Vision Australia has helped her regain her autonomy and play a crucial role in her young family.

The 28-year-old realised her vision was deteriorating about three weeks before giving birth to son Archer.

She had yet to take maternity leave from her work as a primary school teacher. 

“I just noticed the whiteboard blurring a bit, and the kids were picking up on things when I was reading to them,” she said.

“I didn’t think anything of it – I just put it down to being tired, and work, and the pregnancy.”

She and husband Cameron started to worry when the features of the newsreader’s face on television were no longer identifiable. 

“We went into the hospital and put bubs on the monitor – he was all good,” Mrs Hocking said.

“I got sent for a CT scan about midnight and then woken up with the results of that about 3 o’clock in the morning, saying we needed to go and deliver Archer by emergency c-section.”

The scan revealed three benign tumors in Mrs Hocking’s brain, two of which were on her optic nerve. 

Archer was born within hours, and nine days later, Mrs Hocking underwent more than seven hours of brain surgery. 

She woke without two of the tumors, or much of her eyesight. 

“We didn’t think we’d end up losing the vision, we thought I’d maintain the vision I had, but it was a lot worse than they thought,” she said.

She spent the first two months of her son’s life in and out of hospitals. Sometimes he was able to stay with her, other times her family would have to visit. 

“All I remember was just wanting Archer,” Mrs Hocking said.

“I wanted to be a mum – I guess that was keeping me focused at the time to get through what I was going through.

“I didn’t want the loss of vision to take that away from me.”

The safeguards of hospital life did little to prepare her for the shock of coming home.

She was drugged up, recovering from surgery, trying to navigate a once familiar place she no longer recognised with a newborn to care for and grief for the vision she’d lost.

“Once I got home I felt like I lost my identity,” Mrs Hocking said.

“I was left sitting on the couch, wondering what to do. I had all these appointments lined up with Vision Australia, psychologists, physiologists… but I didn’t know how I was going to get to them.”

She spent one day at home alone - a day she refers to as ‘the verge of a meltdown’.

The next morning, her mother arrived from Tasmania to help.

Mr Hocking was limited in his ability to stay home because he was launching his new business, Total Tools Bendigo, and Mrs Hocking was adamant their relationship not become that of carer and patient.  

Two events mark the start of her recovery: her mother’s arrival, and her first appointment with Vision Australia.

“I had goals of where I wanted to be but I didn’t know how to figure out all those steps in between,” Mrs Hocking said. 

“I was trying to figure out by myself how I was going to reach this independence.”

The strategies Vision Australia occupational therapist Carlia Rix helped her implement, assisted by her mother, made Mrs Hocking realise she was not alone.

“I'm forever thankful to Vision Australia - I would have been lost without them,” she said.

In the early days, Mrs Hocking needed help with everyday life skills: navigating the kitchen, cooking, making Archer’s bottle, changing nappies, dressing her son, and doing the laundry. 

Technology, meticulous organisation and determination have made all of those things routine. 

“With every new challenge Vision Australia is there to support her along the way,” Ms Rix said.

Their new goals included travelling to Lake Weeroona on the bus and running around the lake with the pram.

Mrs Hocking’s working up to it – she takes Archer out for a run in the pram near the family’s home in Kangaroo Flat.

“That’s what I really admire about her – she’s got a lot of courage,” Ms Rix said.

“I’ve never met anyone like Sarah.”

Mrs Hocking has applied for a seeing eye dog to further enhance her independence.

Vision Australia is helping her get children’s books to read to Archer, develop her computer skills to prime her to re-enter the workforce, and network with other vision impaired parents. 

A fundraiser organised by one of Mrs Hocking’s bridesmaids gave the family enough money to buy equipment for the computer, which is vital to Mrs Hocking’s blog.

Blind Intuition was launched six months after she went blind and is about her experiences.

It is maintained with assistance from Mrs Hocking’s brother, in Scotland, and parents in Tasmania.

“Before I went into surgery I created a Facebook page for all my friends and family,” Mrs Hocking said.

She had intended it as a resource for people she knew, who were interested in how she was doing, but received such positive feedback she decided to expand the idea.

“It’s built this little community,” Mrs Hocking said.

“I’ve had a couple of emails from people in the UK who are visually impaired, telling me their stories.”

Mrs Hocking will speak at Vision Australia Bendigo’s open day on April 18 from 10am.

The open day ends at 3pm and presents an opportunity for people to find out more about the services Vision Australia provides to people who are blind or have low vision.