Blind Devizes mum given award for her determination (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Blind Devizes mum given award for her determination

12:00pm Friday 21st November 2008

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Devizes mum-of-three Carolann Hockney has proved that being blind is not a barrier to success.

Mrs Hockney, 39, conquered her fears and transformed her life to prove to her 17-year-old daughter, Hayleyann, that being blind should not stop her achieving her dreams.

Mrs Hockney, of Franklyn Road, Devizes, is in the final of the Shaw Trust’s prestigious STAR awards, being held today.

The Shaw Trust, a charity, has been working with Mrs Hockney and has helped her go to Wiltshire College in Trowbridge where she has achieved a number of diplomas in holistic therapies and she is looking forward to her first ever job as a complementary therapist.

Mrs Hockney left school without any qualifications. She was diagnosed with the disease Retinitis Pigmentosa at the age of 15 and was registered blind. She was moved from her mainstream school in Germany where her father was based in the Army to a blind school in Coventry where she boarded.

Mrs Hockney, who has a guide dog called Hobson, said: “I can’t read print and I can’t see the TV. I can only see what’s right in front of me, if there’s a person in front of me I can just see their nose. For me it’s like looking through a pin hole.

“I never felt I could achieve anything so when I left Blind College I got married and had a family.”

Mrs Hockney moved to Devizes three years ago when her marriage broke up and to be nearer to her sister, Venetia Ingram.

The Shaw Trust contacted Mrs Hockney and development officer Molly Edge encouraged her to go to college.

Mrs Hockney said: “Molly was the first person who said to me ‘you can do this’. Up until then I had said ‘no I can’t’ and I didn’t have the confidence to go out on my own or to go to college.

“It was very scary going to college for the first time, I was the only student on my course with a disability.”

Her daughter Hayleyann was diagnosed with the same eye condition at the age of one and was registered blind at 11. She went to Devizes School and is now at Wiltshire College in Chippenham studying health and social care and wants to have a career working with elderly people.

Mrs Hockney said: “I’m pleased to be nominated for an award but the best reward is seeing my daughter’s determination to succeed.”

“I’ve spent my life being told I can’t do things and I wanted to show Haleyann that she can.”

Hayleyann is delighted at her mum’s nomination. She said: “Mum has worked hard and overcome a lot of obstacles. She has shown me you can do anything if you try.

“It does not matter that we have bad eyes. If I try I know whatever life throws at me I will do my best.”

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