Comedian Lee Dong-wu has confessed that he suffers from a rare illness leading to the loss of eyesight which began five years ago.

In the recent taping of "Morning Live" on KBS 2TV, Lee said he can barely see anything now and must always be led by a guide due to a degeneration in pigments in his retinas.

At first he simply thought it was night blindness. But urged by his wife, he went to the hospital and received shocking news.

It is a genetic disease when pigments intrude on retina cells. There are no symptoms when young. This form of blindness occurs from the teen years and eventually leads to loss of sight.

Lee said, “I couldn't believe the diagnosis, which came less than 3 months into my marriage. My wife had our daughter soon after and I'm worried sick the illness may have been passed on to my daughter."

Lee, admitting to having had depression, continued, "I couldn't tell my mom for the first two years. But it couldn't be concealed. I couldn't see so I was bumping into objects. One day when I kept dropping my food while eating, my mom scolded me and I had to tell her then."

His mother then fell to the floor, embraced him and cried out, saying she would give her eyes to him.

As his loss of sight worsened, he also quit his radio job over some other excuse. The truth was that he couldn't read the script. Lee has been an entertainer all his life and still loves what he does. Everyone in the audience shed tears when he said that he was afraid he would be fired from the broadcasting world if he confessed his illness.

The program aired at 9:30 a.m. Friday.


cr:KBS Global
link:http://english.kbs.co.kr/TVRadio/HotTopic/view.html?No=294