RNIB and Specsavers have teamed up to tour the Eye Pod across the country to raise awareness of eye health issues and the importance of eye tests.
The Eye Pod has two cameras installed that link up to screens inside, where people can view their surroundings with symptoms of each of the four main eye conditions such as age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and cataracts. The experience lasts for approximately one minute and will provide visitors with facts and statistics about each condition.
The campaign follows published statistics that reveal 250 people will develop problems with sight loss despite at least half of the cases being avoidable.
In Torquay, Devon, one of the stops on the tour, Lee Crookes will be helping with the campaign for a personal reason. Last year, a routine eye examination discovered he had a tumour, resulting in him now wanting to ‘raise awareness of how having a regular eye examination could not only save your life but also stop some eye disease in its tracks’.
Simon Simmonds, Torquay Willows Specsavers store director said: ‘It’s astonishing that so many people are needlessly living with sight loss in the UK today. Our mission with RNIB is to transform the nation’s eye health through awareness and action; this is an enormous challenge but we must rise to it together and take action now.’
Other stops on the Eye Pod tour include Brighton, Boscombe, Maesteg, Crosby and Reading.