In the 2nd edition of Imfama 2010, we told you about Johan Grové who has a type of retinal degeneration that causes the central vision to degenerate to a point at which neither reading nor writing is possible. This disease also affects colour vision and the ability to discern details which is essential for facial recognition. Johan went to Düsseldorf in Germany for stem cell therapy when his sight was 90% gone due to Fundus Flavimaculatus.

Herewith an update on his progress:
In November, 2010 Johan has already had a five line eye chart improvement and a newly regained ability to see colours. At this time (seven months after treatment) Mr. Grové went back to his ophthalmologist for an eye test. He was informed that his eyesight had improved from 6/360 to 6/120.
"My colour vision has also improved since treatment. Before stem cell therapy, I could only distinguish between light and dark colours. Now, I can actually see colours like dark brown, green, blue and purple. It's great!" exclaimed Johan. "I hope that my success gives hope to other people who are in situations similar to mine," he concluded.

You can read a full article about his case on the XCell-Centre website.

Since November last year, there has been more progress:
Johan reports that his ability to see objects far away from him, has improved significantly. His colour perception has improved further and the magnification he uses on his computer has come down from 8x to 3x magnification!

Johan will be going for his next eye examination soon. Hopefully he will report even more progress!

Johan tells us that five more South Africans have gone to Germany since he has been there and three more are on their way. We hope they will all get the results they dream of.