MARLBOROUGH – Joy, happiness and gratitude filled Laura Gregory when she got the news she had been eagerly awaiting last Sunday.
Gregory, who has been legally blind her whole life, asked for the community’s help in her quest to raise $10,000 to purchase a pair of innovative eSight glasses, a technology that allows those with vision so impaired that it cannot be corrected with ordinary lenses to see.
The 12-year Marlborough resident has been unemployed the past 8 years and her insurance company would not cover the cost. So, the community stepped up.
Just weeks after beginning her fundraising campaign, Gregory hit the $10,000 mark last week. She received donations from local friends, family and strangers from as far away as Texas, New Hampshire and Maine who learned about her plight through various media outlets.
“It was surprising to think there are people out there that are willing to help,” Gregory said. “I’m just very grateful for people’s generosity.”
Gregory plans to write thank-you letters to everyone who donated.
Framingham’s Kevin Crouty, a longtime friend of Gregory's, was one of those donors. He wanted to donate to help Gregory achieve her goal of returning to teaching students with disabilities.
“I’m really happy she got her money for the eSight glasses,” said Crouty.
The eyewear is equipped with a camera that captures what a user is looking at in real time and displays the images on two screens in front of the user’s eyes. Those wearing the glasses can control color, contrast, brightness and zoom.
Gregory will receive the glasses in four to six weeks.
The glasses will provide an element of safety for Gregory, who has neurofibromatosis. She fell down an escalator at an airport in Virginia over the holidays and fractured six ribs.
Doctors found a tumor on Gregory’s optic nerve when she was 5 years old. A year later she had 32 radiation treatments. She had her first grand mal seizure at age 21 and was diagnosed with epilepsy.
Eight years ago, doctors determined the cause of her seizures was a malformation that had grown on her right temporal lobe as a result of scar tissue from the radiation treatments. A year later she had a right temporal craniotomy, but her eyesight continued to deteriorate due to swelling in her brain caused by the surgery.
Gregory is thankful the community banded together to give her the gift of sight.
“I’m very grateful for whatever people were able to give,” said Gregory.
For more information on eSight glasses, visit www.esighteyewear.com.
Jeff Malachowski can be reached at 508-490-7466 or jmalachowski@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @JmalachowskiMW.