Share Your Vision: Heather Edwards

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Heather Edwards of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, has dedicated her life to making a positive impact. As the South Carolina chapter president for the Foundation Fighting Blindness, Heather’s vision loss journey is one of resilience and unwavering commitment to helping others.

In second grade, Heather remembers her teacher observing something unusual about her eyesight. At just eight years old, she began a myriad of clinical testing in search of answers, which eventually led to her diagnosis of cone-rod dystrophy. This condition has made her more light-sensitive over the years, but her visual acuity has remained relatively stable. Heather has learned to navigate her environment with tools like a white cane and amber-tinted contacts that act as built-in sunglasses.

Heather’s vision loss journey has not been without its challenges. In grade school, she faced questions and jokes about her eyes, but she used humor to cope.

“I’ve gotten all kinds of questions about my eyes,” Heather recalls. “In school, people loved to joke, ‘Can you shoot lasers out of your eyes?’ or ‘Are you a vampire?’ to which I’d respond, ‘Do you want to find out?’ Sometimes, it was hard to deal with acceptance and finding my place, which I never really found in school. But humor is the way I deal with things.”

High school and college were difficult for Heather, as she watched her friends gain independence and explore their freedom, while schoolwork took her longer to complete than others. She turned to exercise and nutrition in her 20s to find a way to deal with the stress and anxiety. Sports and outdoor activities were difficult due to her visual impairment. However, once she was introduced to yoga by a friend, she was hooked. It was not only a way to deal with negative emotions but helped her to build a positive self-image and confidence while providing a safe space, a mat, for her to physically move her body. 

In December of 2023 she became certified as a 200-hour RYT (Registered Yoga Teacher) so that she could share the peace that she found with others. Her focus is on creating accessible classes for everyone. Since being certified, she has hosted multiple ‘Yoga in the Dark’ events in her area to share what it's like to practice yoga with a visual impairment, while also raising funds for the Foundation Fighting Blindness.

Even with the challenges she faced growing up, Heather’s perspective on life now is refreshingly unique. With over ten years of finance experience in the nonprofit sector, Heather is passionate about making a positive impact. Her current outlook has shaped her approach to both personal and professional life, emphasizing the importance of a balanced and mindful lifestyle. And she believes that understanding where you are on the spectrum of vision loss without judgment is crucial.

“Blindness is a spectrum,” says Heather. “We’re all on this spectrum, and some are further on one end, and some are on the other end. But I try to tell others not to associate a judgment with wherever they are, but rather just knowing where you are and how that makes you deal with the world in a different way.”

But it’s taken Heather years to come to terms with her vision loss, and she wishes she had the support and community offered by organizations like the Foundation Fighting Blindness during her youth. Heather recognizes that such resources could have provided her with hope and reassurance.

“A treatment would be exciting for the younger generation, so they don’t have to grow up having to navigate with a visual impairment,” says Heather. “The Foundation provides hope as far as treatments and funding for those treatments. But also supports those with blinding diseases throughout their journey.”

Heather’s first encounter with someone else with a blinding disease wasn’t until she was 20 years old, and they remain friends to this day. And now through the Foundation, she connects with others in the blindness community often, even at the recent VISIONS 2024 conference.

“It’s not so much about finding someone who deals with something similar to you, but just relating to someone that has to navigate life in a different way,” says Heather. “It’s that mindset and different perspective that you have, and being able to communicate that with someone else and bond over it is so interesting.”

Heather hopes that sharing her story will help unite others and raise awareness about the spectrum of blindness.

“I’m sharing my story for camaraderie and community,” she says. “And to also educate people that blindness is a spectrum and just because I don’t use a white cane all the time doesn’t make my visual impairment or blindness any less important than someone else.”