Channel 7 veteran newsreader Mike Amor almost lost his sight

Mike Amor has revealed he was in danger of going blind due to a rare condition.

Mike Amor has worked as a journalist abroad covering many of the world’s biggest stories.

Channel 7 newsreader Mike Amor has revealed he almost lost his sight after a difficult battle with glaucoma.

Amor was diagnosed with the eye disease in his 20s and five years ago was in the fight of his life.

“I was in danger of stroking out, which is going blind,’’ he said.

“The doctors had never seen the condition that I had in anything other than textbooks.

Amor was diagnosed with glaucoma in his 20s.

“I needed urgent surgical intervention to save my eyesight and I was petrified. I remember breaking down and thinking I wasn’t going to see my son grow up.”

Amor, 56, who has worked as a journalist abroad covering many of the world’s biggest stories, returned from the US in 2017 to begin newsreading.

“In my early 40s they started to do this laser treatment which really helped,’’ he said.

“I was on four eye drops four times a day and unbeknown to me many people are allergic and it sent my eyes blood red, so on TV I looked like a cast member of The Walking Dead.

“When I got back from the US I had four surgeries over the next four to five months, and the initial ones didn’t work and I became sensitive to light and could only read with a plastic magnifying strip.

“My eyes were full of blood.”

Amor has joined Glaucoma Australia as an ambassador in the fight against eye disease in time for World Glaucoma Week, which starts Monday.

Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide and it affects more than 300,000 Australians, yet it is estimated that half of those with glaucoma remain undiagnosed.

“Glaucoma is often thought of as an old person’s disease … but everyone should get checked,” Amor said.