Ashley King is one fiercely motivated young woman who hails from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. After landing, she graduated high school and soon found herself on what she assumed would be a trip of a lifetime. With her longtime best friend, Krista, she’d planned to take a year off to travel the world. Little did they know that a freak accident would leave Ashley in critical condition and change her life forever. Much of it stemmed from their experiences while traveling in Bali.
On August 30, 2011, while enjoying the vibrant nightlife in Kuta, a popular tourist destination in southern Bali, King and Krista went barhopping. It was on this trip that Ashley was unwittingly served a fruity vodka cocktail laced with methanol. The impact of the toxin would be catastrophic and would set into motion an agonizing chain of events.
Healing after a long night on the town, Ashley made her first steps onto the road, unknowing of the horrors that lie ahead. She was hit by a car and soon flown to a specialized clinic in New Zealand for treatment. Upon arrival, she faced a grim reality: she could not see the fingers a nurse was holding up. After denying that anything was wrong, Ashley eventually came to terms with the fact that she had lost about 98% of her vision.
Carolina’s heart was pounding as she made the flight to Christchurch, worried that her daughter would even be alive. In the meantime, Ashley faced a new formidable hurdle. Her asthma itself flared up until she suffered what she thought was a life-threatening asthma attack. That was only the start of a long and difficult road to recovery and to the adaptation needed to face these new challenges.
In those early weeks after her crash, Ashley was coming to terms with this new life. She remembers, “I just had so much confidence and self-esteem and all of that was just taken away.” The emotional toll was just as far-reaching. She would wake up each day thinking that maybe, today, she would get her vision back. How disorienting,” she mused. “And the most insidious, awful thing was that I continued to have full colour dreams.”
Despite the insurmountable odds, Ashley showed incredible perseverance. In fact, two years after losing her eyesight, she set out on a seven country backpacking trip across South America. She hitched across the country, bringing her story of methanol poisoning to other road-tripping travelers. She channeled her loss and her pain into America’s most touching and transformative anti-drunk driving message.
Ashley also studied journalism in college. While engaging in an exchange program in the UK, she began to take intentional steps to regain what she thought was lost forever. She was laser-focused on going to India. Her mission was to connect to the scientists that were advancing stem cells to restore vision.
Her travels helped Ashley rediscover not only her globe-trotting ways but who she is. Most recently, she adapted her experiences living in Bali into a new play and learned how to snowboard. Following her partner down the mountain as he provided directions, she embraced new challenges with courage and enthusiasm.
Ashley no longer has to pretend to be someone she’s not. She reflected, “The experience has been a lesson that you really don’t know what someone is dealing with. Her journey has been difficult. She admitted to periods of anger and frustration. And you can be angry and frustrated and not want to go outside, and that’s ok.”
Ashley’s story serves as another reminder of the power of vulnerability and human connection. “I didn’t want assistance. I didn’t want to be a nuisance,” she confessed. The concern over how she would be perceived affected her mental health deeply throughout those first months of transition.
Even with all she has been through, Ashley knows without a doubt that the 2% vision she has left has changed her life. Polls just as bad, equally duped, mistaken connoisseur shamed virtuous influencer righteous indignation self-involved goat yoga I’m none of those people. She declared fiercely. I’m talking about deeper struggles that are more heavy duty.