Seeing Within — Episode 4: It Will All Be Okay
Guest: Claire Sisk | @canseecantsee_
In this episode, Dawn talks with Claire Sisk — disability advocate, RNIB Global Ambassador, and the first blind chef to appear on This Morning. Claire has 112,000 followers across her @canseecantsee_ platforms, where she shares the unfiltered reality of life with sight loss.
Claire's sight loss journey began in 2009 following two strokes. In the aftermath, she noticed changes in her vision and was diagnosed with cone-rod dystrophy — a condition affecting the rods and cones in the eyes. She has since been diagnosed with Best Vitelliform Macular Dystrophy (BVMD) and macular degeneration. On 1st November 2017, she woke up to find she had lost almost all of her sight.
Rather than stepping back, Claire stepped forward. She began sharing her daily life online under the name @canseecantsee_ — a name that captures something both she and Dawn know well: the strange in-between of partial sight loss, where you can see enough to be doubted but not enough to feel safe.
In this conversation, Claire talks about:
The moment she knew she had no choice but to use her white cane — and why she describes being told she was going blind as easier than actually going outside with it
What it really means when people say blindness is a spectrum — the good days, the bad days, and why both are valid
Walking the catwalk at London Fashion Week for Oxfam's sustainability and inclusivity show — and what she hopes younger people took from seeing her own that runway with a cane
Her role as one of three blind matchmakers in ITV's Blind Matchmakers — a dating show that puts non-visual connection at its centre
Co-hosting The Happy Hour on RNIB Connect Radio every Monday from 1pm
Why she started creating content, and what she tells herself every single morning: give up, give in, or give it your all
Claire also talks honestly about the gap between what people see online and what life actually looks like on a hard day — and why she would give all of it up to have her sight back.
Her advice to anyone at the beginning of this journey: "It will all be okay. You will get through this. Life can still be just as good and just as fulfilling. It'll just be in a very different way."
Follow Claire: @canseecantsee_ on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook
This is not a podcast to rush through. There is no right way to listen. Produced by Anne Gould. Music via Epidemic Sound. With thanks to Sarah Place Accountants, Bury St Edmunds, for supporting the production. To hear more, visit pathwayyoga.substack.com.
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