Opticians make generous donation to hospital’s Eye Unit

A LOCAL opticians has made a generous donation of more than £1,600 to the Eye Unit at The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust.

Specsavers Harlow named the Eye Unit as their charity of the year in January 2019. Over the last 12 months, staff and customers kindly contributed £1607.74 to support their local hospital.

The funds will be used to purchase technology to facilitate virtual clinics for patients via video conferencing, for those who wish to use this option.

The funds were raised via a host of activities including cake sales, dress down days, coffee mornings, a tombola, fun days in store and contributions from staff team events.

On Thursday, 13 February, colleagues from Specsavers Harlow visited the hospital to present the cheque to the Eye Unit team.

The Eye Unit offers expert care and advice on a wide range of eye conditions from a team of ophthalmologists, nurses and eye health professionals, including orthoptists, optometrists and ophthalmic technicians.

Located in Building 8 at The Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, patients are referred to the unit by a GP, optician, as an outpatient or via the Emergency Department. Conditions diagnosed and treated in the Eye Unit range from cataracts, medical retina, paediatrics, emergency glaucoma, and diabetic screening and treatment for age related macular degeneration.

Sonia Edmon, clinical manager for ophthalmology, said: “We are delighted to be able to use these funds to purchase technology to enable the implementation of virtual clinics for our patients.

“We are very grateful to the staff and customers of Specsavers Harlow for their support.”

Sarah Flowers, store director for Specsavers Harlow, says: ‘Thank you so much to everyone for contributing to our fundraising efforts in 2019. We are very proud to donate this incredible amount to the Eye Unit.

‘We hope that beyond fundraising we have also been able to raise awareness of the vital importance of eye health in preventing avoidable sight loss.”