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The Documentary: Losing My Sight and Learning to Swim

Monica Vasconcelos - Singer and Broadcaster

15/10/2016 GMT

Losing My Sight and Learning to Swim

BBC World Service - The Documentary, Losing My Sight and Learning to Swim

Monica Vasconcelos learns to negotiate the world as her sense of sight diminishes

Monica Vasconcelos learns to negotiate the world as her sense of sight diminishes and discovers a new world of possibilities.

Singer and broadcaster Mônica Vasconcelos is slowly losing her sight. Originally from Brazil, she now lives in London, a busy city she finds harder and harder to negotiate safely. As her vision gradually fades, she goes in search of people who may show her new possibilities – new ways of being. They are, among others; her brother, who lives with the same eye condition, and who expertly masters the use of a white cane to navigate the city; her godson, Tiago, who takes her hand in the warm waves on the beaches of Brazil, and - in one of the last interviews he gave before his death - the writer and thinker Dr Oliver Sacks.

Oliver Sacks was a neurologist who changed the way many people think about so called 'disabilities', and who Monica met in his New York flat. To her surprise, they found themselves discussing  ways of approaching the onset of blindness not only with insight, but also with humour -  especially at one magical moment when Sacks shared his own collection of canes with her. The canes, he explained, were acquired to help him get around the city, as his own sight fades. Swimming, he tells Monica, is the one place he feels free and in his own skin -  try and find your own version of swimming he advises her.

On the streets of London, we hear Mônica negotiating the busy streets as she heads to meet her brother, who takes her out for her first lesson in using a white cane.

She also hears from academic and professor Georgina Kleege, who has explored the relationship between blindness and social inclusion.

In the studio with pianist and long term music partner Steve Lodder, we hear Mônica’s unique and transporting voice, working on her new song -  a rare chance to hear how music can grow as a collaboration between two talented musicians.

(Photo: Mônica Vasconcelos. Credit: Aro Ribeiro)

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