'Blind Cook' Christine Ha Urges Everyone to Get Their Vision Checked
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Courtesy of Horizon Therapeutics
When Chef Christine Ha was 20, her vision became slightly blurry. Two years later, she noticed numbness and tingling in her left leg.
Initially, doctors thought she had multiple sclerosis, but none of the prescribed treatments had any effect. She struggled with worsening symptoms for four years before a neurologist tested her for a rare autoimmune disease called Neuromyelitis Optica Spectrum Disorder (NMOSD)—and officially diagnosed her in 2003.
Gradually, Ha lost most of her vision. She taught herself how to cook without being able to see and enrolled in the University of Houston's creative writing graduate program. In 2012, she auditioned for Season 3 of MasterChef "just to have a story to write about in school," she says of the popular reality series judged by Gordon Ramsay.
She won the competition.
Now, Ha — known affectionately as The Blind Cook — is speaking out in honor of World Sight Day on Oct. 13, sharing her story, reminding others to get their eyes checked and encouraging everyone to pursue their own dreams regardless of limitations.
"The sooner you're correctly diagnosed, the sooner you can be put on the right treatment for you," Ha, 43, tells PEOPLE. "I think, had I been correctly diagnosed before, at the very beginning, instead of being misdiagnosed for four years, I would've been able to retain my vision."
Courtesy of Horizon Therapeutics
Earlier this year, Ha partnered with Horizon Therapeutics to launch NMOSD Won't Stop Me, a campaign to encourage others to share their stories of living with the rare disease, which affects between 10,000 and 15,000 people in the U.S.
Horizon — one of PEOPLE's 2022 Companies that Care — and Prevent Blindness are offering free vision screenings across the country to highlight World Sight Day on Oct. 13. Horizon is also teaming up with the World Sight Day organizers, the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB), to help raise awareness of the importance of eye exams and advance global access to care.
"It gives me a lot of hope, and I think it does for other people, as well," says Ha, a 2022 James Beard Award Finalist for Best Chef, Texas Region. "When I was diagnosed, I felt very alone. I didn't know a single person with it. I had to search the internet to even find two people across the globe that had it."
Ha is a New York Times best-selling cookbook author and owns two Houston-based restaurants, The Blind Goat, a modern Vietnamese gastro pub, and Xian Chao. She is hoping to open a new Blind Goat location near her new home in Spring Branch by the end of the year.
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"Christine's story gives people hope," says Matt Flesch, 47, Vice President of Communications and Patient Advocacy for Horizon. "There's so much that people learn from hearing from each other's stories."
People continue to share those stories on the NMOSD Won't Stop Me site.
"NMOSD has really taught me that regardless of whatever life hands to us, there's always a way to be able to figure out how to adapt and overcome," says Ha. "I don't want people to lose hope. We should not be going through this alone."
"I want people to understand that there's no shame in living with NMOSD, or any disease," Ha continues. "It's a part of us, but it doesn't define us."
Horizon Therapeutics made People's annual 100 Companies That Care list in 2022. To nominate a business demonstrating outstanding respect for its employees, community, and the environment, visit Great Place to Work.
