A YOUNG cricket player has been able to see colour for the first time thanks to an incredible pair of glasses.
Charlie Jones loves cricket and plays for the Brymbo Cricket Club, near Wrexham.
Cricket is Charlie’s true passion as he dreams of playing in competitive games.
However, due to being colour blind, the 11-year-old cannot see the red cricket ball against the green grass or green trees in the background.
“Colour blindness affects me in ways where, in day-to-day life, colours around me merge together so it’s quite hard to distinguish things which are there” said Charlie.
Cricket-loving Charlies Jones, from Wrexham, is enjoying life in full colour now thanks to a pair of EnChroma glasses.
His parents, Joanne and Darren, have known Charlie was colour blind since he was very young.
“We got a video of him very small, there was a pink balloon on the carpet and he just couldn’t see it at all,” said Joanne.
"To choose a sport, and be colour-blind, in the colours you can't see is obviously quite tricky for him."
Worldwide, at least one in 12 men (eight per cent) and 1 in 200 women (0.5 per cent) are colour blind. In Wrexham alone, figures suggest that there are over 5,700 citizens living with some form of colour blindness.
Charlie’s coach, Gareth, remembers the youngster coming up to him after his first game quite upset, and telling him that he just couldn't see the ball.
Joanne informed Gareth during the match that Charlie was colour-blind.
Gareth added that, seeing the boy so determined to play despite his impairment spurred him on to do whatever it took to help him play.
Pictured with mum Joanne, Charlie tries on his special glasses for the first time at Brymbo Cricket Club.
He looked into the possibility of changing to a white ball by contacting Cricket Wales. In his research, Gareth discovered EnChroma – a company which makes glasses for the colour blind.
After trying the glasses, Charlie said: “The EnChroma glasses are absolutely amazing.
“I can see so many colours! I can see green, blue, purple, red, orange. The first thing I want to do is play cricket.
“I am super happy with my new glasses and I’m ready to experience life now”.
His parents and the Brymbo Club are so happy for Charlie, who will now enjoy life in full technicolour and will be unstoppable - at cricket as well as in daily life.
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