Losing my sight and learning to swim

Singer and broadcaster Mônica Vasconcelos is slowly losing her sight. Originally from Brazil, she now lives in London, a busy city she finds harder and harder to negotiate safely. As her vision gradually fades, she goes in search of people who may show her new possibilities – new ways of being. They are, among others; her brother, who lives with the same eye condition, and who expertly masters the use of a white cane to navigate the city; her godson, Tiago, who takes her hand in the warm waves on the beaches of Brazil, and - in one of the last interviews he gave before his death - the writer and thinker Dr Oliver Sacks.Oliver Sacks was a neurologist who changed the way many people think about so called 'disabilities', and who Monica met in his New York flat. To her surprise, they found themselves discussing ways of approaching the onset of blindness not only with insight, but also with humour - especially at one magical moment when Sacks shared his own collection of canes with her. The canes, he explained, were acquired to help him get around the city, as his own sight fades. Swimming, he tells Monica, is the one place he feels free and in his own skin - try and find your own version of swimming he advises her.(Photo: Mônica Vasconcelos. Credit: Aro Ribeiro)