Simone Dow is a rock star who experiences migraine symptoms triggered by light and noise. This condition might hold some people back from touring, performing and making music – but Simone is determined to live the life she loves. With the help of Avulux, she has been able to keep on rocking.

Migraine nearly ended Simone Dow’s music career.

Simone has been lauded as one of the best female guitarists in metal. As a member of the prog metal band Voyager, she represented Australia at Eurovision. Touring and performing are in her blood. She loves the rush of being on stage, the joy of playing her guitar as the audience rocks out to the music.  

But a few years ago, on tour with Voyager in Europe, she thought her performing days were coming to an end. “I would basically just be getting out of bed, getting ready and going in to play the show, on painkillers but still feeling level 10 pain. I hated every minute of it, having to pretend like I'm having a great time and then nearly collapsing, getting off stage and having to just go back to bed,” she recalls.

Her supportive bandmates helped her through it,  but she wasn’t loving what she was doing anymore. Her doctor recommended she find a way to continue because music was her passion – and it was crucial for her mental health. All she wanted to do was go home and be in her own bed, but she knew the doctor and her bandmates were right. She had to find a way forward.  

Since then, she has done everything she can to “put spoons in my drawers,” as she puts it, so she can continue to do what she loves. She has revised her medications, added physio and strength-building exercises to her regime, changed her diet, begun taking nutritional supplements – and started wearing Avulux Migraine & Light Sensitivity lenses.

Avulux has been a game-changer for Simone because light is one of her biggest migraine triggers. 

“As you can imagine, being a musician, you are assaulted with lights on stage,” she says. “But people don't realize that you wear a variety of different hats as a musician. You're also doing a lot of the business stuff behind the scenes as well, so you're on computers a lot, and screens can be a trigger.”

She now wears Avulux lenses nearly all the time – during gigs but also when she’s shopping, reading, watching TV, or working on the computer. “The difference has just been remarkable,” she says. “I’m finding most days my symptoms for light sensitivity are at such a manageable level now just from wearing them regularly. I don't know how I dealt without them;, now they're stuck on my face nearly almost permanently.”

“The unfortunate truth of living with a chronic illness is that you have to keep moving things and changing things and trying things. That's just the life of it. And I seem to be at a level now where I've got it a bit more manageable, which is great,” she says. “But migraine can take you to some really dark places when you just can't see a light at the end of the tunnel and you just think, is this it? Is this my life now for the rest of my life?”

Simone’s goal now is to help others facing similar struggles with migraine and light sensitivity. “I'm really hoping that I can be that beacon of light that someone sees and can help them on their own journey,” she says. “I wish I had known about Avulux lenses sooner, and I hope others will see this and give them a try, too. Avulux glasses have made a massive difference in my life.”