Amit Patel who is blind revealed how he had to manage alone while shopping for food.
The 40-year-old former doctor from London lost his vision at the age of 33 from a haemorrhage behind his eyes.
His wife who recently recovered from the flu at home guided him during his shopping spree in Sainsbury’s. He was accompanied by his dog Kika and shared the clip of video calling his wife Seema who helped him find items.
The footage shows his wife was directing him to chose the right slot of items they needed. Dr. Patel picks the bag of lemons up and asks: ‘Do you need these?’
She replies: ‘Then on the lower level, yes you have a bag of limes there.’
Seema then says: ‘As you look to your left, at the end of that aisle, I think they are all easy peelers in the bags.’
To which Dr. Patel replies: ‘That aisle is pretty busy.’
He spoke to FEMAIL and talked about the challenges of being blind saying, ‘The challenge for me is that, whilst technically priority access to online shopping slots is available for some people, people like me who are blind or visually impaired are being excluded.
‘We don’t come under the governments list of vulnerable individuals who qualify for priority home delivery slots, we can’t get online slots via the website and can’t get through to helplines to even discuss it with them.
He revealed that his guide dog doesn’t understand about social-distancing and he keeps helping him. ‘My guide dog doesn’t understand social distancing, I can’t tell how close or far I am from people in the store and also can’t get the usual support from staff in store to help me shop either (normally someone would guide me and help me pick items),’ he added.
‘It is understandable given the circumstances, so instead, I’ve had to video call my wife as I go around to check what I pick up and the expiry dates.’
He also posted a thread of his shopping journey on Twitter writing, ‘As we can’t get a delivery slot with any supermarkets, I had to go shopping with Kika this morn. Arrived at my local Sainsbury’s at 7.45 am for priority shopping hour. Even with 100 people already in the queue, everyone was in great spirits. Security were fab, let the fun begin!’
He also talked about his experience of shopping alone and how his dog guided him. Kika and Me’s author wrote: ‘How did I manage to shop solo with only Kika by my side?’
‘I video called my wife, put my headphones on, walked the aisles and she guided me to items. It’s lucky I have great buggy pulling skills, as I put them to good use with the trolley today!
In another post, he praised the kind shoppers who helped him packing his shopping bags. He posted a selfie at the cash point writing, ‘The staff and shoppers in Sainsbury’s today were just brilliant – everyone was so helpful, shoppers verbally guided me to different items & staff took me away from the crowd to check out & packed my shopping into bags for me too. I cannot thank everyone enough! #KindnessMatters.’
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