What price would you put on your eyes? I’m sure you’d agree they’re priceless. The ability to see is something we all take for granted. Imagine losing your vision, living the rest of your life in complete darkness or, if you’re lucky, distorted images remaining a blur regardless of how hard you squint or how much you rub or even how designer your glasses are. Everything your eyes have seen are simply a memory and nothing new can be added except through your 4 remaining senses. Imaging living the remainder of your life without your favorite movies, the beauty of nature, watching your children grow into adults or even struggling to read these words before you now. Sadly, for many, imagining isn’t necessary when their reality is bleak. These joys of life we so often turn a blind eye to can only be seen through the gift of vision.

With your help we can raise £36, 000, to fund a latest technological camera for the Emergency Eye Department based in Burnley General Hospital. Any patient in the East Lancashire area with an emergency eye problem / sudden onset of eye symptoms is referred here.  This department cares for all patients with emergency eye conditions whether they are a child or an adult. This department
is mainly run by junior doctors supported by an on-call consultant.

Patients referred to the eye clinic are analysed using a slit lamp; a microscope that enlarges and details the different structural components of the eye, thereby allowing the clinician to accurately locate the cause of the patient’s symptoms. Unfortunately, this means the clinician is unable to show the patient the location of the problem in the eye and can only explain it verbally before providing the appropriate prognosis.

This camera will help junior doctors to provide cutting edge images of the eye problems, therefore allowing a greater diagnostic accuracy and immediately liaise with the consultant to aid in the diagnosis and management of these patients. This also means patients can view their condition and track their progress when they return. This camera will also be an excellent teaching tool and a good way to take pictures of rare eye conditions, again helping to train junior doctors, nurses and allied health professionals in your local eye team.

Donations above the £36,000 target will go towards buying other much needed equipment to help treat/ diagnose patients with long term eye problems.

Any donations will be gratefully appreciated and will be used in providing a better service in any of the eye clinics run by East Lancashire NHS Trust. If you would like further information on how much money we fund raise and what the money we raise is spent on, once we stop fundraising on 9/10/20, then please get in touch with me by emailing nabilla.aslam@elht.nhs.uk.