Postcards from the black: audio scanner for David

Reading has been my most loved hobby for a long time, a constant since I was a little girl and something it is difficult to imagine life without. Every long journey, waiting room delay or lazy afternoon is enhanced by curling up with a book. Even now, when reading time is brief, I still find myself scrolling through stories on my phone’s screen during the dark early morning feeds.

Which is why David’s story, told via photographer Jim Mortram, made me stop and think about how easy it is to take my love of reading for granted, sure that it will always be with me.

I’ve been documenting David since he was blinded as a result of a freak bicycling accident 2 years ago. Before the accident robbed him of his sight (David is 100% blind, zero light perception) he was an avid collector of books and an avid reader. His rooms are filled with books gathering dust, their pages filled with adventures, lives, stories and descriptions of visions and vistas that David is unable to now experience.

Jim is looking to raise money to buy an audio scanner for David, so that the books gathering dust on his shelves can live again and bring light to his darkness.

If you are able to help the page for donations was here, while David talks to Jim about the accident and its aftermath in more detail here.

It’s all in my mind of course, nothing to do with my sight but when I visit my memories there is a light in the darkness. What happens is nearly every night I still dream and there is light then. I can see the daylight when I’m dreaming and then I wake up I’m blind. Whatever time of the day it is when I’m awake it’s always night now.

It’s a terrible thing in a way because when I dream I don’t know I’m blind, I’m seeing and I’m not blind when I’m dreaming then I wake up and I’m me again and I’m blind. My dreams are a pleasure but when I wake up it’s so much worse. It’s always a shock when I wake up from having a dream and it hits me again – I’m blind.

I know that many of the people who visit this site share my love of reading. Asking for money is always tough, more so at the moment with the way things are for so many. If you do have a few quid going spare, this is a very simple, direct way to make a huge difference to a fellow reader’s quality of life.

Thank you so much for reading and for helping if you can.