DUBAI // Noreen Samara longs to do simple, everyday tasks such as drive a car or go shopping for groceries.
Over the past two years, the 34-year-old Dubai resident has been slowly losing her independence due to a condition that attacks the blood vessels in her eyes and has led her to lose 50 per cent of her vision.
As her condition worsens, the only option for the mother of one is a number of costly specialist laser procedures in the UK, without which she will go blind.
But with a Dh500,000 price tag for the procedures, Noreen, who is in debt because of her medical bills, is unable to fund the treatment that would save her sight.
She is now appealing for donations to help pay for the life-changing treatment.
“I am just so scared,” said Noreen, whose husband Mark has put out an appeal for help on Facebook. “I am really desperate.”
Noreen said she began to have blackouts and started seeing black dots in late 2010.
“It was like having mosquitos flying in front of my eyes all the time,” she said.
Noreen, who has a five-year-old son, Robbie, immediately went to Moorfields Eye Hospital in Dubai. But her rapidly deteriorating condition baffled several specialists in the emirate.
“It is so scary when doctors do not know what is wrong with you,” she said.
In February 2011, a group of specialists at the American Hospital Dubai and a vascular surgeon at The City Hospital finally told her she had vasculitis, a condition that attacks the blood vessels all over the body, including those in the eyes. It caused severe damage to the retina and optic nerves in both of her eyes.
“I was shocked, scared and devastated,” said Noreen.
She was referred to specialists at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London, and began an intensive course of steroids to treat the condition.
The Indian, who was born and raised in Dubai and lives at the Marina, said that despite her initial fear of her condition, she is now looking to the future.
Knowing that her job as a sales manager – a job dependent on being able to drive a car – would be affected, Noreen looked to retrain in a career that she could pursue with partial or complete blindness.
“I decided to start studying for a new career as a counsellor, realising that given the prognosis, I may never be able to drive again and could be partially blind for the rest of my life,” she said.
However, her condition has deteriorated in the past few months, forcing her to stop her studies.
“I can never drive again, I cannot go grocery shopping, or even walk around on my own due to partial vision,” she said.
The mother is now fearful of going outside and is almost housebound.
“People can be quite mean,” she said “If you bump into something or cannot see, people are quite cruel and stare. I cannot even tolerate daylight so the blinds are closed all day.”
During her trips to the UK to visit specialists, Noreen said she met and stayed with a woman who lost her sight after being diagnosed with vasculitis.
It gave Noreen a devastating idea of what life would be like if she was blind.
“It is unbelievable. It is like you are living underground, you are not part of society anymore,” she said.
Noreen was told last month that specialised surgery by experts at Moorfields’ main facilities in London was the only option left to save what remains of her vision.
But without a job and accumulating medical bills, the Samaras are already heavily in debt and have been selling furniture, clothes and other belongings to make ends meet.
Noreen is now hoping generous members of the public will come forward and help with the cost of the procedure.
“I need several months of inpatient treatment, including ongoing surgeries to repair the damaged blood vessels and retina to preserve the remaining vision to enable me to have some sight to recover,” she said.
“I am hoping and praying to raise the Dh500,000 needed for medical expenses plus the cost of a three-month stay in the UK.
“Without the ongoing treatment, I will lose my vision and become completely blind. At present with 50 per cent vision, I can get around using a cane stick but I will be completely blind if the ongoing damage is not treated.”
Dr Imran Ansari, an ophthalmologist at Dubai’s Moorfields hospital, confirmed Noreen needed to see a neuro-ophthalmologist in the UK eye or face a “high risk of permanent visual loss”.
To help Noreen, call 050 9501331 or email maahira-noreen@hotmail.com.
jbell@thenational.ae
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57%20Seconds
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BORDERLANDS
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis
Director: Eli Roth
Rating: 0/5
Selected fixtures
All times UAE
Wednesday
Poland v Portugal 10.45pm
Russia v Sweden 10.45pm
Friday
Belgium v Switzerland 10.45pm
Croatia v England 10.45pm
Saturday
Netherlands v Germany 10.45pm
Rep of Ireland v Denmark 10.45pm
Sunday
Poland v Italy 10.45pm
Monday
Spain v England 10.45pm
Tuesday
France v Germany 10.45pm
Rep of Ireland v Wales 10.45pm
Milestones on the road to union
1970
October 26: Bahrain withdraws from a proposal to create a federation of nine with the seven Trucial States and Qatar.
December: Ahmed Al Suwaidi visits New York to discuss potential UN membership.
1971
March 1: Alex Douglas Hume, Conservative foreign secretary confirms that Britain will leave the Gulf and “strongly supports” the creation of a Union of Arab Emirates.
July 12: Historic meeting at which Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid make a binding agreement to create what will become the UAE.
July 18: It is announced that the UAE will be formed from six emirates, with a proposed constitution signed. RAK is not yet part of the agreement.
August 6: The fifth anniversary of Sheikh Zayed becoming Ruler of Abu Dhabi, with official celebrations deferred until later in the year.
August 15: Bahrain becomes independent.
September 3: Qatar becomes independent.
November 23-25: Meeting with Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid and senior British officials to fix December 2 as date of creation of the UAE.
November 29: At 5.30pm Iranian forces seize the Greater and Lesser Tunbs by force.
November 30: Despite a power sharing agreement, Tehran takes full control of Abu Musa.
November 31: UK officials visit all six participating Emirates to formally end the Trucial States treaties
December 2: 11am, Dubai. New Supreme Council formally elects Sheikh Zayed as President. Treaty of Friendship signed with the UK. 11.30am. Flag raising ceremony at Union House and Al Manhal Palace in Abu Dhabi witnessed by Sheikh Khalifa, then Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.
December 6: Arab League formally admits the UAE. The first British Ambassador presents his credentials to Sheikh Zayed.
December 9: UAE joins the United Nations.
Blackpink World Tour [Born Pink] In Cinemas
Starring: Rose, Jisoo, Jennie, Lisa
Directors: Min Geun, Oh Yoon-Dong
Rating: 3/5
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Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
Director: Goran Hugo Olsson
Rating: 5/5
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Green ambitions
- Trees: 1,500 to be planted, replacing 300 felled ones, with veteran oaks protected
- Lake: Brown's centrepiece to be cleaned of silt that makes it as shallow as 2.5cm
- Biodiversity: Bat cave to be added and habitats designed for kingfishers and little grebes
- Flood risk: Longer grass, deeper lake, restored ponds and absorbent paths all meant to siphon off water
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Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
How to donate
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The language of diplomacy in 1853
Treaty of Peace in Perpetuity Agreed Upon by the Chiefs of the Arabian Coast on Behalf of Themselves, Their Heirs and Successors Under the Mediation of the Resident of the Persian Gulf, 1853
(This treaty gave the region the name “Trucial States”.)
We, whose seals are hereunto affixed, Sheikh Sultan bin Suggar, Chief of Rassool-Kheimah, Sheikh Saeed bin Tahnoon, Chief of Aboo Dhebbee, Sheikh Saeed bin Buyte, Chief of Debay, Sheikh Hamid bin Rashed, Chief of Ejman, Sheikh Abdoola bin Rashed, Chief of Umm-ool-Keiweyn, having experienced for a series of years the benefits and advantages resulting from a maritime truce contracted amongst ourselves under the mediation of the Resident in the Persian Gulf and renewed from time to time up to the present period, and being fully impressed, therefore, with a sense of evil consequence formerly arising, from the prosecution of our feuds at sea, whereby our subjects and dependants were prevented from carrying on the pearl fishery in security, and were exposed to interruption and molestation when passing on their lawful occasions, accordingly, we, as aforesaid have determined, for ourselves, our heirs and successors, to conclude together a lasting and inviolable peace from this time forth in perpetuity.
Taken from Britain and Saudi Arabia, 1925-1939: the Imperial Oasis, by Clive Leatherdale
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More on animal trafficking
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The specs
Engine: 2.7-litre 4-cylinder Turbomax
Power: 310hp
Torque: 583Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh192,500
On sale: Now
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Haemoglobin disorders explained
Thalassaemia is part of a family of genetic conditions affecting the blood known as haemoglobin disorders.
Haemoglobin is a substance in the red blood cells that carries oxygen and a lack of it triggers anemia, leaving patients very weak, short of breath and pale.
The most severe type of the condition is typically inherited when both parents are carriers. Those patients often require regular blood transfusions - about 450 of the UAE's 2,000 thalassaemia patients - though frequent transfusions can lead to too much iron in the body and heart and liver problems.
The condition mainly affects people of Mediterranean, South Asian, South-East Asian and Middle Eastern origin. Saudi Arabia recorded 45,892 cases of carriers between 2004 and 2014.
A World Health Organisation study estimated that globally there are at least 950,000 'new carrier couples' every year and annually there are 1.33 million at-risk pregnancies.