When Annette Marten begin losing her sight, everyday tasks became challenging. Objects looked flat. Stairs were a daily struggle—was it one step or two? In time, she could no longer simply walk down the sidewalk without her husband to guide her. She faced a variety of challenges, but, as an artist and printmaker, the limitations she felt most deeply were those she experienced when making art.
“I could not sketch with a pencil,” Annette recalled. “I couldn’t see what I was doing.”
Many years earlier, Annette had been diagnosed with keratoconus, a blinding eye disease that changes the thickness and curvature of the cornea, the clear, outer layer of the eye, making it increasingly cone shaped. Annette’s cornea specialist informed her that her sight could be restored by corneal transplantation with donor tissue provided by The Eye-Bank for Sight Restoration.
Now, with renewed sight, Annette walks the sidewalks of her Staten Island neighborhood without fear and sees the depth of each stair as she climbs to her art studio.
“The transplant has helped me immensely in my artwork,” Annette said. She credits the quality of life she is able to enjoy today to the selfless generosity of her eye donors.
These days, she spends long hours in her home studio creating new work. Every brushstroke and splash of color is a treasured sight. Where life once felt limited, she now sees possibility. You can give the gift of sight to someone in need today by signing up at on the New York State Donate Life Registry. To learn more about Annette’s story, watch her testimonial video here.