This is the full article that was submitted to the Improv Olympic Festival program. They put about half in the program. Here's the whole thing. Thanks for your help. Spread the word......In March 2003 my younger brother and I were told we were losing our sight. My name is E.J. Scott, I am an alumnus and performer at The Improv Olympic West Theater. I was 27 years old when I first heard that I was born with an eye disease that has slowly been eroding my sight throughout my life. Choroideremia is a hereditary degenerative eye disease that slowly erodes peripheral vision over a period of time until total blindness. How quickly the disease progresses is different for each person. Our grandfather went blind in his forties. He passed the gene on to my mother who became a carrier and gave the disease to my brother and I. She also made my older sister a carrier of the disease. Thats how it works. The females pass the disease on to the males. Some side effects of the disease are light sensitivity, poor night vision, poor depth perception, light flashes (some call halos).

My sister had a beautiful and amazing baby boy named Liam in late November 2004. There is suppose to be a 50% chance of passing on the gene. This summer we will be testing my little nephew. We all have our fingers crossed that he won't test positive for Choroideremia, but there is only so much finger-crossing can do. There's a kid named Joshua in Florida who recently had a hemmorage in one of his eyes from the disease. He can no longer see out of that eye and is no longer able to drive a car. He is 16 years old. My own brother, age 18, recently drove on somebody's front lawn at night. His eyes couldn't see well enough. I have daily obstacles that constantly remind me of the disease. Bumping into things and people are common occurances. I wear sun-blockers and a hat as often as possible to block lights inside and outside. My brother and I take eye vitamins on a daily basis to try and slow down the progression.

I have been lucky enough to find a place like IO to hold three benefit shows called "Spread the Word: A Comedy Cure for Choroideremia". All the money I raise with these comedy shows go to The Choroideremia Research Foundation to help find a cure. There is great research and cures happening in vision. Mainly for everything but degeneration. Please help in finding a cure for this very little known disease that affects millions of people and families. Time is of the essence.

Many, many thanks to James Grace, Charna Halpern and The Improv Olympic West for all their help and support in my quest to find a cure for this terrible disease.

Please visit...
www.eyefund.org - to donate money or to donate something for online auction and for further info on the disease.
&
www.choroideremia.org - for further info on the disease and the Foundation.

Thank you,
E.J. Scott and The Scott Family