Delboy

Hi Everyone, I suffered a stroke in April 2017, and had to have a fairly urgent operation to ream out my right Carotid artery, the only symtom I ever had was the loss of what I thought was some vision in the lower left quatrant of my left eye. It turned out that in fact I had lost vision in that quatrant in both eyes, after a month I had to report this to DVLA, I had of course been told not to drive from the outset. I work at our local hospital so wangled a very quick appointment with the Eye clinic and failed the Field Vision test from day 1. I was told that I would be unlikely to be able to drive for at least 12 months, to say that I was devastated would be an understament, but I was told that if DVLA revoked my licence, it would be easier to get it back if you just comply and don't fight it. So anyway I reported the problem to DVLA and within a few day received a letter to make an appointment with Specsavers for a Field Vision test, which I did, and as expected failed it, and again within a few days received a letter from DVLA revoking my licence. My optometrist had told me about the Exceptional Circumstances rules and told me not to give up hope, so while you have to wait 12 months, it pays to apply about 2 months before this as DVLA are not known for their speed, anyway I knew that the likelyhood was that I would need to undertake a driving assessment if I could get past the 7 conditions that DVLA impose on you. I thought that it was very unfair to expect someone who had not driven for some time to jump into a car and be assessed, so I found a driving school at RAF Alconbury in Cambridgeshire, that could let me drive on the disused airfield without having a licence. I booked a couple of hours with them, and had the time of my life ragging their car round the airfield, it was worth every penny of the £150 it cost, and they wrote a report that I sent to DVLA with my application. As people will know the hardest part of the process is condition 7, where to have to have proof of functional adaptation to your vision, even my stroke consultant at the hospital, said how can I test this, he even wrote to DVLA asking this, which was ignored. In the end I wrote a letter which my GP was happy to sign as if it was his own. So I emailed all my evidence to DVLA along with my Application, and was send for another Field Vision Test at Specsavers (which I failed) and in a couple of weeks was informed to make an appointment with East Anglian DriveAbility. The assessment was not that bad, they sat me in a static rig, and tested my braking reaction times, which at first I failed, but the staff told me to use the peripheral vision that I had on the right side. Basically they set you off on the rig at a speed of 30mph and where the windscreen would be there is rows of lights and when you see a Red light then you have to brake as hard as you can, so I tilted my head to the left and used my right peripheral vision to see the lights on the right hand side and my main vision on the left, we then went out in one of their cars round the town and on a dual carriage way. In all it took me 14 Months to get my licence back, so there is hope. If I can help anyone please ask, I'll give all the information I can. Delboy