Gary Sandhu lost his eyesight over night two months away from his 16th birthday in 1998.
It took about eight hours for the sudden inflammation of his optic nerves to take 100 per cent of sight from his left eye and 95 per cent of sight from his right.
It's a rare, painless condition called bilateral optic neuritis that left Sandhu not quite believing his blindness was permanent.
"It was definitely tragic," said Sandhu, who turns 32 in November. "When I was young, I was thinking that maybe I would get my eyesight back - give it some time, it'll come back. I lost it quickly so it'll come back quickly but the doctors told me it's not coming back."
The local Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) in Prince George helped Sandhu immensely.
"The CNIB gave me that independence that I was looking for," said Sandhu. "I literally would never leave my house. I just thought there was nothing I could do, I could never do it as well as I used to - I can't get out there. The CNIB has given me the confidence - you can get out there, you can do it - you can use the skills that you do have and the eyesight that you do have and you can do it."
The CNIB was able to give Sandhu the life skills needed to be a contributing member of society again.
CNIB provided Sandhu with a special laptop computer equipped with speech software that he used to graduate from the College of New Caledonia with a social service worker diploma in 2008. The software will read back anything Sandhu types on the computer. He also got a GPS tracker from CNIB so he always knows where he's at.
"I also got my white cane from CNIB," said Sandhu. "I never used to use it because of the attention factor. I knew if I used it everyone would be looking at me and it made me uncomfortable. But I use it now and it's been amazing. People let me know - watch out for this, watch out for that. So it's all helped build my confidence and it's all thanks to CNIB."
Sandhu has had major health challenges during a span of about 11 years.
Along with his sudden blindness, he survived brain cancer in 2002, bacterial meningitis in 2006 and a brain aneurism in 2009.
"So I'm actually very lucky to be talking to you right now," Sandhu laughed during an interview with The Citizen. "It's been about four years now since nothing's happened to me and I'm very happy about that."
Sandhu is in the midst of writing a book about his death-defying experiences.
Sandhu is now giving back to CNIB and volunteers at the office three days a week.
To continue to help Sandhu and others who are blind or partially sighted, the local CNIB office is honouring vision month to promote regular eye exams for all family members. It is also raising funds by hosting its 13th annual Drive-Thru breakfast Thursday from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. at the Costco parking lot, 2555 Range Road.
For a minimum donation of $5, participants get a variety of breakfast foods in a reusable bag as well as a copy of the Prince George Citizen.
