Talented South African athlete Hilton Langenhoven won a silwer medal in Athens in 2004 and three gold medals at the Para-Olympics in Beijing. Hilton was born with a condition called albinism and has a serious vision impairment. He is one of many with this condition who live happy, fulfilled lives. How do they do it?

What is albinism?

It is an inherited, genetic condition that humans, animals and even some plants may have. It’s characterised by a lack of pigment and melanin, the chemical that darkens your skin to protect it from the rays of the sun, and is needed to supply colour to the skin, hair and eyes. People born with albinism usually have a reduced amount or lack of melanin in their bodies and therefore have very fair skin tones, hair and eye colour. However, there is one other characteristic that is commonly found in people suffering from albinism, namely vision impairment.

Two types

There are two types of albinism:

    1. Oculocutaneous albinism (OCA) where pigment in the eyes, skin and hair is affected
    1. Ocular albinism where the eyes are primarily affected while the skin and hair show normal or near normal colouration.

Who’s to blame?

Genes are to blame! We inherit half of our genes from our dads and the other half from our moms and these give us our physical appearance, how we look. Interestingly, children with albinism are often born to people with normal eye and hair colour. This happens when both the father and the mother carry an albinism gene without knowing it. However, if a child receives an albinism gene from one parent and a normal pigment gene from the other, that child also becomes a “carrier” of the albinism gene although he/she may have normal pigmentation. If, by chance, this carrier marries someone who also carries the albinism gene their children may be born with albinism.

Coping with albinism

People with this condition have two main concerns:

  1. To protect their eyes
  2. To protect their skin.

People with albinism usually have problems with their eyesight. Apart from not being able to see very well, their eyes are usually also light-sensitive. This is because the iris of the eye doesn’t have enough colour to help control the amount of light that enters the eye from outside. This is also the reason why some people with albinism seem to have pink or reddish eyes.

People with albinism also get sunburnt very easily and have to cover up or stay out of the sun altogether. This is due to the fact that their skins lack or have very little melanin. Melanin protects the skin against the rays of the sun.

However, albinism does not stop anybody from reaching their goals in life, doing sport or living a fulfilling and happy life. People like African-American Shaun Ross, the first professional male model with albinism in the world and South African athlete Hilton Langenhoven who only has 10% vision due to albinism have done just that!

 

Sources
Albinism. 2012.  A.D.A.M. Medical Encyclopedia. Retrieved from: http://www.ncbi.nim.nih.gov
Albinism. 2010. http://www.kidshealth.org.kid
What is albinism? Retrieved from: http://www.childrenseyefoundation.org