock and it was ten to two.

And it was Valentine's Day, February 14th 2003.

At a quarter to two, that was when I could see again.

'Can't see nothing at all. Not even my hand, today.'

'Can't see nothing at all. Not even my hand, today.'

Just trying not to think about this, at the moment.

The more I think on it, the more I feel down.

OK...

It's a day since Ian's bandages were removed.

Christopher is about to examine him again

in the hope that there's been an improvement.

How about your sight? Has there been any change in your sight?

No. Hm.

Do you see anything?

A light. Light, OK.

How many fingers are there here?

Can't tell - one?

How many fingers are there now?

Five. Well, that's an improvement. Can you see me?

No. Look again.

Not sure.

All right - well, you know, we can actually try a little bit more.

Mrs Tibbetts, do you want to come over here?

Let me shine a light on your face...just here.

OK - come over here.

Ian, look at your wife, just over there.

Do you see anything, any of her?

I can't make her out. No. OK. Don't worry. Don't worry.

There's someone there, I just... Hm?

I can see a shape, I just can't make it out.

No - not to worry, not to worry.

OK - we are in front of your room now and we're going to turn left.

'Of course, I wish that on day one, he had seen straight away,

'but we're not in that situation.'

All I can do is to give him support and encouragement,

but not raise his hopes too much.

But I still feel that, in time, he should see.

I reckon by Christmas, you'll be seeing well enough

to buy me a pint.

Hm?

I tell you what, you can buy me one and all.

You might just see me drink

the first ever pint of beer I'll ever drink.

Might be sick after it, but...

One he counted five fingers...

That's when my spirits went right up.

And they haven't come down yet.

And as you're sitting here right now, what are you seeing?

Lime green.

A couple of black shadows...

I don't know whether they're you or not. I'm not sure.

It's, like, over there, like a shadow.

I can't tell what it is.

And a slight one over there, I think.

And the lime green, where is that? All over.

Around the shadows? Yeah.

Well, the shadows are actually, I think,

Trevor and my sound recordist here,

and the walls of this room are lime green.

Trevor, I've seen Trevor move... He's seen the dark shadow move.

I can see his face, slightly.

So, just... Trevor's going to move a little bit.

Gone to the right. Yep.

To the left. Looking at me.

With a camera, I think.

Kneeling down or crouching down.

I just saw his face, then.

You poor thing!

HE LAUGHS

I can actually see his hand, there.

Holding the camera.

See? I told you it was coming back.

Huh...

There. Somebody there.

HE SNIFFS

Maybe to my left?

Yeah, but did you see that or did you hear it? Seen it.

Just checking!

I see Trevor's got a short-sleeved top on.

Trevor? Yeah. I have, yeah.

That is definitely further than you've seen

in a hell of a long time.

You got a watch on?

No. But you're not far off it. Something on your wrist.

Black, I think. Or a dark colour, anyway.

There. Yeah. Oh, it's your puppy band.

Move your hand.

Purple top. Yes.

Hey...you're there...

Where?

There. Yep. That's me.

Can't make out properly, but...

It'll come.

And I've got all the time in the world to wait.

Eh?

Just amazing.

All right, Tibby?

What am I wearing?

Birthday suit. OK...

LAUGHTER

Apart from that.

Too close to me. Too close?

Red T-shirt.

Trying to figure what else you've got on...

Right. But I'm not showing you my undies.

HE LAUGHS

You improve like this, you can drive home.

I remember that day as well, going home.

I went for a walk as well.

We stopped the car and I got out

and went for a little walk along the river.

And...it was just wonderful.

It was wonderful.

I were meeting friends and going,

"I know I've been out with you every week,

"but are you sure you're my friend?"

Cos I couldn't recognise them,

they just looked completely different.

Once I got home, I was taken out in the car

and we went out of the town and into the mountains,

and...it was stunningly beautiful.

You can't take that for granted.

You must never take what you see for granted.

And seeing people who had hair before who were completely bald

and going, "How come you're bald?"

"Well, I am 12 years older."

I was back in the world and I was Bunnie Adams again.

Yeah! Woo!

It's been a month since Ian was in hospital and first began to see.

A week ago, his stitches were finally removed.

Boom!

The result was dramatic.

'I came into the kitchen, and put my bag on the floor, like.

'And Alex was there and I actually seen her face, full-on.

'For the first time.'

'I had to blink at first, cos I thought I was seeing things.'

Took me back years... to when I could see her.

Mummy, it's finished! You've finished...

'All of a sudden, he just saw me.'

Oh!

Amazing.

CHILDREN LAUGH

'When he tried to see the boys after that, it was like a flash.'

One, two, three, up!

'They came up to me to give me a big hug.'

'And it just hit me, just...doof!

'I just seen their faces, clear as daylight.'

Strange. Strange? Yeah. In what way is it strange?

Cos they don't look like I thought they would.

Daddy can see his cheeky little imps, eh?

With biscuits all round them.

And his little nose there.

Cheeky smiles, they've got.

Small noses.

They definitely don't take after me for that.

That's nice - did you do that picture?

Did you draw that? Yes.

Right now, I could be on top of the world.

One.

Green and white.

Three.

Can you point out the H? There.

A yellow taxi.

Can you point out the H? There.

Red balloon.

"Wild Thing."

I always thought I was.

I can see shades of the old Ian coming back.

Can you see the clock? Yeah.

It is...at 24 minutes past five, I think.

Four, sorry, not five.

24 minutes past four.

How does the future look to you? Bright.

SHE LAUGHS

Um...the future's great.

Why not? Why not?

I, er...I don't look too far ahead, really.

I don't think, "Oh, what can I hope for?" much...

Not much. Just to see - as long as I can see, I don't care.

I don't care if I was in a wheelchair, or whatever,

as long as I can see.

Two years ago, I found out that I'd got an infection in the retina,

which is one of the most important pieces in the eye

for getting images.

How's your sight now?

Not very good, actually.

Do you fear you may lose your sight again?

All the time. All the time - never, ever goes away.

It...

You just...wouldn't do anything, if you kept thinking like that.

You'd drive yourself crazy.

I got it back for five years -

even if it would've only have been five days,

then I wouldn't have swapped that for anything.

Douglas Bear!

Come on, sit here - let Daddy read it to you properly.

You can hold that...

The story of Hugless Douglas...

Up till now, have you ever managed to read to your sons?

No. Not properly, no.

"One spring morning,

"a big yaaawwwwn

"came from the back of a deep, dark cave.

"It was a young..." Bear. "..brown bear and his name was..."

Hugless Douglas. "..Douglas." Douglas. Yeah!

"'I need a hug', said Douglas.

"So he wriggled out of his pyjamas, he brushed his hair,

"and put on a scarf and went out to look for one."

Definitely a miracle.

"Poor Douglas. 'Why can't I find a hug?', he cried."

Such an extraordinary thing to see.

To think a tooth could do this.

"'Ooh!' grunted Douglas. 'It's a bit too heavy.'"

He was having his din-dins, look.

Nothing's concrete. It could go tomorrow.

But I'm just enjoying it day by day.

"As he went to hug the sheep, like this..." Oooh!

That's a backward hug.

'She's been my rock, really, all the way through.'

She was there before it, she was there during it,

and she's there after it.

And I love her for that.

"He hugged the bottom...he hugged..." The middle.

"..and then he hugged as far up as he could climb!"

So what's it like to see again?

Brilliant.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd