A Marlborough, Massachusetts, woman is using new eSight glasses to read menus and distinguish facial expressions from a distance after strangers raised $10,000 for the equipment, according to the Milford Daily News.
Laura Gregory, 41, a former teacher's aide, has been legally blind all her life, the newspaper said. She had been unemployed for the past eight years, putting the specialized glasses out of reach for her to purchase, the Daily News said.
The newspaper wrote that doctors found a tumor on Gregory's optic nerve when she was 5, and she received 32 radiation treatments. At 21, she suffered her first grand mal seizure and was diagnosed with epilepsy.
She had a right temporal craniotomy to correct the malformation seven years ago, stopping the seizures, but her eyesight continued to deteriorate due to swelling in her brain caused by the surgery, the newspaper said.
The Daily News reported that after she asked for help publicly with the assistance of friends, the Marlborough community helped her raise the needed $10,000 in mere weeks.
Her friends began their fundraising effort in December, according to NECN. The broadcaster wrote that they posted fliers around town for people interested in helping out.
"It was just amazing looking around the room seeing things on the mantel," Gregory told the newspaper after receiving the glasses in March. "I'm seeing new things every day. It's a huge difference. Even sitting in Starbucks I can look at the door and see who is coming in."
The eSight headsets comes with a camera that captures what a user is looking at in real time and displays the images on two screens in front of the user's eyes, the Daily News stated. The user can also control color, contrast, brightness and zoom.
Gregory told NECN she wants to become active again and write children's books, something she has not been able to do with her sight problems.
"My goals are to start working again and to write these books but it'll change like, I love going to Starbucks and I’ll actually know what Starbucks serves," she said, per NECN.
She encouraged other disabled people to persevere.
"Don't let it stop you," Gregory said, per the Daily News. "My disability does not affect what things I do, it affects how I do them."
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.