When Canadian parents Edith Lemay and Sébastien Pelletier learned that three of their four children had a rare genetic eye disease that could gradually take away much of their sight, their family suddenly faced a future filled with uncertainty.
There was no simple solution.
There was no cure that could guarantee their children would keep the vision they had.
But instead of allowing that uncertainty to define their children's childhood, the Montreal-area couple made an extraordinary decision.
They would show their children as much of the world as possible while they could still see it.
Mountains.
Deserts.
Wild animals.
Sunrises.
Foreign cities.
Different cultures.
And the faces of people they would meet along the way.
What began as an attempt to create "visual memories" eventually became a remarkable journey across the globe — one that would later be documented in the National Geographic film Blink.
A Diagnosis That Changed Everything
Edith and Sébastien are the parents of four children: Mia, Léo, Colin and Laurent.
The family's experience with vision loss began with their eldest daughter, Mia.
According to National Geographic, Mia began experiencing eye problems when she was about three years old. Several years later, when she was seven, she was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, commonly abbreviated as RP.
For her parents, the diagnosis introduced an unsettling new reality.
Retinitis pigmentosa is not a single disease but a group of rare inherited eye disorders affecting the retina, the light-sensitive tissue located at the back of the eye.
The retina contains specialized cells that convert light into signals the brain can interpret as vision. In people with RP, retinal cells progressively deteriorate.
According to the U.S. National Eye Institute, one of the earliest symptoms is often difficulty seeing at night. People may also gradually lose peripheral, or side, vision.
As the condition progresses, the field of vision can become increasingly narrow. Some people eventually experience severe vision loss or blindness.
Importantly, the progression can vary from person to person. A diagnosis does not provide an exact timetable for how quickly someone's vision will change.
For the Pelletier family, the situation became even more difficult when they learned that Mia was not the only child affected.
Her younger brothers Colin and Laurent were eventually diagnosed with the same condition.
Three children in one family were now facing an uncertain visual future.
Their other son, Léo, did not have the condition.
Understanding Retinitis Pigmentosa
For a family receiving an RP diagnosis, one of the hardest realities is uncertainty.
The National Eye Institute explains that RP is genetic and is linked to changes in genes involved in the function of retinal cells. Different genetic variants can cause the disease, and RP can be inherited in different ways.
Symptoms often begin during childhood.
Night vision is frequently affected first. A child may have difficulty navigating a dark room or adjusting when moving from a brightly lit environment into a dim one.
Peripheral vision may then deteriorate.
Over time, this can create what is commonly called "tunnel vision," where someone retains central vision but has difficulty seeing objects outside a narrowing visual field.
Later stages may involve further loss of central vision.
There is currently no general cure for RP, although low-vision devices, rehabilitation programs and other forms of support can help people make better use of the vision they retain. Researchers are also studying genetic and other therapies for inherited retinal diseases.
For Edith and Sébastien, however, the medical facts immediately raised a deeply personal question.
What could they give their children now?
Building a Library of Visual Memories
According to Edith's account of the family's story, one of Mia's specialists suggested surrounding her with visual experiences and helping her build visual memories.
The idea stayed with Edith.
But she began thinking beyond pictures in books.
If her daughter should see an elephant, why limit that experience to a photograph?
Why not take her to see an actual elephant?
Why not fill the children's memories with real landscapes, real animals and real adventures?
That thought became the foundation of something much larger.
Edith and Sébastien began imagining a trip around the world.
It would not change the diagnosis.
It would not stop RP.
And there was no guarantee about precisely what their children would remember visually decades later.
But the journey could give them experiences while they still had useful vision.
More importantly, it could give the entire family something that no diagnosis could erase: time spent discovering the world together.
The Children Helped Choose the Adventure
The parents did not simply create a rigid adult itinerary.
The family developed a bucket list of experiences they wanted to have.