Some stories begin with grand plans. Patti Lane’s may have not been intentional, but a mother’s intuition, a phone book, and a stream of extraordinary coincidences would soon change the course of one little girl’s life forever.
Recently, the KnowTheGlow team, Megan Webber, Co-Founder and Helene Dameris, Director of Global Outreach, had the privilege of hearing Patti Lane’s journey through retinoblastoma and all that came with it.
Patti was just a baby when her family moved from New York to the San Francisco Bay Area, settling in San Mateo, California. Amid the unpacked boxes and new beginnings, Patti’s mother noticed that Patti wasn’t tracking objects the way babies typically do. It wasn’t obvious, but like most mothers, her intuition would not allow her to let it go. Patti’s mother trusted those instincts, opened the phone book and searched for a pediatrician. That simple act was the kick off of a remarkable chain of events Patti would soon face.
Similar to Patti’s mother, the pediatrician immediately sensed something was wrong. Immediately Patti was referred to an ophthalmologist. By an almost serendipitous twist of fate, the head of the ophthalmology department in San Francisco had recently become the family’s neighbor. Around the same time, the pediatrician who first examined Patti had just completed specialized retinoblastoma training at Johns Hopkins. Not long afterward, Patti was diagnosed with bilateral retinoblastoma. She was only eight months old.
Compared to what we know today, health care providers in 1962 weren’t nearly as educated on retinoblastoma. Doctors initially believed both of Patti’s eyes would need to be removed. The future they painted for her family was one of tremendous uncertainty. Patti’s life continued its course of hopeful happenings, in spite of the retinoblastoma, so as one door seemed to close, another quietly opened.
A new machine had recently arrived from Germany. Using an emerging treatment called photocoagulation, physicians attempted something never before done. Patti became the first child to receive the treatment and because of it, they saved her left eye.
Her right eye later underwent radiation treatment, which resulted in cataracts. When Patti was three years old, doctors recommended that it was time to remove the cataracts. Before surgery, doctors warned her parents not to expect much vision. They said she might never recognize something as simple as clouds drifting across the sky.
Patti’s mom will never forget when she brought her home to her bedroom and she looked up at her and said, “When did you get these blue sheets?” Her mother burst into tears.
Exceeding all expectations In that ordinary, yet beyond magical moment, everyone realized that Patti could see far more than anyone had dared to hope.
Growing up, retinoblastoma was never the headline of Patti’s story.
Her parents refused to let it define her. She wasn’t raised as “the child with cancer” or “the child with low vision.” She was simply Patti.
Bicycles, books, school and much more, were boundaries she never knew. The only limitation she remembers clearly was that she wasn’t supposed to drive, a rule that she may have occasionally blurred while growing up in the country.
After treatment, the family returned to Oklahoma. Patti’s parents initially enrolled her in private school, but it wasn’t the right fit. Eventually, her father pursued his love of horses, and the family settled into a rural community where Patti attended a small country school. Looking back, she believes it may have been one of life’s greatest gifts. It was a traditional countryside community, Everyone knew everyone. The children grew up together. The community felt like family and wrapped around her like they did the next child. But, the steady heartbeat behind Patti’s journey was her mother, Martha.
Like most mothers, daughters have an impact close to their hearts, Martha was beyond shaped by her daughter’s experience. Martha devoted twenty-five years as Executive Director of the Oklahoma Society to Prevent Blindness. Her life was dedicated to blindness prevention, education, and advocacy, often reminding Patti that she might be among the oldest retinoblastoma survivors to still retain useful vision. Considering the era in which Patti was treated, that possibility feels nothing short of extraordinary and Patti made the most of every bit of sight she had.
At seventeen, she competed in Arabian horse shows and in Patti fashion, didn’t just compete but earned third place nationally. She attended college and eventually received her Master’s degree in Speech and Language Pathology, originally planning to work with individuals recovering from strokes and traumatic brain injuries.
Later, she and her husband built something entirely different together: a pharmaceutical research center. From 2002 until 2016, they successfully operated the business side by side.
For decades, Patti navigated the world much like someone with typical vision. Then, in her early fifties, another unexpected chapter arrived. Her vision began to decline. This transition, she shared with Megan, has been the hardest challenge she has faced.
After a lifetime of adapting almost effortlessly, she had to learn how to navigate the world differently. The vision that had carried her through childhood, education, motherhood, career-building, and entrepreneurship began to fade. Once again, Patti showed up for herself.
Today, she participates in Oklahoma’s Business Enterprise Program, operating nine vending machines through a program that creates entrepreneurial opportunities for individuals who are visually impaired. Patti also serves on the board of NewView Oklahoma, the state’s largest employer of visually impaired individuals. The organization provides employment opportunities, rehabilitation services, Teachers of the Visually Impaired, and support spanning from infancy through older adulthood. Adding to her remarkable life, she has become a passionate advocate for earlier vision screening and greater access to services, educational support, and rehabilitation resources for children and adults living with vision loss.
Hearing tests are routinely performed shortly after birth, but many vision conditions remain undetected until much later. Patti believes earlier identification could change outcomes for countless children and families.
Even now, she continues to find community among fellow survivors. Through NewView Oklahoma, she connected with Erik Motsinger, an attorney and fellow retinoblastoma survivor. And through KnowTheGlow, she may soon attend the One RB World Conference, joining survivors, families, advocates, and clinicians from around the globe.
These days, Patti doesn’t walk alone. Her current guide dog, Isley, faithful as dogs are, accompanies her through daily life, offering not only independence to Patti’s life but a special companionship.
Patti’s story is luminous, serendipitous, and beyond all a true testament of perseverance. It is a mother’s intuition and a pediatrician’s expertise. A neighboring specialist and a machine newly arrived from Germany. It is blue hospital sheets and tears of astonished joy. Arabian horses and graduate degrees. Businesses built from scratch and guide dogs at your side.
Patti Lane has spent sixty-four years proving that a diagnosis may try to take the center stage of your life, but only you can decide that. Her story reminds us that resilience is rarely loud. More often, it arrives as curiosity, stubborn hope, reinvention, and the quiet decision to keep moving toward the light. And with every unexpected twist and turn, Patti kept seeing the bright future ahead of her and how her vision can help others achieve theirs.
