For a while it was touch and go, but Vision Australia’s Carols by Candlelight will continue without crowds despite difficulties caused by COVID-19.

The event’s junior ambassador, Greek Australian Sam Valavanis, is no stranger to challenges as he has been blind from the age of 4 due to bilateral Retinoblastoma. At the age of 12 years, after four-and-a-half years of aggressive treatment involving chemotherapy, cryotherapy and laser therapy (just to name a few) doctors had to remove both eyes.

“I remember being able to see,” he tells Neos Kosmos. “Things like colours, vehicles, shapes. I remember some colours and shades of colours.”

Since losing his sight, he has focused on hearing and has ambitions to be a radio announcer and dabbles in music. “I’ve just finished Year 12 and want to become a presenter and performer,” he said, in the midst of touring universities to explore different courses and career options.

His dreams are like any other 18-year-old young man. “I am trying to find a good career, to build a good relationship, family and to travel,” he said.

He remembers visiting Greece three years ago and says he “saw family in Nea Vrasna, two hours from Thessaloniki, the village of pappou”.

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He was guided around the Acropolis, Syntagma Square, the White Tower and took bus tours to monasteries and wants to explore more sights. “The air felt interesting, pretty clear and with a nice breeze. Inside the White Tower it was damp and cold. I could smell it and hear it, and dad described things to me, what they look like,” he said. “When on my own, I ask for help. The good thing about being blind at this age is there is technology to help people like me. At the Panathinaic Stadium and White Tower I used audio guides.”

He enjoyed the experience of swimming in Nea Vrasna, surrounded by the crisp waters and also swam in an artificial integrated swimming pool connected to the sea.

In Greece, he could see challenges that people who are visually impaired face. “The lights don’t make the noises when red or green and they are no tactile markings,” he said, but added that in Melbourne he’d like automated announcements on public transport (which already is the case in Athens), and he’s like more assistance and markers at Flinders Street.

Thankfully, he also has the uncanny gift of using echolocation to move about – basically, he can  make short, sharp noises, usually tongue-clicks or hand-claps, in order to develop a sense of the area of certain spaces, usually large or open ones. He often use echolocation when navigating the community, especially in unknown or unfamiliar territory.

“Vision Australia has always been there to support us through every hurdle, ever since day one,” he said. “Since my mum rang them in tears the day after she found out I was going to be blind, they have offered just about every service imaginable in order to provide me with the best opportunities in my young life,” he said.

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As the youth ambassador for Carols by Candlelight he’d like to get the word out that raising funds for Vision Australia is as important than ever amid the global pandemic. “I am super excited to be an ambassador at this year’s Carols. I have actually been lucky enough to have this opportunity once before, at the 2015 Carols by Candlelight,” he said, but hopes that the audience will stee see the impact that the organisation has on people and families like his.