A Canadian family’s world tour before the children went blind

Three of Sébastien Pelletier and Edith Lemay’s four children suffer from retinitis pigmentosa. The doctors advised them to show them pictures of anything they might miss, but the parents decided it was best to travel the planet to get an actual picture.

Sebastien Pelletier and Edith Lemay They are a Canadian couple with four children. When the eldest daughter began to show unusual clumsiness, she was tested to see if she had any vision problems.

The results determined that he was suffering retinitis pigmentosa, resulting in retinal degeneration and progressive loss of sight. The speed at which this can happen varies greatly. Three out of four children have this rare hereditary disease.

For this reason, the whole family travels around the world, so that children can see, taste and remember the wonders of the planet, before it is too late.

Mia, who is now 13, was diagnosed with a genetic condition when she was three years old. The diagnoses of Colin, seven years old, and Laurent, five years old. Only Leonine years old, does not have retinitis.

A specialist offered to help prepare children for this darker future by showing them photos of the richness of the world: its places, its landscapes, its animals… The idea was to build a archive of visual memories that they could use later in life.

But the parents had a better idea: “I decided that I was not going to show him the elephant and the giraffe in the books, that it was much better to show him in real life, and We decided to go all out and show them how beautiful our world is. and fill his memory with as many beautiful things as we can,” says Edith, the mother.

The family left almost a year ago and have visited ten countries so far (Zambia, Tanzania, Mongolia, Thailand…), And Nepal will be next on the list. Along the way, they recounted their journey through social media.

“We made a list of activities they wanted to do on the trip, like ride a horse; learn to surf or sleep on a train. Laurent, for example, wanted to drink juice on a camel for some strange reason. But we thought it could be a lot of fun. She was four at the time and held firm: “I want to drink juice on a camel,” Edith recalls. No sooner said than done.

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Shawn Jacobs

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