After recovering partial sight following cutting edge treatment in Germany, a South African swimmer will tie the knot next month - after only recently seeing her fiancé’s face for the first time.
Cornelle Leach, 25, lost her sight aged nine, when she was diagnosed with Stargardt disease. Her world quickly became a dark canvas of shadows and faint flickers of light.
However, due to electrotherapy treatment that has opened up new neural pathways in her brain, her vision is improving every day. Since receiving the treatment in September, Leach’s sight has improved from 0-10% at her last test, and will be measured again in two weeks time. “Ten percent [sight] might not sound like much — but, for me, it’s like opening the curtains to sunlight after 15 years of darkness,” she told the Sunday Times.
Leach has been able to ditch her white cane as she can see well enough to walk unaided and no longer requires a guide dog.
When she a marketing student at the University of the North-West, she was paired with a Labrador guide dog, Vogue, who became her close companion, enabling her to manage campus life and go to the gym where she trained as a swimmer.
The marketing manager from Potchefstroom won a bronze medal in the 100m breaststroke at the 2022 World Paralympic Swimming Championships and holds three African records. She now competes in triathlons.
Ten percent [sight] might not sound like much — but, for me, it’s like opening the curtains to sunlight after 15 years of darkness
— Cornelle Leach, SA swimmer
Leach began crowd-funding to raise R350 000 for the required six weeks of intensive therapy. But after a good start, it petered out and she became despondent. “I had a Bridezilla moment. I told my mom I didn’t want flowers or table settings or anything aesthetically pleasing at my Braille wedding,” she said.
“All my marketing initiatives and fundraisers failed. I bared my soul, I laid out my dreams as I reached out repeatedly and got rejected again and again. I must have contacted over 100 celebrities for support, and only one responded.”
This led to comedian Schalk Bezuidenhout meeting with her to record “a very rough and raw” seven-minute video appeal together. He posted it to his thousands of followers, asking them to all give a small amount “because what’s 10 bucks to you?”
“Within a day, the full amount had been donated. I couldn’t believe the response. Only a handful of people gave R500 or more – literally thousands of people gave R10,” said Leach.
In September, she flew to Berlin. “The doctors were frank and told me it could take up to six months to see any improvement.”
Leach met Russel Woolf on a dating app, and the couple got engaged. Earlier this year Woolf’s relatives, who live in Berlin, told Cornelle about a new breakthrough by neurologists who developed a therapy designed specifically for her type of impaired vision by using electrotherapy to regenerate damaged cells and form neural pathways between the eyes and brain. But the results were instant.
“Right from the start I could see speckles and spots, and within a week I could stand in front of an eye test board and read the top two lines and the first letter of the third line. Nobody could believe it,” she said.
Leach returned home and — for the first time in 15 years — she could see faces and details and walk without assistance. “I remember one day we were sitting on a train and I saw Russel’s profile, and I could see the detail, and I said, ‘I can see your face’, and I just started crying. He jokes about it now and tells his friends that I can see him now and I haven’t dumped him.”
This week Leach received a visit from the SA Guide Dogs Association, who asked if she wanted to keep Vogue. “I know it’s a standard protocol thing, and that they have to ask and give you the choice. I just told them Vogue is mine, we’ve been together for years and she’s not going anywhere. And because she is now eight and has epilepsy, she has officially gone into retirement and is now just my pet. Her working days are over.”
Now, as she prepares for her wedding next month (with flowers), Leach makes regular visits to fashion designer Gert-Johan Coetzee’s studio for dress fittings. “I just fell in love with Cornelle and her story, and I knew nobody in the world could make a better dress for her than me,” Coetzee said.
