We’re all accustomed to the joys of Comic relief and Red Nose Day, and our office is already awash with squidgy pens and thoughts of fundraising this year. This amazing charity has already done sterling work in raising over £650 million pounds over the last 25 years. From Cliff Richard and the Young ones releasing Living Doll in 1986, to Eddie Izzard running his amazing marathons in 2010, Celebs and the public alike embrace this mammoth event.

This year we‘re really pleased to hear that Comic Relief will be raising awareness of eye disease during one of their epic journeys in Northern Kenya. The BT Red Nose Desert Trek will see five days of gruelling work by a Celeb team including Dermot O’Leary, Lorraine Kelly and Kara Tointon. They will have the chance to see the work of charity Sightsavers, who are dealing with many visual problems, including Cataract and Trachoma. Eye health issues are one of the most common problems amongst the poor in developing countries, and involvement with Comic Relief gives the Charity funds to help them continue to prevent blindness.

Cataract is a common eye condition, where the crystalline lens within the eye becomes cloudy due to age, trauma, smoking, UV exposure or congenital defect. A simple operation corrects this – extract the lens when the density of the opacity affects day to day life, and replace it with an implanted lens. This is a day case surgery with fast recovery and sight is dramatically better immediately. Problems in developing countries include raising awareness that Cataracts can be treated, providing screening and treatment, and even arranging transport so that patients can be seen. Sightsavers treated 273,000 patients with Cataract last year.

Trachoma is a disease of the eye lids which arises due to poor sanitation. Bacteria cause repeated bouts of conjunctivitis, with discharge and sore eyes. This is highly contagious, and although anti-biotic drops can treat the infection, the repeated problem stops the tears from functioning to sanitize and protect the eye. This can trigger trichiasis, where the eyelid and ultimately the lashes invert and damage the cornea. This causes scarring of the delicate window at the front of the eye and leads to permanent damage and loss of sight. It’s presently the worlds leading cause of preventable blindness. This disease is most prevalent with children, even though corneal scarring may not affect them until after their teens. The problem is tackled with information about reducing the risk of infection, treatment of infections that do occur with antibiotics, and surgery to remove areas of the lid that could damage the cornea.

This is all preventable blindness, so the work of Sightsavers is invaluable in helping sufferers. We’ll all be supporting Comic Relief this year, and glued to the screen on March 18^th to see the sterling work of Sightsavers and other charities like them.

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