Jack Pierce in Tauranga who has had his life changed by a diagnosis of glaucoma. He lost his job and his drivers licence, but has since been able to find a new job with support of family.
Jack Pierce lost his job, driver's licence and nearly his eyesight last year due to a "silent disease".
The 59-year-old had been diagnosed with an ''irreversible'' eye disease and recalls feeling like "an absolute burden" after becoming reliant on his family to do day-to-day things.
Sitting in the sunshine ata Tauranga park and speaking with the Bay of Plenty Times, he now wants to raise awareness about the disease.
"I've lost my licence for good, I've lost my job ... I've lost my independence all because I didn't know about glaucoma.
"Had I known a little bit more information earlier on, I might not be in this situation."
March is New Zealand's glaucoma awareness month. It is estimated 50,000 New Zealanders are unknowingly living with glaucoma - one of the leading causes of irreversible blindness.
Jack Pierce uses eye drops to preserve his eyesight which means it will not deteriorate further. Photo / Andrew Warner
Pierce said there were "no signs" ahead of his glaucoma diagnosis in August.
After experiencing problems with a pterygium, a growth of tissue, on his eye, he saw a specialist.
The specialist told him the pterygium could be fixed. But he had "a way bigger issue" - glaucoma.
Pierce said he did not know much about glaucoma and had "no idea" it was irreversible. There was no family history of it either.
He was told by the specialist: "It's irreversible, there's no cure, what you've got is what you've got to live with."
With treatment, it could be stopped from progressing further.
The specialist told him he was "lucky" because "if you hadn't have come in because of pterygium you would have just gradually lost your sight to the point where you had no sight".
He said it was "really scary" to know this could have been a possibility.
"I was definitely on the way to being blind really."
Jack Pierce is originally from Gisborne and has lived in Tauranga for 12 years. Photo / Andrew Warner
Pierce had been working as a storeman driver but his diagnosis meant losing his driver's licence which impacted his job.
His working hours dropped from more than 40 per week to 20 and he mainly relied on his wife, Gaylene Pierce, to drive him to and from work.
"You just felt like an absolute burden."
"You've lost your licence, you've lost your independence ... and you were very reliant on everybody else ... it was really hard."
But in December, he got a new fulltime job at Mitre 10 Mega which he said he was "really happy with" as he was "feeling more useful".
Pierce says he feels lucky to have found a new job and the support he has received has been "immense". He also bought an e-bike to gain back some independence.
"I wouldn't have got through it without the support.
"When you get to that point where you just feel like you're a burden and you can't do stuff on your own like you used to ... It's just the instant bang of going from being able to do something by yourself to just saying you can no longer do it."
Jack and Gaylene Pierce enjoy going to concerts, shows and going for walks. Photo / Andrew Warner
Pierce said if he had known 10 or 15 years ago what glaucoma was and that it wasn't treatable, he would have gone for an eye check. If it had been caught earlier, he might still have been able to drive.
"I just want to help someone else to not have to go through what we've had."
He encouraged people to get an eye test to save themselves a lot of stress and inconvenience.
"Because it's a gradual disease and there's no signs ... people just don't know about it.
"There's no signs you've got it so it just slowly creeps up and creeps up."
"After what happened ... I just say you've got to enjoy and make the most of each day because you don't know what tomorrow's going to bring or what tomorrow's going to take away. And in my case it was nearly my eyesight."
Chair of Glaucoma New Zealand Professor Helen Danesh-Meyer. Photo / Supplied
Chair of Glaucoma New Zealand Professor Helen Danesh-Meyer said glaucoma was "quite a significant health issue" in New Zealand because it was quite common.
In a room of 10 people over 70 years old, one would have glaucoma, she said.
"Because it's a silent disease, half of [them] don't realise they have it."
Glaucoma is a disease of the optic nerve which connects the eyeballs to the brain, Danesh-Meyer said.
"When the optic nerve is damaged the messages don't get from the eye to the brain and we start to lose vision.
"One of the frightening things about glaucoma is that really there are no symptoms until the very late stages of the disease."
Some "subtle" symptoms of glaucoma included reading becoming slower and having difficulty walking down stairs or adjusting from light to dark.
A greater risk of developing glaucoma was sometimes linked to genetics, having high or low blood pressure, taking steroid eye drops and being short-sighted, she said.
Treatments included eye drops, laser procedures and surgeries.
"If you're diagnosed early and you use your treatment, there's a 98 per cent chance that you won't go blind from glaucoma."
Danesh-Meyer was also working on research that would try to help people "preserve as much vision as they have".
"The vision you lose we can't get back with the treatments - all the treatments are aimed at keeping what you have."
The study would aim to use large databases involving millions of people to try to figure out if there were any environmental risk factors associated with glaucoma.
It would also aim to develop a "risk calculator" for individuals so they would know what their specific risks were with glaucoma.
March is glaucoma awareness month
For glaucoma awareness month, Glaucoma New Zealand is educating Kiwis about glaucoma and promoting regular eye health checks for those aged over 45.
It is estimated that 50,000 New Zealanders are unknowingly living with glaucoma, one of the leading causes of irreversible blindness.
Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that damage the optic nerve. Most people experience no symptoms in the early stages and the only way to know if you have it is to have an eye test.
Professor Helen Danesh-Meyer said: "This glaucoma awareness month, we'd like our message to reach as many Kiwis as possible and find those 50,000 of us, such as Jack, who are living unknowingly with glaucoma. The best way to protect your sight is to have a regular eye test including an optic nerve check - it's simple and painless."
