‘Can get worse’ – Ryan Searle has incurable condition which made him change his game and could stop him from driving

Battles in darts don’t get much tougher than Luke Littler, but Ryan Searle is fighting something far bigger away from the oche.

‘Heavy Metal’ has made plenty of noise at this year’s PDC World Darts Championship, improving on his record at Alexandra Palace by booking his place in the semi-finals.

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He’s arguably the form player of the tournament having only dropped sets for the first time during his quarter-final triumph over Jonny Clayton, while there’s even talk Searle could be selected for next month’s Premier League tour.

This is made all the more remarkable by the fact that Searle is navigating being diagnosed with rare eye condition Autosomal Dominant Optic Atrophy (ADOA).

Although Searle only received his diagnosis 18 months ago, his sight has been a problem his whole life.

He would copy the work of classmates sat next to him at school because he simply couldn’t see what the teacher wrote on the whiteboard.

There’s no cure for ADOA and Searle admits his problem could get worse; the 38-year-old revealed that the current state of his eyes means he’s only just able to drive a car legally.

“It was only in the last 18 months that I realised what the diagnosis was for my vision. It’s been bad for as long as I can remember,” Searle said after his win over Clayton.

“But to have a diagnosis for it is really good and it puts you in that place where you know what’s wrong with your vision.

“There’s no cure for what I’ve got so I’m stuck with it. I wear contact lenses now to try and take a bit of the blurriness away from my vision.

“But sometimes on stage I’m asking the caller what I’ve scored and sometimes I don’t and it puts me in a bit of a difficult position.

“But it’s hard and if I can inspire people that maybe can’t see as well as others to pick up the game and give it a go, then it means a lot to me.

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“It can get worse out of nowhere. I’m on the legal limit now to be able to drive so I wear glasses or contacts to be able to drive. And if my vision was to get any worse, which it could at any point, then I’d have to find a driver somewhere.”

“I’ve always had bad vision. When I was at secondary school, if I used to sit at the back of a class I couldn’t see the whiteboard,” Searle continued.

“So when it came to copying things off the whiteboard I’d copy what he was writing. When you can’t see very well you just find ways to get through life.”

As well as often having to double check where he needs to be aiming his darts at, Searle’s condition forces him to make changes to his positioning mid-game and he’s often reliant on ‘muscle memory’ when playing the shots.

“You know the stage lights, I find it hardest when you’re back-stage in the practice room, it’s quite bright and then you walk back-stage and it’s really dark, you know it’s behind the curtains and whatever else,” he said.

“And you sit back-stage and it’s really dark and then you go on stage and it’s really bright again and I feel like it takes me a bit of time for my eyes to adjust.

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“That’s something that I’ve always struggled with but I’m not doing bad considering.”

“It’d be nice if I can raise awareness about people that don’t have as good a vision as the average person, that’s only a great thing in my opinion,” Searle added.

“I’ve been to exhibitions in the past where people have come up to me and said my vision in one eye is not as good as the other, what do you do to combat that? 

“I try and combat that because it’s my right eye that isn’t as good as the left, so I kind of combat that with standing a bit further to the right to try and get my left eye more dominant than the right.

“I’ve tried to pass that on to people. There’s plenty of things, at the end of the day it’s more of a muscle memory thing than a vision thing.

“But it’s a difficult thing and the more awareness the greater it is.”

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Sadly, Searle’s condition is hereditary and both his son and daughter suffer from ADOA too.

Searle says his nine-year-old daughter has it particularly badly and is unlikely to be able to drive in the future as a result.

But when he’s not on the oche, Searle is banging the drum for the Cure ADOA Foundation which received a €15,000 donation from media outlet ViaPlay after hearing of the plight of Searle and his children.

Searle’s stellar charity work and his ability to get on with things despite suffering from a an illness which could become debilitating is inspirational and pales the semi-final date with Littler into some insignificance.

Searle has already won by defying the odds, even if he doesn’t beat Littler.