The day it all went dark

“I was in excruciating pain […] I felt like I had sand in my eyes, there’s this thumping feeling.”  

“I’m in a foreign country, by myself…I never felt so alone in my entire life.” 

When Brianna-Lee Merema went to Europe, she thought she finally fulfilled her dream, the holiday she saved so much for–solo travel.  

Taking snaps of the canals in Venice and visiting some of the most iconic museums in the world. 

But behind her happy and jovial exterior, her eyes told a different story.  

By the end of the third week, the pain was unbearable.

Brianna was born with Cataracts, a condition that clouds the lens of the eye.

Cataracts cause blurred vision and sensitivity to light. It’s common in older people, but also affects one in 5,000 infants.  

“I was in tears, my face was red raw, and it was all in my eyes.” 

“I had no one to call.”  

Brianna recalls calling her mother at 2am Perth time from London. 

She immediately booked the earliest flight home to Perth and her long-awaited trip was cut short.  

“I have had over 20 operations.” 

Brianna-Lee Merema

Now back home with the access to the doctors she needs, Brianna recalls how scared she was leaving Perth; even more so, on her own. 

“I was so worried about what was going to happen while I was away.”

“I don’t even have a good relationship with my mum all the time.” 

This trip meant everything to her, it wasn’t supposed to be cut this short.  

“The fact that I called her out of everybody, really spoke words that I was in deep shit, like I felt like there was something wrong,” she said. 

Growing up with an eye condition 

Raised in the remote town of Broome, Western Australia, 23-year-old Brianna was born with Cataracts.

In Brianna’s case, the condition developed in the womb.   

Brianna was told she contracted chicken pox in the womb.   

 The youngest in the family, Brianna was raised by her mother and step-dad after losing her father at a young age.  

Biranna had a difficult history with her health as a child. 

“I had tubes in my eyes when I was a kid, they helped relieve fluid out of my eyes.”

“I was bullied as a kid, they used to physically bully me.” 

“My sisters used to get jealous of me because I couldn’t get hit in the head because of the tubes draining fluid from my eyes,” she said.

At two years old, her eye condition developed into Glaucoma, an eye disease affecting the optic nerve, leading to blindness.  

“We travelled up and down to Perth all the time through “PATS” (Patient Assisted Travel Scheme) who paid for our trips because Broome didn’t have the same health care for what I had.” 

Glaucoma has no cure, and vision loss is irreversible. 

That’s why for Brianna, this was the trip of a lifetime. 

Travelling overseas before it was too late 

Brianna saved over $10,000 from her hospitality job as a bell attendant at a well-known five-star resort in Perth.  

“I didn’t want to be one of those people that didn’t get to go to these countries and didn’t get to see it when they could.” 

Brianna’s eyesight is deteriorating faster than ever before which pushed her to travel.  

“I’ll be honest, I didn’t want to go, I didn’t care to go,” she said. 

A girl on a mission 

Joshua Adu-Pipim-Boaduo, a co-worker of Brianna, remembers not knowing about her disability prior to becoming her good friend. 

“I didn’t know she was blind.”

“We all found out later as we started working with her,” he said.  

Biranna has been working independently at the hotel for the last three years. 

“We got to know each other and the more I got to know her the more I realised how much she suffers as a person because of her condition,” he said.  

Mr Boaduo is astounded at her progress. 

“The (Bri) I know, a year and a half ago, would never have thought of travelling.” 

“She has grown a lot more, confidently,” Mr Boaduo said. 

Brianna is pushing boundaries despite her eyesight deteriorating rapidly recently.  

“There’s not a lot that can be changed, there’s not a lot that can be done, there is no way of saving it,” she said.

“I am going blind, I don’t really want to be someone that has fully gone blind and then didn’t get to see what they wanted to.”