Dubai charity urges people in the UAE to have eye test on World Sight Day

Most people value their sight above any other sense, but while we all go to the dentist, doctor and often beauty salons, relatively few people have a regular eye test to check the health of their eyes.

A regular eye test can detect eye conditions before the effect on sight is noticed and can prevent people going needlessly blind with conditions such as glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy. 75% of blindness is avoidable.

Foresight, a non-profit organisation and branch of Tamkeen, is dedicated to helping find cures for hereditary retinal diseases.

There is no cure for Retinitis Pigmentosa, Age-related macular degeneration (dry-form) and other retinal diseases that cause people to go blind and have a devastating effect on their lives.

Eye tests by a reputable ophthalmologist are important to get the correct diagnosis and, if possible, identify the faulty gene responsible through genetic profiling of the person and their family.

Some important breakthroughs have been made this year in retinal research including trials, part-funded by Foresight, that prove that gene therapy in hereditary retinal eye disease is possible.

These trials were done with people whose sight-loss is caused by a rare gene that usually causes small children to go blind (Leber's congenital amaurosis).

There are many families affected by this condition here in the Emirates and hereditary eye disease is the biggest cause of blindness in children in the U.A.E.

Foresight's aim is to help fund the urgent work that now needs to be done and push ahead research for a therapy so that sight can be preserved or restored in all causes of retinal disease.

"Our aim on World Sight Day is to make people think about what a precious sense sight is and what it would mean to them if it was taken away," said Catherine Wallwork of Foresight.

"Ignorance is quietly robbing people of their sight every day. Book an eye test today - it is something you will never regret."

You can support Foresight's valuable work to fight blindness and help people who are losing their sight in a number of ways.