'I lost my sight but still watch my football team'

A Guernsey football fan who has followed his local club since their opening season said he still turns out to their matches, despite losing his sight 18 months ago.

Andy Lemée, 79, started following Guernsey FC when it was founded in 2011 and has been a regular at home and away games since.

But when he lost his sight overnight in 2023 he had to change the way he followed the team - with his wife, Julie, getting a team sheet from the club and whispering commentary into his ear.

Mr Lemée said the club "look after us well - the stewards all know us".

Having supported Guernsey FC for nearly 14 years, Mr Lemée said he knew the layout of the current ground, at Footes Lane, from before he lost his sight.

"We've been there from day one, home and away," he said.

But with the club moving to a new ground at Victoria Park in March, he said it had offered to give him an accessible tour so he can familiarise himself with it before the first home game.

Julie Lemée, 66, said her husband - who is legally blind - cannot make out any detail or even see the colour of the pitch any more, but can see some movement.

Even at home, he "prefers the atmosphere" of the TV commentary, rather than listening to radio coverage.

Mr Lemée was an airport fireman before he took early retirement at 51 and had always been healthy and physically fit.

He lost the sight in his right eye about 14 years ago, at 65, because of anterior ischemic optic neuropathy - a condition that causes sudden sight loss when the optic nerves do not get enough blood flow.

Mr Lemée said it was "like a stroke of the eye, you've got 1,000,000 nerve endings and then suddenly 900,000 stop working".

However, as he still had "one good eye" the main effect was that he "couldn't pour a glass of wine, I'd miss completely", he said.

A specialist told the couple the chances of the same thing happening to his other eye were "billions to one", but three months after his wife retired in 2023 Mr Lemée lost the sight in his other eye.

He said: "I was driving down the Val des Terres in St Peter Port, when I said to Julie I think I need new glasses."

By the next morning, his remaining eyesight had gone - "it just went".

However, Mr Lemée said he had not let his impairment stop him staying active.

He is due to give a talk at Guernsey's branch of the Macular Society about his sight loss and life afterwards.

He does yoga at Guernsey's Bathing Pools and plays boccia - with helpers banging the ground so he "has a sense of where the target is".

Mr Lemée said he also rides adapted four-wheeled bikes at Beau Sejour with a group called Wheels For You.

"They actually let me steer once as I know the track. They have to tell me to slow down sometimes," he said.

Mr Lemée said he wanted to encourage other blind people in the bailiwick to try taking part in sport or following it.

Guernsey's Sports Commission and Guernsey FC had been "incredibly supportive" he said.

"There's 400 people in Guernsey like me," he said, "and there's no reason they can't do what I'm doing."

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