World Sight Day 2022

Tomorrow, 13 October, is World Sight Day, and Moorfields is joining forces with the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) to raise awareness of good eye health. The theme of this year’s WSD is ‘Everyone counts’, and at Moorfields we believe that everyone’s sight matters.

Protecting your peepers

More than two million people in the UK are living with ‘avoidable sight loss’ – but there are some simple things you can do now to help take care of your eyes. As well as regular eye tests, you can protect your peepers with good nutrition, by cutting out smoking and limiting alcohol, and by taking regular exercise.

You can also take care when using contact lenses. Did you know, you must never swim or wash in your contact lenses? This puts you at risk from developing a preventable, sight damaging parasitic eye infection.

The gift of sight

Moorfields is also supporting NHS Blood and Transplant, by encouraging more people to consider donating their corneas. Thousands of people every year need cornea transplants to help save or restore their sight; at Moorfields, we carry out around 1,000 corneal transplants every year.

One pair of donated eyes can provide treatment for up to 10 different people; each cornea can be transplanted, while each sclera can be used as multiple patch grafts for some glaucoma surgery patients. With the right consent, we can also use other non-transplantable parts of donated eye tissues for research to develop new treatments for the future.

Cornea donation

• Donating your corneas can restore or improve someone’s sight
• You can donate your corneas up to 24 hours after you die and donation can take place in a hospital, in a hospice, or in a funeral home
• Many conditions that affect a person’s eyesight do not affect the corneas directly, meaning it can still be possible to donate if you have poor eyesight
• People with most types of cancer can still donate their corneas. The corneas do not contain blood vessels, eliminating the risk of transmitting most types of cancer
• The eye is never transplanted whole
• After donation, our specialist team will ensure the donor maintains a natural appearance. Cornea donation does not delay a donor’s funeral

Register to donate your eyes

You can register to become a donor on the NHS Organ Donor Register. Forms are also available from GP surgeries, chemists and hospitals. Please speak to your close family and loved ones to ensure they are aware of your wishes to donate.

Research into eye disease

Moorfields is a world leader in eye research. At any time, we have dozens of trials taking place for new sight saving treatments across a spectrum of specialisms and conditions, all needing volunteers.

All you need to do is register on our easy to use ROAM (Research Opportunities At Moorfields) hub with your Moorfields patient or NHS number. We will let you know about research you could be suitable to take part in, and we will contact you about new research opportunities as they become available.