Lisa Pleasants, Executive Director, MOMS for Sight, Inc.

Lisa Pleasants has a son, Brendon Cavainolo, with X-Linked Juvenile Retinoschisis. She also has two brothers and one cousin with the same disease. Because this disease is x-linked, it can pass from mother to son, from mother to daughter or from father to daughter. However, the females only act as carriers and the males display the disease. Brendon is legally blind. He needs magnifiers, CCTV's, and large print books in school. Despite his disease, he is a black belt in karate, an avid runner, and an aerospace engineering major at the University of Central Florida. Thanks to his drive and the encouragement of his mom and all of his family members and friends, we know he will achieve whatever he wants in life. Brendon has participated in an historical clinical trial for gene therapy. If you'd like to see a bit more about his journey, please visit the following videos on the YouTube links and other articles below.  

Lisa served as the President for the Jacksonville Chapter of Foundation Fighting Blindness for two years and received the FFB Volunteer of the Year Award (Florida Region) in 2014. It is her goal to end inherited retinal diseases so that her family and millions of other families no longer have to learn to live with blindness and that is why she founded MOMS for Sight, Inc in 2011.