World Sight Day 2013 has been the catalyst for meetings in the Houses of Parliament, celebrity support for optics and the release of new research findings.
BBC presenter Fiona Bruce (pictured above with VAO founding chairman Brian Ellis) made a speech during a VIP reception organised by the charity at the House of Commons to mark the October 10 campaign. She is the honorary vice-president of Vision Aid Overseas
‘As a spectacle wearer myself, I know only too well how important it is to eliminate global visual impairment,’ Bruce said.
VAO also announced at the event that it had been awarded a Global Poverty Action Fund Impact Widow Grant worth £313,076 from the Department for International Development.
On the eve of World Sight Day, vision charity Fight For Sight held its own reception at the House of Lords to launch a report outlining patients’ priorities for eye research. The report follows a survey last year to identify unanswered questions about the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of sight loss and eye conditions from patients, carers and eye health professionals.
In total, 2,220 people responded to the survey, generating 4,461 questions now filtered down into the top 10 questions for 12 different eye conditions. These included how cataracts can be prevented, whether a treatment can slow down progression or reverse sight loss in inherited retinal diseases, and whether new therapies such as gene or stem cell treatments can be developed for corneal diseases.
Kamlesh Chauhan, chair of the College of Optometrists which supported the project, said: ‘For research to have the right impact, the views of those that it affects must be heard and it is refreshing that we have consulted with patients, carers and clinicians alike to help focus our efforts in the right direction.’
