Subtle signs of agonising condition that blights Tom Fletcher…and could BLIND him

Tom Fletcher worried fans this week after revealing he was forced to take a trip to A&E because he looked like he’d ‘been smashed in the face’. 

In an Instagram story the former McFly singer and Strictly star said he’d suffered a flare-up of a long-term health condition that left one side of his face drooping.

The 39-year-old was diagnosed with the rare eye condition uveitis in 2022. 

‘Not the day I had planned. Uveitis sucks! My autoimmune thing flared up out of nowhere last night,’ he wrote.

‘Woke up feeling (and looking) like I’d been smashed in the face! This is after it had calmed down and I could see again.’

Uveitis has to be treated immediately when symptoms occur. If left untreated, it can prove serious causing vision loss or even blindness.

The condition, which affects up to five in every 10,000 Brits each year, causes inflammation of the uvea — the central layer of the eyeball that transports blood to the retina and transmits images to the brain.

Some may not notice any symptoms and so uveitis can go undetected for several weeks or months.

Symptoms also differ depending on what type of uveitis sufferers have and which part of the eye is affected. 

The most common type — anterior uveitis — which accounts for 75 per cent of all cases, affects the iris, the coloured tissue at the front of the eye.    

Common symptoms include an aching, painful red eye, blurred or cloudy vision, a small pupil or sensitivity to light. 

The iris may also appear a slightly different colour to normal, according to Moorfields Eye Hospital. 

Such signs could develop gradually over hours or even days and may increase in intensity. 

Intermediate uveitis, meanwhile, affects the vitreous — a gel like structure behind the iris and in the middle part of the eye. 

Although typically painless, symptoms include squiggly lines that float across your vision, blurred vision and mild redness. 

Posterior uveitis which affects the choroid, a layer of blood vessels supplying the retina, also causes issues with vision. 

A more serious form of the condition, it causes blurry, distorted vision or patchiness or gaps in your vision, the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) say.   

It can also cause problems with colour vision and seeing in the dark at night, known medically as nyctalopia.

The cause of uveitis is often unknown, with around four in 10 patients still not aware after clinical investigation. 

Many cases are linked to the immune system, when it becomes overactive in the eye for unknown reasons. 

Uveitis can also be caused by infection, injury or surgery, although this is less common. 

But without any treatment, the condition can trigger raised eye pressure and retinal detachment.

Macular edema — a condition that occurs when fluid and protein build up in the macula (in the centre of the retina that’s responsible for fine details) causing it to swell and thicken — is another risk, which can result in vision loss.    

On Instagram, Tom, who lives in Richmond, London, with his actress wife Giovanna Fletcher and their three sons, said he went to The Western Eye Hospital A&E in central London to get treated.

‘Hate having to come here but so thankful it exists!,’ he wrote. ‘The doctors and nurses have helped me out so many times now.’

This is not the first time, however, he has documented his uveitis flare-ups, with the most recent in 2023.  

It came just months after he was rushed to hospital with the same condition in the run-up to Christmas 2022, and had to undergo six weeks of steroid treatment. 

He shared on social media at the time: ‘Sorry I’ve been quiet for a bit. I was wiped out with some sort of illness and in bed for a few days. 

‘I just got back on my feet yesterday and uveitis decided to kick me down again.’