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Optometrists have a crucial role in the fight against glaucoma according to one of the organisers of the first World Glaucoma Day on March 6 2008.

Mr Faisal Ahmed, surgeon and glaucoma fellow at the Western Eye Hospital in London, said: 'The aim is to find the approximate 50 per cent of patients who do not yet know they have glaucoma. The only way to do this is to get as many of the general public through opticians' doors.'

Ahmed hopes that by encouraging patients to visit their optometrists, critical early diagnosis can take place 'so we can reduce the number of people who suffer irreversible visual loss'.

To date, Ahmed has contacted the multiple groups as well as local opticians and GPs and a number have expressed an interest in displaying posters and leaflets.

'The General Optical Council has been contacted and has agreed to put a web link for www.wgday.org. I have contacted the International Glaucoma Association and the RNIB to try to get their volunteers into the opticians and hand out leaflets and speak to staff and the general public,' he added.

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