Doctors tell Coronation Street star Lisa George she could go blind as star diagnosed with incurable eye condition

She is concerned about the implications for her career.
Lisa George, a star of Coronation Street, opened up about her fears after learning that she has a genetic eye condition that could cause her to go blind.

After losing her sight in her right eye due to a gardening “incident” in 2016, Lisa, who plays Beth Tinker on the ITV soap opera, began to experience health issues.

Doctors informed Lisa that she had partially lost vision in the lower portion of her right eye as a result of being struck in the eye by a piece of rope. They went on to say that, regrettably, it would never return.

Lisa George, a Coronation Street star, talks about her “frightful” eye condition
Lisa stated to the Daily Mail, “Corrie was fantastic.” To make things easier, they printed my scripts in a larger font, but I still didn’t receive an explanation of what had transpired. The doctors couldn’t agree on whether the trauma from the rope or something else caused the haemorrhage at the back of my eye, despite the fact that I had scans and had dye injected into my eyeball.

For the next six years, the actress visited different eye hospitals. Things got worse when Lisa experienced another incident in the summer of 2022, this time in her left eye.

She described how terrifying it was to “couldn’t tell whether the lorries in front of me were merging into one” as she drove home from co-star Katie McGlynn’s birthday party.

‘Worst experience of my life’
Lisa said she went to A&E the next day and stayed in hospital for a week. She said it was “one of the worst experiences of my life”.

“I had a CT scan on my head, two lumber punctures, and they wouldn’t let me take my medication for my diabetes which was making feel really poorly. No one seemed to have a clue what had happened. They just said: ‘You’ve got nerve clusters.’ After a week they sent me home and told me to take aspirin for the pain.”

She was eventually diagnosed with – NAION (non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy). It causes sudden vision loss in one eye.

Effect on Coronation Street employment
Lisa also mentioned that it has an impact on her Coronation Street job. She did note that her soap opera bosses have been “brilliant.” When she became unable to drive, they set her up with transportation. Additionally, her scripts are printed in a larger font. Scenes have also been altered by directors to account for her visual impairments.

She added that she had encountered issues when filming at night. During one shoot, Lisa acknowledged that she “struggled to see the edge of a pavement.” In addition, she has stumbled over wires and leads backstage.

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Coronation Street star Lisa George: ‘I’ll never get my full sight back’
Lisa admitted that doctors have told her she will never fully get her sight back.

“We don’t know what could happen in the future. My doctor was dead straight with me. She said that I would never get my full sight back. The damage was done and I had to live with it. When it first happened I was so petrified but I can’t worry about what could or couldn’t happen, it’s no way to live. I’ve just got to get on with it.”