An account is given of growing up as a child blinded as a result of a cancer of the eye known as retinoblastoma. The role of his mother is brought out, variously as a source of objective knowledge, of one's personal worth, and of the worth of other people in one's community. The strengths and weaknesses of his first school in his home area and then of the specialist residential school he attended are described and in part judged. His later awareness of the nature and implications of the cancer are set out, as also how the news was communicated to him.