The first time Karthik saw the face of his mother he cried tears of happiness, and so did she. Twelve-year-old Karthik lost his sight at age six due to hereditary eye disease. His parents are field workers and had no hope for their son’s future without sight.
But when their family was referred to LV Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI) in Hyderabad, India, they learned Karthik was a good candidate for a corneal transplant. Through a partnership with Sightlife, a non-profit global health organisation focused on corneal blindness, surgeons at LVPEI were able to restore Karthik’s sight.
Thanks to these life-changing corneal surgeries, Karthik is now a perfectly normal boy with dreams of becoming an artist and a scientist.
To restore sight to more children like Karthik, SightLife is pleased to have formally launched its UK-based charity, SightLife UK. The well-attended Sightlife UK launch event in the House of Commons in September, sponsored by Virendra Sharma MP and kindly endorsed by CB Patel and Vijay Goel, marks an important milestone in achieving SightLife’s mission: eliminating corneal blindness worldwide by 2040.
Speaking at the event, Claire Bonilla a former General Manager at Microsoft and current Chief Global Officer of SightLife, told of the scale of the problem in India. There are over one million people, like Karthik, who are blind in both eyes when they do not need to be. There are another five million who have corneal blindness in one eye that affects their ability to go to school, work and live independently.
She went on to speak passionately that this can only be solved if SightLife remains committed to building the most effective local eye bank programs and training surgeons around the world. This is done by sharing best practices with communities worldwide to provide leadership and infrastructure for local programs. By partnering with new and existing eye banks and providing—at no charge—training, resources and an efficient, comprehensive set of tools to help build capacity to meet the area’s needs.
Dr. Catherine Beech OBE, a new trustee, gave an emotional personal account of how blindness has affected her family, and how that had motivated her to get involved with the solution.
Every pound raised in the UK is matched by a donor in the U.S., so now is an exciting time to engage with the UK to address this global health problem, especially in India where the need is greatest.
SightLife UK would be pleased to hear from anyone who is interested in finding out more about the work, and how they can help make it possible for more people like Karthik to live with the gift of sight.
