Love, set and match: Lorraine’s smashing tennis adventure

The 42-year-old from Penwortham in Lancashire, said, “It just gives me a sense of freedom and normality. I’ve come to realise I’m quite good at something that I was rubbish at as a sighted person.”

Lorraine is a member of a National Lottery-funded tennis group run by Galloways, a project supporting blind and partially sighted people in the North West. Six years ago, she was diagnosed with a condition called Optic Nerve Atrophy. Since then, she has completely lost the vision in one eye and can see only shapes and colours in the other.

Lorraine said, “I’d had a few headaches and assumed I needed glasses for everyday use. I didn’t think anything of it at the time. Then I had a test and found I had no peripheral vision – I only saw 13 flashes out of 123. I did the test eight times and got the same result.

I had driven to my hospital appointment and after the tests I asked, ‘Am I OK to drive home?’. They said ‘no way! You shouldn’t have been driving’. That was the hardest bit – giving up my driving licence. I thought my life was over.”

Lorraine was registered as ‘severely sight impaired’ on the first day of the first Covid lockdown. As soon as it ended, she got in touch with Galloways and went on one of its social walks.

When Galloways launched its Be Healthy, Get Active project – a National Lottery-funded initiative giving visually impaired people the chance to play tennis, baseball, cricket and goalball – she jumped at the chance to get involved.

Visually Impaired Tennis uses a special foam ball that’s a bit larger than a standard tennis ball and contains a bell. It’s played on a smaller court than the conventional game and players are allowed two bounces if they’re visually impaired, three if they’re blind.

Lorraine was sceptical at first. She said, “I struggled with sport as a child. I was clumsy and had no hand-eye coordination. When they offered me the chance to play tennis I said, ‘I don’t think so’.

“But then I discovered that if you shut your eye so your remaining vision doesn’t interfere, you can work purely with the sound of the ball bouncing. I wait for the first bounce, locate the ball and whack it back.

“It’s given me back my freedom and independence and the knowledge that despite my visual impairment you can still do things.”

Three years after trying VI tennis for the first time, Lorraine is happy to take her young nieces to the park for a game. She said, “We laugh and joke, but it’s given me the confidence to do that. Before, I would have sat and watched. Now I take part.”

16th June 2025