IF SWANSEA mum Nicola Jackson loses the will to lose weight, she has only to look at her baby.
That's because she and her group of Slimming World pals are raising money for her blind daughter Eva.
The eight-month-old has already had nine eye operations and has six more in the pipeline.
Mrs Jackson is hoping the group can raise £1,500-plus for fibre-optic tubes that should stimulate little Eva. Any extra money will go on more equipment as she gets older.
Mrs Jackson is registered blind and had congenital cataracts — meaning the natural lens is cloudy — when younger.
She passed on this condition to her three-year-old Mia who is okay. Eva, however, developed an extremely rare form of glaucoma - a disease of the eye.
"The consultant said that the last time he had seen it was 18 years ago," said Mrs Jackson, of Lon Brynawel, Llansamlet.
Surgeons at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London have inserted a shunt into Eva's right eye to help drain liquid when pressure builds. Donor tissue was needed to hold the shunt in place.
The tricky procedure will be repeated for her left eye on May 26.
"She can't see anything but light in both eyes," said her mum, who added that Eva was not developing as fast as one might expect.
"She should be starting to roll around, crawl or sit up," she said.
"She's still lying there like a newborn. She is very contented, but she just lays there, bless her."
Mrs Jackson, whose husband Bradley works for Travis Perkins in Hendy, near Pontarddulais, has to apply 19 eye drops per day to Eva, from 7am to midnight.
She added: "The older one, Maya, is very good with her — but it is hard. I feel she is being left out."
