The device will change so many lives of visually impaired people
Lionel Messi has teamed up with OrCam, an Israeli company that creates devices to help the visually impaired to understand text and identify objects through audio feedback.
The Argentine superstar has gifted OrCam’s ‘MyEye’ device to a number of young visually impaired football fans around the world, meeting some of them in person.
The Barcelona star said:
“The emotion was incredible. Meeting with this amazing group of people from around the world was truly a magical and inspiring moment.
“Witnessing each of the members of the ‘Dream Team’ trying out the OrCam MyEye features, it was clear that this would be a life-changing device for each of them.”
One of those people to receive the device was ten-year-old Arsenal fan Mikey Poulli.
Mikey lost his sight as a child but has not lost his passion for football, and attends coaching for blind footballers in the hope of one day representing England.
In a video posted to Twitter, Mikey and his parents explained how much the OrCam MyEye has improved Mikey’s life, saying it had given him “a new lease of independence.”
https://twitter.com/mikeypoulli/status/1303732726822993920
JOE spoke to Mikey and his father, John, in 2019 to find out more about his story.
"We just blinked and our son had gone blind, there was nothing we could have done to prevent it."@MikeyPoulli lost his sight at the age of seven but is now on a mission to play for England. pic.twitter.com/Y7Qg5YWJXi
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) April 2, 2019
After being selected as one of the lucky few to be given the MyEye device by Messi, Mikey said: “If I was to meet Messi for a day, I would tell him… If he could play for Arsenal for a day or something. Because that would be very helpful.”
Who knows? It’s not as farfetched as it sound.
