Feature: Coping with losing your sight

When asked to join a 'sightseeing' tour around Westminster, I was initially reluctant as I thought I knew a little more about the borough than the average tourist.

That is, until I was told this was a special walk set up by the RNIB to help people experience the world as someone with sight loss might.

Donning a pair of spectacles, specially-adapted to mimic the condition of age-related macular degeneration, I was left with some peripheral vision but could see very little directly in front of me.

The walk kicked off at Westminster tube station, a bustling haven for tourists snapping pictures world-famous attractions.

Not quite such a haven for a partially-sighted person on the other hand, with people knocking you out of the way because you're walking too slowly and drivers tooting their horns impatiently because you couldn't see the 'green man' to cross the road.

Our London Blue Badge tour guide Abigail Lawson stopped us by Westminster Bridge, with good views of some of London's most popular sights - Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, the London Eye.

A good view, that is, for people with full use of their eyes.

But as I could make out only large shapes in place of these world-famous sights, I began to develop a better use of my four remaining senses.

Taking the time to stop to smell the River Thames, to hear the chiming of Big Ben and to feel the gnarled bark of trees growing opposite the Palace of Westminster helped me appreciate the area all the more.

Continuing our journey around Parliament Square, we stopped off at St Margaret's Church.

The church, built in the 15th century, was initially used by local people but it has since become used by MPs from the House of Commons.

The smell of the church hit me as soon as I walked in and instead of looking at the tombstones of famous people who have died over the years, we felt the smooth, cold marble.

Outside, our tour guide told us to look up to Westminster Abbey where several statues of martyrs adorn the walls - including one of Martin Luther King.

Talking to Dr Ngaire Walls, who has macular dysplasia, she said: "I can't see the finer details.

"I can't tell if the statue is a man or a woman, all that I can tell is that there is a statue of something there."

She developed the condition as a teenager, but since then it has become much worse and she has had to give up work as a GP.

Dr Walls added: "Some of the hardest things have been stopping driving in 2001, and now I can't read.

"I can't sit down in a normal sitting room with a good book. I can't read signs anywhere, so I know most of London through memory alone.

"Meeting strangers is hard as I might seem slightly aloof or shy, or just daft.

"It just knocks your confidence.

"Even my friends, I recognise by the way they walk rather than their faces."

She also finds it difficult to go on holiday alone, dealing with security and not being able to see signs at airports, which many people take for granted.

Although macular dysplasia is degenerative, Dr Walls has not let it get the better of her.

She said: "I've been living in London for many years, and I'd never leave the house if I was worried about going out."

Her husband, daughter and friends are all supportive, as well as her son, who perhaps understands her more than most as he suffers from the same condition.

The tour finished off by Westminster School, and though I'd only been wearing the simulation glasses for just over an hour, I was relieved to take them off.

Over the course of that hour, I started to understand what it might be like to lose my sight and how to appreciate the world in a different ways - through smell, touch and sound.

And then I was off to indulge my sense of taste, by stopping off for a well-earned cup of tea and a cake.

* A detailed map, audio podcast recorded by Vanessa Feltz and full transcript of the walk can be downloaded for free from www.rnib.org.uk/lost.