Gift of Sight Appeal

Cataracts cloud the lens of the eye. For example, a person with a severe cataract may struggle to recognise faces or manage daily tasks. These are illustrations of the barriers people can face, not published patient stories from this appeal. The operation to replace that cloudy lens is short, proven and life-changing. For a family without money, it is also out of reach. That wait is where your donation matters.

Please give to the Gift of Sight Appeal. World Aid Network does not run eye hospitals and does not employ surgeons. Locally licensed ophthalmologists operate in registered hospitals. We fund the cost — theatre time, the intraocular lens, anaesthesia, drops and follow-up. Your gift is how a recommended operation becomes a given operation.

You do not have to travel. You do not have to send a box of old glasses from Britain. The most useful thing you can do tonight is donate. Around £200 is the planning estimate for a cataract operation; actual quotes and clinical needs vary. A smaller gift still pays for an assessment, drops or part of an operation. Please give what you can.

Around nine in ten people living with blindness have a condition that was preventable or is still treatable. Cataract is the largest of those. The surgery takes minutes in experienced hands. The biology is not the mystery. The invoice is.

A mother who cannot see cannot cook, cannot work, cannot recognise her children across a room. An older man who cannot see becomes dependent on a relative who then cannot earn. One unpaid bill can trap a whole household. Please donate to the Gift of Sight Appeal so that bill is paid.

The cameras leave. The cataract does not. Please do not wait for a celebrity diagnosis. Give now so a patient already on a partner list is not sent home still blind.

Use the form beside this appeal, or open the donate page and choose eye surgery. Keep this appeal selected. That gift is your donation to the Gift of Sight Appeal. We will turn it into surgery at a partner hospital.

If you can, give every month. Cataracts do not wait for a fundraising dinner. A regular gift means partners can keep operating for people who cannot pay. A one-off gift still matters. Please give today.

If your mosque, church, workplace or friends are collecting, gather what you can and donate it here. Tell them it will pay for an operation, not a parcel of unused spectacles from the UK. That is the whole of the ask.

Costs vary by hospital, clinical needs and the services included. Around £200 is the planning estimate for a cataract operation; actual quotes and clinical needs vary. Diabetic eye treatment — laser or injections — is funded from the same appeal when a partner ophthalmologist recommends it.

Please choose an amount and donate. The table is a guide to what kindness can buy. What a patient receives depends on the diagnosis and the hospital. Please do not leave the page without giving if you are able.

It is one of the most effective operations in medicine. In experienced hands it is short. The patient does not need to fly to Britain. The surgeon is already there. The missing piece is the bill.

We do not promise a UK private-clinic menu or a named brand of lens from a London list. We fund what a licensed ophthalmologist in Pakistan, Indonesia or Malaysia uses in that hospital. Please give so that implant goes into the eye that needs it.

Around nine in ten people living with blindness have a condition that was preventable or is still treatable. Cataract is the largest of those. Diabetic retinopathy is growing where diabetes is common, including in Pakistan and Indonesia.

We do not fund cosmetic eye surgery or UK private clinics. We fund need, not preference. Trustees approve grants against what a partner ophthalmologist has recommended and the hospital can give.

High blood sugar damages the tiny vessels of the retina. The disease is often silent until the damage is advanced. Ninety per cent of diabetic blindness is preventable with early screening and treatment. For a poor patient who cannot afford a specialist appointment, the disease progresses until it is too late.

The Gift of Sight Appeal funds retinal examination, laser photocoagulation and injections where a partner ophthalmologist recommends them and the hospital can deliver them. Cataract remains the most common operation. Diabetic care sits beside it because both are treatable causes of preventable blindness.

Please give. A retinal examination is cheaper than a lifetime of blindness. Donate to the Gift of Sight Appeal so that examination happens.

Care is delivered under national medical registration — PMDC in Pakistan, KKI in Indonesia, MMC in Malaysia. That is not a slogan. It is who holds the scalpel. Visiting teams are not how this appeal is built.

Please donate so a surgeon who already lives there can operate on a patient who already lives there. The Gift of Sight Appeal is the bill, not the plane ticket.

Personal clinical records are private. We publish partner updates only after review. Around £200 is the planning estimate for a cataract operation; actual quotes and clinical needs vary. Write to [email protected] if you would like a partner update. A donation does not reserve or identify a particular patient.

Priority is clinical and financial need — not who has the loudest story online. Please give so the hospital can keep that list moving.

Please choose an amount and donate. The slider and table are a guide to what kindness can buy. What a patient receives depends on the eye, the hospital and what they need that week.

That is the promise of this appeal. You give. We turn your money into surgery for someone who cannot pay. Please do not leave the page without giving if you are able.

Buying the operation locally is the point. The surgeon is already there. The theatre is already there. The missing piece is the bill. Please donate so that piece is filled.

If you want to give in memory of someone, or as a group, write to [email protected] and we will mark the gift for the Gift of Sight Appeal.

Money that has already been given can move when a hospital says an older woman needs a cataract she cannot afford. That is why a standing Gift of Sight Appeal matters more than a one-day fundraiser.

Please donate today — once, or every month — so the next patient is not sent home still blind while the world organises a response.

You do not need to send spectacles from Britain. You do not need to travel. Old glasses from a drawer in London are usually the wrong prescription and the wrong solution for a cataract. The useful thing a supporter in Birmingham, Glasgow or a village hall can do is give.

If your workplace, school, mosque or church is collecting, bring the money here. Gift Aid starts when Charity Commission registration is granted. We will tell donors when that happens. Please give what you can.

Cataracts do not follow a fundraising calendar. A regular gift means we can say yes when a partner asks for the next theatre list. Please start a monthly gift at the amount that is comfortable for you. You can change it later. If you would rather give once, that gift is welcome too. Donate today.

Parcels of spectacles arrive late, may be the wrong prescription, and do nothing for a cloudy lens that needs to be replaced. Please give money, unless a partner has asked for a specific item in writing.

If you want to sponsor an operation as a gift, a workplace collection or a memorial, write to [email protected]. Please still donate on this page so the hospital can operate.