#blindtok S2 Ep Bonus (TJ’s vision trial journey)

In this special episode, Murray Elbourn and Tammy Jackson sit down for a conversation TJ has been holding back for months. She joined a gene therapy clinical trial for retinitis pigmentosa in February 2024 expecting a single injection. Instead the trial kept evolving, and somewhere along the way it started to work. Her central vision is clearer. Her field is starting to widen. She can see her hands beside her head, and she has stepped back into the hospital career it once crushed her to give up. She still walks into the occasional wall and says so herself. There is no guarantee the injections continue, no guarantee the vision stays, and no handbook for any of it. Nobody warned her about the questions that come next. What do you tell Social Security when you no longer fit the box you fought so hard to get into? Which box do you fit in yourself when you are not fully sighted and no longer the blind person you learned to be? What happens to the services you let go of if you need them again in six months? Murray brings his own history of getting vision back and losing it again, and together they lay out what anyone considering a clinical trial needs to weigh before they sign, including the possibility that it works. TJ closes by asking the community how you cope with the highs and lows, because she could be back in those shoes in two months. They told me I can’t, so I’m proving them wrong. You can also stream this podcast on other platforms: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1YX309d... Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/c8a... Other Resources Instagram:   / murrayaelbourn   TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@murrayamerabi... LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/murray-el... Amerability Website: https: https://www.amerability.com/ Subscribe to our YouTube Channel:    / @amerability   About Amerability: Amerability was born from a simple but powerful idea: that blind and low vision individuals deserve more than support — they deserve the tools, mentorship, and real-world experiences to build lives on their own terms. Founded by CEO Murray Elbourn, a legally blind leader with more than 25 years of executive experience in disability sports and workforce development across two continents, Amerability combines lived experience with professional expertise to create programs that don't just prepare participants for the world — they prove the world is already theirs to conquer. Murray's journey from captaining Australia's national goalball team and leading Disability Sports Australia as CEO to founding Amerability in the United States gave him a firsthand understanding of what blind and low vision individuals truly need to succeed: not sympathy, but strategy, structure, and someone who has walked the path before them. That philosophy is woven into everything Amerability does, from the way programs are designed to the mentors who deliver them, ensuring that every participant is met with high expectations, practical guidance, and the unwavering belief that their goals are within reach.