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Lucy Edwards remembers all too clearly the day she broke down and told her mum she was never going to find someone to love her. She was 11, blind in one eye – and she had just discovered she was rapidly losing the sight in her other eye too.

“I said, ‘Mum, if I go blind, no-one will fall in love with me’,” recalls Lucy, now 19. “She told me not to be silly and said, ‘Of course they will. What’s not to love?’

“But when I was 14, I started going out with a boy three years older. I explained all about my condition – that it was genetic, but one day stem-cell research could find a cure.

“He just said, ‘Well, I’ll dump you if you go blind. And I don’t believe in stem-cell research’. Imagine what that did for my insecurities.”

But two years later Lucy met Ollie Cave, who went to the same youth theatre she did. He was a year younger than her and the pair found an instant connection. They started dating, and Ollie made clear he wanted to understand the world from Lucy’s point of view.

Just two months into their relationship, Lucy went completely blind because of incontinentia pigmenti, a rare condition she had inherited at birth.

She says: “It had been happening gradually, but one day I said, ‘Ollie, your face is going. I can’t see you any more.’

“He was amazing. So calm and supportive. But I had a bit of a wobble and said we should split. I didn’t know if I could cope with losing my sight and a new relationship and I told him ‘I can’t be with you’.

“But Ollie said ‘I’m not letting you leave me’, and he’s been there for me ever since. It may be a cliche – but for us, love really is blind.”

That was two and a half years ago and since then the couple have gone from strength to strength – showing maturity and resilience beyond their years in coping with Lucy’s disability.

She went back to college to complete her A-levels and wants to study law if she gets the right results next month.

Ollie, 18, is about to start a university course in animation and the pair moved into their own flat together in May.

And, in the meantime, the couple have started a YouTube channel called Yesterday’s Wishes in which Lucy, a talented make-up artist gives video tutorials while flawlessly putting on her own face.

The channel has more 19,000 followers and has attracted more than a million hits. Lucy is even being called the new Zoella – after hit beauty vlogger Zoe Suggs.

Now, mindful of the fear she had as an 11-year-old, the inspirational teenager is supporting a campaign by the Royal London Society for Blind People to help visually-impaired youngsters in their search for love. The charity recently joined forces with dating site Match.com to hold a “Love is Blind” dating event in which blind singles enjoyed salsa dancing lessons with sighted partners wearing blindfolds.

It was part of this month’s London Without Limits Festival – a series of events designed to help people understand the reality of sight loss.

Lucy says: “I was born with incontinentia pigmenti. It’s a rare condition that is passed down the female line.

“It presents itself as a skin condition with scabby lesions like chicken pox. My mum and nan had them too but they went away. But I was the unlucky one. It affected my eyes which is even rarer. It means the backs of your eyes bleed and bleed until the retina begins to detach.

“It was spotted at a routine eye check when I was eight and when I was 11 I lost the sight in my right eye, which had always been the stronger one. My sight couldn’t be corrected with glasses, but I was able to manage at school.

“Then just as I was turning 16 I developed a cataract which I had taken out in the middle of my GCSEs.

“Then in March 2013, when I was 17, my retina detached – right in the middle of my A-level studies!”

Lucy underwent surgery at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London, where surgeons were able to restore about 5% of her vision. Now she has some colour perception and can see what she calls “blurry blobs”.

Lucy adds: “If I hold a nail varnish right up to my eye I can just about pick out the colour.”

Although she can’t make out Ollie’s face now, she’s grateful she got to see him before the cataract.

“He was just my type,” she says. “I liked his hair, his build, his lovely face. I’m so glad I saw that before I went blind.”

Ollie says: “I loved the way Lucy looked. She had blonde hair at the time, all wavy and lovely and she is just so bubbly and funny. I was 16 and she was just 17 when we finally got together.

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“But I knew all along about her sight problems. She told me all about it during our second proper conversation.

“We were talking about 3D films and she said, ‘Oh, I haven’t been able to see those since I lost one eye’, as you do! Then she explained she could go completely blind, which is a really big thing but it didn’t put me off. I can totally understand that other people wouldn’t react as well though.

“What if the girl you’ve met turns into a completely different person when faced with that? My friends knew she was losing her sight, but they never questioned our relationship or suggested I was taking on too much of a responsibility. They just thought she was really hot!

“It was very upsetting when she lost the sight in her other eye – but I was only ever worried about her and how she must be feeling. I knew I wasn’t going anywhere.”

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Lucy says: “I think I knew that deep down too. He was amazing. He took it so well, considering we were both so young. He’d never cry in front of me or show he was upset. He wanted to be strong.”

Ollie chips in: “It helps that we are so alike. We enjoy the same things.

“We were both science geeks at school and loved physics and chemistry and we are mad about astronomy. Professor Brian Cox is our absolute hero.”

Lucy, from Birmingham, says: “We both had those apps that explain what is happening in the sky above you. Now I can’t see it but Ollie describes it to me – like with all the amazing new pictures of Pluto. So you could say he gives me the stars!”

Lucy was delighted to support the Royal London Society for Blind People’s Without Limits festival.

Chief Executive Tom Pey says: “Finding love can be difficult for anyone, but being blind can add complex challenges that mean most blind people don’t form nurturing relationships.

“From using dating sites that focus on appearance to being able to travel to a venue alone and to feeling confident about putting yourself out there – it’s hard.

“On top of that we know worries about things like knocking a glass over or being messy on a date are heightened for blind young people. We also need to reduce the stigma that exists about dating blind people.”

Lucy would like to so see more regular events for blind daters. She says: “It’s hard for people to get the courage to date. It would be great for one of the dating sites to hold regular events for blind daters – to help them build up confidence.

“Being blind means you have to be able to tell people what you want or need in all sorts of social situations, but dating is particularly daunting.

“There is also the danger that some guys are looking for someone they can control or take advantage of.

“They might think a blind girlfriend would be more dependant on them. So there is an added vulnerability.

“My best advice is just present yourself confidently – don’t be daunted.”