The Eye Clinic at St. Peter’s Hospital has been aided by the arrival of new equipment to help the monitoring of glaucoma, thanks to the monumental fund raising efforts of the Eyes Right charity which has included concerts and sponsored walks.

Eyes Right managed to raise £28,000 to enable the eye unit at St. Peter’s to purchase the Heidelberg Retinal Tomographer to improve the quality and care given to patients with glaucoma.

The equipment will help keep a year-on-year check on patients’ glaucoma using three dimensional images to view the optic nerve which feeds images to the brain. The instrument can detect miniscule changes to the tissue of the nerve giving valuableinformation on any advancement of the disease. 

Eyes Right is the charity run by local business woman Frances Davies and they raised the donation in alliance with Principal People (Health and Safety Recruitment and Training Specialists) to help give the Eye Clinic the better facilities for more accurate tracking of the disease.

Mrs Davies said: “As a patient myself I know that this machine will greatly help patients with glaucoma whilst being much easier  for patients to use in comparison to the ‘fields test’, which is also checking for damage to the Optic nerve. The ‘fields test’ requires great concentration over a long amount of time which is not as important with the new equipment. I am delighted that we continue to provide a service in helping the eye clinic and long may this continue.”

Consultant Ophthalmologist Mr Mike Tappin said: “This donation has enabled us to fund new equipment that will be a great asset to our unit and it will be vital in the assessment of glaucoma on a continual basis.”

Approximately 2% of the UK population over 40 have glaucoma, 500,000 suffer from Glaucoma in England and Wales alone. The condition, if not properly diagnosed and treated, can lead to a restriction in the field of vision and is more common in afro-Caribbean’s, people over 60, and people with glaucoma in the family.