Thanks for taking the time to visit Dave and Chris’s JustGiving page.
As many of you know we were due to be completing the Maxifuel Half Ironman Triathlon in Marlow on 14 July 2013. This involved a 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile cycle and then a 13.1 mile run to raise money to support sustainable eye care in Kenya. Chris completed the event in an amazing 6 hours 43 minutes (including stopping to help out with a puncture) on this swelteringly hot day!! So a big congratulations to Chris for such a great achievement!!
Unfortunately I (Dave) was unwell in the days running up to the Marlow Half-Ironman Triathlon and had to pull out of the event, but not to be defeated I entered a new Half-Ironman Triathlon (so the same distances) on the 18th August in Ely, Cambridgeshire. So please keep the sponsorship money coming as it is still going to the same great cause! I completed the Half-Ironman Triathlon in Cambridgeshire in 5 hours 43 minutes which I was delighted with and look forward to keeping the fundraising going!
285 million people worldwide suffer with visual impairments, of whom 39 million are blind. 80% of all blindness is curable or preventable. Our recent experiences of my (Dave’s) wife’s sudden onset of visual impairments have given us an idea of how scary, stressful and debilitating losing vision can be and how much we can take our vision for granted on a day to day basis. Vickie is lucky to be receiving expertise and treatment for her condition through the NHS. However, the vast majority of people with visual impairments/blindness live in low income countries where such treatment is not readily available.
Our friends, Drs Andrew and Madeleine Bastawrous are currently living and working in Kenya, researching and providing new lower cost, less resource intensive and more accessible assessment and treatment methods for those who are blind or going blind through treatable or curable conditions. Through the research study and donations such treatment and all associated costs are been provided free of charge.
Once they are back in the UK they want free eye care to continue to be available and are setting up a not for profit bakery where by all the profits will go towards providing eye treatment to those who cannot afford it. It is estimated that the profits generated by the bakery should allow for one blind person per day to be cured. Land and a new purpose built building have already been donated and the bakery is being supported by the Real Bread Campaign in the UK.
Please dig deep and donate to enable the bakery to be set up which will help to build on the amazing work and research Andrew and Madeleine have been doing and ensure that sustainable eye care and treatment for people in Kenya is continued.
For more information on eye care in Kenya and the work being undertaken by Andrew and Madeleine please click on the links below:
http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/newsevents/news/2012/studying_blindness_theres_an_app_for_that.html
http://www.cosmonline.co.uk/blog/2012/09/23/max-perutz-science-writing-award-special
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Thank you all so much for your support.
Dave and Chris.
