WINDHAM, Maine — Four-year-old Nolan Desmond loves to play the game Bop-It.
It is loud. It is fun. It does not require him to see. After all, he is blind.
NEWS CENTER Maine first told Nolan’s story in June about how his father, Matt, takes him on weekly adventures to ‘see’ some of the most beautiful places in Maine.
"The only way that I deal with it is that I have to,” Matt Desmond said. “I mean something gets thrown at you and you don't have another option."
Nolan was diagnosed with Retinoblastoma as just a baby—a rare form of cancer in both of his eyes. After surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation he eventually lost his sight entirely.
While Matt Desmond has learned to expect the unexpected, he did not expect their story to resonate the way it did.
It was shared all around the country and the world. But there was one man here in Maine who was really impacted.
“This story is near and dear to me,” Ross Doerr said. “His father was right there. He's exposing him to reality. There's a world out there and this is what it's like."
Doerr, a retired lawyer who lives in Augusta, is one of only a few hundred people in the world with what is known as an artificial retina implant.
That means a small chip was placed on his eye, allowing a special device known as the Argus Two to transmit to it.
Through a camera lens on a pair of sunglasses that signal is sent to his eye allowing him to see light and lines.
It is not perfect, but Doerr said it has changed his life.
"I can't be cynical about that anymore because now I'm wearing one of those medical advances,” Doerr said. “I just hope that those advances keep going."
Doerr wanted to share the technology and the promise it brings for the future of the blind community to Nolan and his family.
This week he and his wife made the trip from their home in Augusta to meet them in Windham.
There they talked about life, medical advances and what it is like to experience blindness.
"It gives me a lot of hope,” Nolan’s mother, Brittany Bateman, said. “I had no idea how to handle it and what we were going to do next and it scared me. It still does every day. But we'll get through it."
For Nolan's parents, it brought some comfort knowing there will be more for Nolan to look forward to as he grows up.
“I want him to live a life no different than anyone else,” Matt Desmond said. “I think we are giving him the best opportunity at that."
After about an hour of conversation and some tears, Nolan gave Doerr a big hug goodbye—a connection that shows what is seen on the outside is not always what matters most.
"I'm quite impressed. They're doing wonderful things," Doerr said.