'I lost an eye, but I refuse to be a victim'

An accident while on an industrial photo shoot led to Charlie Flounders losing an eye.

As a professional photographer, she was left wondering whether or not she would be able to work or lead her normal life again.

"Losing an eye would be difficult for anyone, but there was an extra layer in it for me because my vision was not only my work and my income, but my identity," she said.

"All the learning I've had in the 18 months, it's like a box of treasure and it's kind of bursting out of its seams - it feels like it's selfish to keep hold of this learning now." .

The photographer, now 43 and from Leamington Spa in Warwickshire, said the trauma of the accident, in August 2024, was initially hard to accept.

"If I'm honest, it took a good few weeks for it to really sink in and then it took three to four months of what I would call absolute heartbreak and despair," she said.

Everything had to be relearnt and she faced a huge amount of processing - not just her emotionally but also physically as her brain learnt to see the world in a different way.

She particularly struggled with the effect on her depth perception.

"I go to hang my keys on a hook at home when I get in, and I always miss the hook by an inch," she said.

"I was really sure right from the very off... I will not let this define me, and of course it has completely defined me, but I think what I meant by that was that I will not become a victim of this."

Her work was her "heart and soul", but the process of going back and working out what she could do was difficult.

"There was a good amount of time when I just didn't think I would be able to do it at all, and I didn't pick up my cameras for five or six months," she said.

"My income had gone, I had a lot of work that I needed to cancel or find cover for."

Eventually, she worked out that she could still use her camera, but needed to put her "good" eye up to the lens.

"I can take brilliant photos still, I can't do some of the jobs I used to do, I certainly won't be doing any big industrial jobs which is where the accident happened," she told the BBC CWR.

"I used to do a lot of wedding photography, [I] can't do that, because it involves being nimble and in and out of lots of people and spaces, it's more what i'm physically able to do."

"The way I think is through pictures, everything I see is a photo in my mind.

"Your body is very clever, your brain neuro-adapts and your good remaining eye almost expands its peripheral vision, so they say you don't lose 50 per cent of your sight, you lose about 20, 25 per cent because the other one picks up the slack - which is amazing."

Flounders received a prosthetic eye from the NHS. It was hand painted to be an exact match to her functioning eye, but she currently wears a purple one.

"There's quite a stigma around having a facial difference... people tend to hide it," she said.

"It felt a bit strange for me to try and cover up my new difference, there are times that I want to do that.

"I didn't realise how intrinsically my self worth and identity around beauty was linked with how my face looked."

Flounders now does public speaking, and also started a podcast, called One Eye on the Horizon, after not being able to find people talking about experiences like hers online.

"I aim to carry on and on and on until there's a beautiful bank of stories for anyone who's newer to the journey than I am, to hear all of these amazing different golden nuggets of knowledge and experience and information," she said.

"I've learnt so much."

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