Coronation Street star Lisa George reveals she could go BLIND due to eye condition and fears she may never act again

Coronation Street actress Lisa George has been diagnosed with a genetic eye condition that could leave her blind, she has revealed.

The much-loved actress, who played seamstress Beth Sutherland for 12 years in the ITV soap, has told how she was diagnosed with the condition NAION – non-arterial anterior ischemic optic neuropathy – which causes sudden loss of vision in one eye.

In an exclusive interview with MailOnline, Lisa says she now fears her disability may mean she may never be able to act again after two separate incidents left her with vision loss in both eyes.

Corrie’s bosses are so concerned about her sight that they have even taken steps to help her, including printing her scripts in large fonts, organizing transport when she couldn’t drive for six months, and even having some of her scenes adjusted to accommodate her. failing eyesight.

“I always think there are people who are much worse off than you, and I’m just grateful that I can still see, but we don’t know what might happen in the future.”

Lisa first suffered an eye incident in 2016 when the heavy knot at the end of a piece of rope caught her right eye while gardening.

A few days later, the vision in her right eye disappeared completely and she ended up hitting the side of her car while driving along a narrow country road.

She was later told that she had lost part of the vision at the bottom of her right eye and that unfortunately it would never return.

Over the next six years, Lisa visited a number of eye specialists, both privately and within the NHS, as she desperately tried to find out what was going on with that right eye.

She said: ‘Luckily my left eye was very good with 20/20 vision and the only thing I struggled with after that first incident was being able to read.

‘Corrie was great, they printed my scripts in a larger font to make it easier, but I just didn’t get an explanation of what had happened. Scans were done and dye was put in my eye, but doctors were divided over whether the trauma from the rope or something else had caused the bleeding in the back of my eye.’

But things took a turn for the worse in the summer of 2022 when Lisa suffered a second incident while driving home after celebrating former Corrie co-star Katie McGlynn’s 29th birthday, this time in her left eye.

She said: ‘I was having a nice evening with Katie and was driving home on the M6 ​​when my left eye got really weird. I couldn’t tell if the trucks in front of me would merge into one, it was very scary. I managed to get home and went back to the emergency room the next morning.

‘I ended up staying there for a week, which was horrible. It was one of the worst experiences of my life.

‘I had a CT scan of my head and two lumen punctures, and they wouldn’t let me take my medication for my diabetes, which made me feel really bad.

‘No one seemed to have any idea what had happened, they just said ‘you have nerve clusters’ and after a week they sent me home and told me to take aspirin for the pain.’

Lisa went to another NHS ophthalmologist at her local hospital, who confirmed that although her central vision was fine, the peripheral vision in her left eye had completely disappeared.

It was then that she first heard about the condition NAION – non-arthritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy.

But with very little funding in the NHS he told her to go private.

She said: ‘Luckily I was able to go privately but there are so many people who still don’t get an answer. I ended up at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London and was seen by a neuro-ophthalmologist.’

While she went to appointments and underwent more tests, Lisa was unable to drive for six months.

Her driver’s license was confiscated in October 2022.

Corrie’s bosses couldn’t have been more supportive and arranged transport to take her to and from work.

She said: ‘Corrie was brilliant and said don’t worry, we will help you with whatever you need. My biggest concern was the night shots.

‘During one take I had trouble seeing the edge of the sidewalk, but they were all very helpful and made sure I was okay. You have to deal with it as best you can.

‘Another time, because I have no vision in the edge of my left eye, I was doing a scene and had to come down the fake stairs, but I couldn’t see anything.

‘I asked the director if it was okay to change the direction of the scene because I had a real problem with the stairs. He was great and we turned it around. They have been very supportive in making these small adjustments.

“But I’ll still miss a curb, and when it gets dark, I’ll trip over a cable!” I do it all the time at home and come across different things.

‘The worst is when I’m tired. And when I first wake up in the morning, it takes a while before I get a good view.”

It was during a visit to The Royal Theater Exchange in Manchester two months ago that the enormity of her acting career without Corrie really hit her, and she burst into tears.

She said: ‘I had gone to the theater to watch a production of Romeo & Juliet, at the end of the show the whole stage went dark.

‘The actors all left the stage in the dark. I came out of there thinking, ‘I don’t think I’ll ever be able to work on stage again,’ because there was no way I could tell if I had to come off stage in the dark.

‘The panic and anxiety set in and I got really upset. Obviously I’m sure they have things set up for visually impaired actors, but it was a real fear and it really hit me hard: how am I going to handle it in the industry in the future?

‘It really touched me. I worry about things like that.’

Lisa was able to get back on the road in the middle of last year and now has a medical driver’s license.

But it wasn’t until November last year that she was finally diagnosed with NAION.

She said: ‘There are only 11 per cent of people in Britain who have it. It’s not a heart attack or a stroke, it’s an intermediate form of the two.

‘My doctor was honest with me. She said I would never get my full vision back. The damage had already been done and I had to live with it.

‘When it first happened I was so terrified, but not worrying about what could or couldn’t happen is no way to live. I just have to get on with it.

‘I have accepted what happened. I have my glasses and now I also have my varifocal glasses for driving.”

Lisa was helped by a good friend, Paralympic athlete Libby Clegg, who is registered blind.

The couple met when they took part in Dancing on Ice in 2020.

She said: “She has been truly inspiring. I called her because I was so upset, she said, “You just have to learn how to adapt to things.” She was just wonderful. She introduced me to the visually impaired charity she works for.’

Despite everything that has happened in recent years, Lisa has a positive feeling about the future.

She said: ‘I have gone through menopause, use a sensor so I can monitor my sugar levels and manage my diabetes, and have completely overhauled my diet. I’ve always eaten very healthily, but because of everything going on with my eyes and my diabetes, I went to a nutritionist.

‘I have cut so much out of my diet and am a stone lighter than last year. I like the weight I have now. I went out on Friday and wore a size 10 velvet suit. I haven’t been a size 10 since I was 28!

“I feel the best I’ve felt in a while, even though I have all these health problems. I’m just grateful that I can still see.”