 I tend to describe myself as a visually impaired Italian, Egyptian, Muslim, female, comedian. I got sick during my mother's pregnancy with me and I was diagnosed at nine months old with a blood test from a virus and then that caused retinal scarring and retinal damage. I've been involved with GDV since I was 12. Yeah, 12, that's when I started being more involved with services and my posh just started to get worse and worse so then I had to do cane training and then come to terms with the next stage of my impairment and learn to use a cane and realise that I can't fool myself or I can't fool others to say that I can walk without a mobility aid when unfortunately I do need to have a mobility aid with me. I didn't start becoming more independent, travelling on my own until much, much later. Learning how to get to uni with the buses and the tram really efficiently and my parents would call me a fair bit but I would be really quick on the phone with them and be like, I've got to get off, I need my hands to get off the bus. I remember calling a friend from who I used to go on the camps with and she was studying in the city and she said are you coming to the football and I said yes I'm coming and then I thought how am I going to go and meet her and I took the tram into the city on my own with my cane. I was 18 and that was probably my first kind of voyage of independence or the first big step of independence and I'm just glad that I was given those opportunities to go on those camps because if they weren't involved in my life from 12 up until now, I don't think I would have left the home. I don't think I would have been have that confidence and safety because I've been followed a few times and I've gone into like a bank or something and I think guide dogs give you that knowledge of how to be safe. Two weeks ago I was you know Sydney doing a performance and they put me in a apartment and I worked out on my own how to get to Coles. I was so proud of myself. I'm in a city where I've got no idea where nothing is and I'm just there as this like cute little Preston chick that wants to get to Coles to buy wheat, beaks and milk so I had some breakfast and I found the Coles and the Coles in Darlinghurst is like a multi-level one so then you got to go down to the basement to get to the dairy product and you got to go up the escalator to go to the bread products and the minute I walked out with my groceries I was like yeah I'm on my own and I was like one proud chick. It showed to me that I'm not going to get hit by a car I'm going to be okay I've done a lot of work and a lot of self-development and I guess it was hey I'll let myself out because I've got my own keys I'm going to meet my friend in the city and then that's what young people do and that's what I wanted to do and then I slowly started to feel more pride in in getting around on my own but it took some time