Another look

COLIN Payne still remembers his amazement the first time he really saw the colour of Christmas. Colour blind from birth, he had just been fitted with special contact lenses. "We went for a walk around the town centre," he says. "It was a revelation - the brightness of some of the colours! It was the end of the year, the time when people are wrapping Christmas presents in bright colours. There were boxes in some of the shop windows. Before, they would have been a dull green, but they were suddenly fluorescing at me."

The problems came to light when Colin was five. He had gone to a November 5 firework display with his parents. They told him the fireworks were like traffic lights changing from red to yellow to green, but he remained unimpressed.

"And they realised I couldn't see the difference in the colours when they changed," says Colin, 49, a chartered accountant.

Tests at school revealed Colin suffered from red/ green colour blindness. He could see some colours, he stresses - even some shades of red and green. But he was able to distinguish a much narrower range of colours than most people. "If you'd said to me, wow, look at that field of poppies, I would have seen a green field with some dark coloured flowers in it," he says.

It didn't affect his vision in any other way and didn't cause many problems in his life, apart from the occasional mix-up. He was never allowed to have a say in decorating decisions, and not being able to distinguish between red and black print was sometimes a disadvantage for an accountant. "But thankfully, accountants normally put brackets around red figures anyway, so it wasn't much of a problem."

Then there was the time he asked his wife to pick up his black bicycle from the repair shop. After searching in vain, the penny finally dropped - the bike wasn't black at all, but maroon.

But by and large, colour blindness didn't bother Colin too much. Fortunately, he had no trouble distinguishing the shades used on traffic lights - and he was even able to develop into a keen amateur photographer. His wife suspected that even the colours he could see, he didn't see as brightly as other people; but not being able to see through anyone else's eyes, Colin never knew what he was missing.

Then, three years ago, he read an article in a Sunday newspaper. Medics at a hospital in the Wirral had come up with a system for correcting colour blindness.

He contacted the hospital for more information - and before long, he had an appointment with Castleford optometrist Ruth Perrott.

She fitted him with a set of ChromaGen contact lenses - individually-prescribed clear lenses with a coloured circle in the middle that filters certain wavelengths of light. By wearing just a single lens in one eye, Colin was able to dramatically increase his ability to distinguish different colours.

After his first fitting, he went for that walk around the centre of Castleford. "Ruth said that some people go out and go wow," he says. "I was more surprised, I think. But I was fascinated by it."

At first, he found the idea of wearing a contact lens difficult. "I had a real challenge to get it in to start with, until I had got the hang of it," he says. "But I can do it very easily now."

He doesn't wear the lens all the time - not when he's at work, usually, or in the evening. It works best when the light is bright, he says.

But on a beautiful day it can make all the difference in the world. "I can enjoy country walks as never before," he says. "It's wonderful to be able to appreciate things that other people see. A field of poppies in summer, or a holly bush laden with berries. Previously, I would just have seen these dark coloured plants, but now the true colour stands out. It's almost a fluorescent effect."

Not all colour blind patients can benefit from the lenses, Ruth Perrott stresses. She reckons about half those who come to her see some results - and even for those, there are variations. But those for whom it does work can seen amazing results.

"I had one boy who lived in Harrogate, he was about 11 at the time," she says. "He changed his football team. He used to support Newcastle, because they played in black and white. Then he changed his support to Manchester United because they played in red and he enjoyed red!"

Well, let's be fair, nobody ever claimed the lenses would improve your good sense. Just your colour vision.

Optometrist Ruth Perrott can be contacted on 01977 552361. Tests cost £60, which includes the cost of a full eye test and ordering a pair of trial lenses. Allow two hours for an appointment.

For details of other local ChromaGen practitioners, contact Cantor & Nissel Limited on 01280 702002.

When the colours go missing...

Colour blindness - or colour deficiency, as experts prefer - is caused by a deficiency in certain chemicals in the retina (back) of the eye, according to the Eyecare Information Service.

There are two kinds of nerve cells in the retina which process light - rods, which operate at night in dim light, and cones, which allow us to see fine detail and colours by day.

Inside cone cells are three different chemicals, which correspond roughly to red, green and blue light. Defective colour vision is related to an alteration of one of these, usually the one associated with either red or green vision.

Defective colour vision can range from near-normal ability to distinguish colours, where the chemical for seeing red or green is only slightly altered, to a medium degree of confusion, where the chemical is considerably altered.

For these people, pale colours will be most easily confused, with deeper colours also causing problems if the lighting is poor.

Only a third of those with the condition have the severe form, caused by a complete lack of one of the three chemicals, in which very strong colours are frequently confused.

Even so, only certain colours are confused and some colour vision is retained.

Complete colour deficiency, where all colours are seen as varying shades of black, grey and white, is extremely rare.

Updated: 10:05 Monday, June 30, 2003