Little Neve inspires dad's first marathon

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WHEN city postman Martyn Kelland was told his baby had been born blind he was numb.

Outside the hospital, the 32-year-old, from King's Heath, got into the car with his wife Claire and both burst into tears.

Since the "nightmare" diagnosis in January 2009 the couple have undergone a rollercoaster ride of emotions.

But to their amazement they recently discovered that Neve, now 17-months old, had begun to regain some vision.



Martyn said his way of dealing with it all has been to turn a negative into a positive.

He "stumbled" across VICTA (Visually Impaired Children Taking Action), and has signed up to take part in next month's London Marathon for the charity.

It will be his first attempt at a marathon and he will be running alongside his workmate Stuart Francis.

Martyn said thinking about his daughter was the only motivation he needed.

He said: "There have been a lot of ups and downs but running for this charity is my way of dealing with it by turning a negative into a positive. Hopefully when I am getting tired during the marathon what will keep me going is the thought of why I am doing it."

Reflecting on their experiences, Martyn said they discovered Neve had been born blind at about 12 weeks old.

He said: "She had suffered brain damage during pregnancy but we are not sure when it happened. Normally when babies get to six to eight weeks they can start focusing on shapes, but Neve's eyes were always down and wobbly. My wife first picked it up and I just thought it may take some time to come along.

"A couple of weeks later I started getting concerned as we would shine light in her eye and not get any reaction.

"We took her to see a doctor who was really concerned and thought we should see an eye specialist.

"It was January last year she was diagnosed as blind but they were not sure what the problem was and began to do a lot of tests.

"When we went to see the eye specialist we went into a room full of people and we knew something was wrong straight away. When they told us she was blind we both went numb. We got into the car and burst into tears."

It was not for another year that medical staff discovered the cause of the problem was related to brain damage.

"It was a big relief to finally discover what the problem was so we knew what we could work with to stimulate her sight.

"She is so young so her brain is still developing. She can hopefully use other parts of her brain to form these functions in future.

"When they said she was brain damaged they told us to hope for the best and then one day she started to develop some sight.

"She is never going to see like we can, but within the last three months it has really come on. When we fed her we used to have to put the spoon right to her lips but now she sees it coming and opens her mouth, which is brilliant."

Martyn said he wanted to say a special thank you to Sue Pilkington, the rehab officer for visual impairment.

He said. "She came to visit us once a week and was the rock that held us all together."

He is also looking for a business to advertise on the back of their shirts.

To contact him e-mail mjkelland@btinternet.com.