Nurse's World Sight Day call

Cromer Hospital nurse Dawn Romanos is calling on people to mark World Sight Day by sparing a thought for the millions of people in developing countries that needlessly live with blindness.

Thursday 13th October is World Sight Day, and Dawn has first-hand experience of helping those in developing countries with blindness. Dawn is an ophthalmic theatre nurse at Cromer and District Hospital's Allies Day Procedure Unit, and gave up a week's holiday last year to work as a volunteer with the ORBIS Flying Eye Hospital in the Phillipines.
 
Dawn said: “Preventable blindness remains a huge problem – at present one child is going blind every minute and today there are 37 million blind people in the world. Seventy five per cent of them don't need to be, as the skills and technology already exist to prevent or treat their blindness. ORBIS works to take the latest sight saving skills and technology to the world's developing countries where 90% of all blind people live.
 
By volunteering with ORBIS, I have seen for myself the scale of the problem and appreciate the efforts local organisations are making to improve the situation. ORBIS is helping these organisations by recruiting highly skilled volunteers to train local medical professionals, leaving countries with skilled specialists, who can go on and train others. ORBIS further supports institutions by providing essential medicines and equipment, and educates local community groups about protecting sight.
 
“I'm asking people to spend just a few minutes looking at the ORBIS website www.orbis.org.uk or call ORBIS on 0207 608 7260, to find out more about avoidable blindness and what you can do to make a massive difference to millions of people's lives.”