ITV Corrie's Beth star Lisa George reveals fear she could go blind
Actress Lisa George has revealed she has a genetic eye condition that could eventually make her go blind. The star - who is best known for playing Beth Tinker in Coronation Street since 2011 - explained she was diagnosed with the condition NAION - non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy - which causes sudden vision loss in one eye.
In an interview with MailOnline, Lisa said she's worried what the future could hold after suffering two separate incidents that have left her visually impaired in both eyes.
She said: "I always think there are people far worse off than you, and I'm just grateful I can still see but we don't know what could happen in the future."
Lisa then revealed that Corrie bosses are been supportive during this time and that they have even taken measures to help her. They've implement extra measures, including printing off her scripts in big fonts, organising transport when she was unable to drive for six months, and have even changed some of her scenes to accommodate her failing eye sight.
The actress first suffered an 'eye incident' in 2016 when a knot at the end of a piece of rope caught her right eye while gardening. She was later told that she had lost part of the sight at the bottom of her right eye and unfortunately it would never come back.
Over the next six years Lisa went on to see a number of eye specialists as she strived out what was happening with her eye.
She said: "Luckily my left eye was really good with 20/20 vision and the only thing I struggled with after that first incident was being able to read. I had scans, dye put into my eyeball, but the doctors were split as to whether it was the trauma from the rope or something else that had caused the haemorrhage at the back of my eye."
However, in 2022, Lisa suffered another incident - this time with her left eye - when driving home from her Corrie co-star Katie McGlynn's 29th birthday party. She said her left eye "went weird" and she couldn't see anything on the road.
Following a trip to the A&E - which saw Lisa admitted to hospital for a week - she had a CT scan on her head and diagnosed her with a series of nerve clusters and issued Aspirin for the pain.
Determined to seek more answers, Lisa decided to see another doctor who confirmed that the peripheral vision in her left eye had completely gone. She then learned about the condition NAION - but it took until November 2023 for Lisa to receive a diagnosis.
She said: "There's only 11 per cent of people in the UK who have it. It's not a heart attack or a stroke, it's an in-between of the two. My doctor was dead straight with me. She said that I would never get my full sight back. The damage was done and I had to live with it."
