Gwendal Leroy

Gwendal Leroy, 27, was injured on January 19, 2019 during the 10th week of yellow vest protests in Rennes, Brittany. AFP interviewed him at his home in La Foret-Fouesnant, northwest France, on March 8, 2019.

Why were you there?

The yellow vests has brought all sorts of people - the unemployed, workers, retired people, people with all kinds of jobs. Everyone’s together in the street, it really is a civil movement.

What happened?

We’d decided we really wanted to leave. It was 6 o’clock and we had a two-hour drive ahead of us. Heading up the road, near the bus stops, a canister landed at my feet. You hear the noise, so you say to yourself, “what’s this?” Then I saw a flash, an explosion. I immediately felt something strike my face.

In the hospital, someone came up to me and lifted my left eyelid. That’s when I knew it was bad, because he shouted, “Let’s get him looked at straight away!”

I don’t really know if I’ve accepted it, the fact that it’s for life. There are moments of realisation, like when you’re sitting on a chair and for 10-15 seconds, everything hits you, and you think, “oh yeah, I’ve lost an eye”.

What is your life like now?

Before the injury, I was a forklift operator, but I don’t know if that’s going to be possible now. Then there’s the whole “how to find a job” part. Who’s going to want to employ the person in the “only-has-one-eye” category, while there are plenty of people out there with two eyes?