Campaigning to protect eye health

Good eye­sight is an impor­tant part of over­all well­be­ing and it is vital to ensure we can retain our inde­pen­dence and qual­i­ty of life as we get old­er. Yet many of us rarely think about the impor­tance of car­ing for our eyes to pre­vent us from los­ing our sight in the future.

In fact 20 mil­lion of us fail to have our eyes checked once every two years, as rec­om­mend, and one in ten have nev­er had an eye exam­i­na­tion. Yet sight tests are an impor­tant health check. In some cas­es they can detect the ear­ly stages of eye con­di­tions, even before there are notice­able symp­toms, and sight loss may then be avoid­ed.

The wor­ry­ing truth is that many of us only go to see our optometrist when we are aware that some­thing is wrong and then, in many cas­es, the dam­age has already been done.

Nation­al Eye Health Week seeks to change this by rais­ing aware­ness among the pub­lic about the need to look after their eye health and to get their eyes reg­u­lar­ly test­ed every two years.

The cam­paign aims to make sight tests a nor­mal part of our cycle of reg­u­lar health checks, such as going to the den­tist or get­ting our blood pres­sure checked. A sight test can also uncov­er oth­er health prob­lems, such as dia­betes, hyper­ten­sion and high cho­les­terol.

The wor­ry­ing truth is that many of us only go to see our optometrist when we are aware that some­thing is wrong and then, in many cas­es, the dam­age has already been done

The Nation­al Eye Health Week cam­paign also aims to improve the nation’s sight by pro­mot­ing a num­ber of oth­er ways we can keep our eyes healthy. Did you know that smok­ing increas­es the risk of blind­ness? If you’re a smok­er then this is anoth­er good rea­son to kick the habit as cur­rent smok­ers are four times more like­ly to devel­op mac­u­lar degen­er­a­tion, the UK’s lead­ing cause of sight loss, com­pared to past smok­ers or non-smok­ers.

In addi­tion, oth­er sim­ple lifestyle changes can pro­tect our eye health, such as eat­ing a diet full of dark green leafy veg­eta­bles and oily fish. It is also impor­tant to pro­tect our eyes from the sun by wear­ing CE-marked sun­glass­es.

Vision Mat­ters marks the start of Nation­al Eye Health Week so why not go and book you and your fam­i­ly an eye health check or attend a Nation­al Eye Health Week event tak­ing place near you.

Go to www.visionmatters.org.uk or vis­it your local opti­cian to find out more about how you can take care of your eyes.

CAMPAIGN DIARY

Main events

Sep­tem­ber 17: Eye Health Bus Tour – begins High Street, Scun­thor­pe

Sep­tem­ber 18: Eye Health Infor­ma­tion Day – Wor­thing

Sep­tem­ber 19: Welsh Eye­care Con­fer­ence – Cardiff Uni­ver­si­ty

Sep­tem­ber 20: Eye Clin­ic – Abergele Hop­si­tal, Abergele

For full details of events tak­ing place vis­it visionmatters.org.uk

FIGHT FOR SIGHT

‘Be a best dressed car­rot’

Fight for Sight, the UK’s lead­ing char­i­ty ded­i­cat­ed to fund­ing pio­neer­ing research to pre­vent sight loss and treat eye dis­ease, is host­ing its annu­al Car­rots Night­Walk in Lon­don on the night of Fri­day, Sep­tem­ber 21. Each per­son who takes part in either the six or fif­teen-mile walk will be help­ing researchers find new ways to make sight loss a thing of the past. And there’s even a chance for walk­ers with a fond­ness for fan­cy dress to win a prize for Best Dressed Car­rot. To find out more about how to get involved in the Fight for Sight Car­rots Night­Walk and to help bring hope to mil­lions of peo­ple world­wide liv­ing with­out sight, please vis­it www.fightforsight.org.uk/carrots or call 0207 264 3900.