St Paul's Eye Appeal

How you can help us - Give the gift of sight

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St Paul's consultant Stephen Kaye with the corneal transplant team. The gift of sight is something that most people take for granted, but for millions of people around the world coping with blindness is part of their everyday lives. This doesn't have to be the case.

Many forms of blindness can be cured and here in Liverpool we are carrying out groundbreaking operations that really change lives.

One such operation for certain types of blindness is corneal transplant.

The cornea is the clear window at the front of the eye that directs light to the retina, so enabling us to see. The cornea can be profoundly damaged due to an impact accident, scarring, burns or natural problems such as keratoconus. The consequence of this damage is a deterioration of sight, leading potentially to total blindness.

The only way for experts to restore a person's sight lost in this way is to transplant a new cornea in place of the damaged one.

This is a difficult procedure, but St Paul's has an excellent success rate. The only problem is, we don't have enough corneas to perform all the transplants we need to carry out. We need your help by pledging to donate your corneas. The legacy a donor leaves could be the best gift a blind person has ever had - the chance of sight.

Bryn Healey has undergone two successful corneal transplants at St Paul's since he was diagnosed with keratoconus, a condition where the cornea thins and becomes misshapen.

The deputy headteacher from Ellesmere Port said "It was quite a shock when I was first told that I might lose my sight. But now technology has developed sufficiently to restore the sight of people in my position, thanks to the skills of the surgical teams at places like St Paul's"

Since the transplant, father of three Bryn has recovered fully and returned to work. He said: "I owe a good deal to both St Paul's Eye Unit and to the donor whose gift allowed me to keep my sight and I am very grateful."

Corneal transplantation is not very well known, so many people are not aware of how they can help restore the sight of a blind person. We really do need your help.

Everyone who donates their corneas can give sight to two people. Donors don't need to have the same tissue type as the patient and can even donate if they have had eye problems themselves.

St Paul's currently receives just one corneal donation a week, but would rather have one a day. Leaving such a worthwhile legacy and giving the gift of sight is such a generous thing to do.

We are so grateful to everyone who has already pledged to help us, but we need more people to leave the gift of sight as their legacy.

For more details on corneal transplantation or to talk about leaving a corneal legacy to St Paul's Eye Unit please call Jean Hannah, our corneal retrieval nurse on 0151 706 2000.