Blind Egyptian youth creates world's largest LEGO eyeglasses

Celebrating his different ability of recognition, a legally blind young Egyptian man and his sister have created the world’s largest LEGO brick eyeglasses. 

The Guinness World Records reported that Zeyad Ibrahim, 19 years old, and his sister Salma, 17 years old, from Mansoura, Egypt, constructed LEGO eyeglasses with dimensions of 6.2m x 2.52m x 0.952m, spending 56 hours and 35 minutes, Gulf News reported. 

Challenging visual disability

Ibrahim, with the help of his sister, used 147 kg of LEGO bricks, totalling 65,108 LEGO bricks, in 17 days to assemble the eyeglasses at their house and then they moved it to the Galleria Al Maryah Island, Abu Dhabi, according to Khaleej Times.

Using only 5% of his eyesight, Ibrahim wanted to show the world that dreams could come true, even with impairment. He suffers from Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA), an eye disorder that primarily affects the retina and leaves the patient suffering from near-absent pupillary responses, with severely decreased visual acuity, Gulf News reported. 

The Egyptian student told Khaleej Times that since receiving his first LEGO box at the age of nine, he has been spending hours listening to videos in order to learn how to create shapes with LEGOs. Despite his inability to see things even with big screens, Ibrahim said that he sees life through his mother’s eyes who always travels with him. 

It is not Ibrahim’s first attempt to break a record. In 2020, he participated in the world's longest handshake relay during an event held in Abu Dhabi, inspiring him to break a record of his own. On the day of the attempt, he was wearing eyeglasses that looked like the one he created with LEGO bricks, according to Gulf News. 

It is worth mentioning that LCA cannot be corrected with glasses, contacts or surgery. Studies show that 80% of blindness occurs in people over the age of 50. However, Ibrahim suffers from LCA at the age of 19 years, Khaleej Times reported. 

Future dreams 

Ibrahim is currently studying Chemical Engineering at University College Dublin, Ireland, which hired him an assistant to support his study, and he is currently in the top two percent of his class. He was offered a free scholarship for his distinctive results in school, Gulf News reported. 

He believes building with LEGOs helps making the brain stronger because thinking of shapes and creating them without seeing them improve the abilities of the brain. His dream is to work at a LEGO Certified Store, bringing a lot of value to the company, according to Khaleej Times. 

Salma, Ibrahim’s younger sister, told Khaleej Times that she hopes to complete her higher studies in Ireland and to help her brother, claiming he is her source of inspiration. She also believes that he can break more Guinness World Records titles in the future.