Two-star Michelin chef Michel Roux Jnr has experienced two sight-threatening retinal detachments. “It’s hard to describe, but it just didn’t feel right,” he told media about the experience.

At first, he noticed his vision being blocked by a black line across the lower third of his eye. Everything below the line was black, he said. “Pretty soon it had risen to cover the entire bottom half of my eye.”

The former British MasterChef presenter remembers how his optometrist’s face fell when she examined his eye, before ordering him to hospital, immediately. Later, at the infamous Moorfields Eye Hospital in London, when his macula was “hanging on by just a thread”, his consultant told him he had a very high chance of losing sight in his eye. Luckily Roux emerged from his surgery successfully and coped with sitting with his head in a face-down position for two weeks. “It wasn’t too bad. When you know your sight is at risk, you’ll do anything.”

Since then, Roux has been heavily involved with children's charity Visually Impaired Children Taking Action, running the London marathon 12 times to raise funds for its work.