Over 750 patients, staff, friends and family march from ‘Eye to Eye’ in support of Moorfields

A record number of Moorfields’ supporters took part in the Eye to Eye fundraising walk, with more than 750 people taking to the streets of London. 

This is an increase of over 220 participants since last year’s inaugural event. In 2015, 525 people took part, raising over £100,000 for Moorfields Eye Charity (MEC) - a charity which supports the incredible and pioneering work of Moorfields Eye Hospital and its research partner, the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology.

Walkers have the option to nominate which area of eye research is to benefit from the money they raise through sponsorship. Some participants have taken the opportunity to share why this event is important to them. Here is what they had to say:

Tina Roger’s son, Albert, has congenital glaucoma and is a patient at Moorfields’ Richard Desmond Children’s Eye Centre. Tina gathered a team of 12 people to take part; travelling up from Southampton for the event. Team Bert has already raised over £6,000. Tina says: “Our son Albert was diagnosed with glaucoma at the age of three. Glaucoma is a horrible disease which can rob you of your eyesight and the chance of a child developing it is just one in 20,000. I guess Albert was one of the unlucky ones. As terrifying as this was, we cannot thank Moorfields enough as he was diagnosed very quickly and given the best treatment possible - which saved the vision in his left eye. There is currently no cure for glaucoma, just treatments to keep it at bay. More funds are needed to help further research so that hopefully one day we will find a cure.”

Philip Barraclough, of Rayleigh in Essex, has retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited eye disorder which leads to loss of vision and blindness. He has raised over £2,500 so far to support research into the condition. Philip says: “I was delighted to take part in Eye to Eye so I could give something back to Moorfields, which has done so much to support me and my family after my diagnosis. I hope my fundraising will help Moorfields to find new ways of treating this disease.”

Emma Beasley, of Herne Bay in Kent, has a retinal detachment with complications and is being treated at Moorfields. Her sister, Lucy, signed up to Eye to Eye to thank the hospital for their care and was delighted when Emma’s health was judged good enough for her to join in too. They have raised over £1, 500 so far. Emma says: “I was diagnosed with a retinal detachment in my right eye and retinal tears in my left eye in April 2014.  So far, I’ve had five surgeries to try to save my sight, with the promise of more surgery in the future.  Unfortunately, I’m in the 10% of retinal detachment patients who have complications. We took part in Eye to Eye as a way of saying thank you to Moorfields for their excellent care during my ongoing treatments. We wanted to raise awareness of the importance of sight-saving research, which gives hope to people like myself.”

Another of the teams which took part yesterday is The Nordic Flyers - a group of over 25 Nordic walkers from North London, many of whom are treated at Moorfields for various eye problems.

So far, the event has raised over £70,000 and this figure is expected to more than double over the next few weeks as sponsorship continues to grow.

Rob Aldous, director of fundraising at MEC said: “We have been delighted by the enthusiastic response from Moorfields staff, members and grateful patients to this event, as we strive to raise more money for the hospital’s pre-eminent research programme. It was another memorable day on Sunday and it was great to meet those taking part and be able to thank them personally for their fantastic support.”