Charity Cataract Mission To Cambodia

14th, Feb 2023

Throughout February, a team made up of Shane Higgins, Optometrist at Kingsbridge Opticians, Mr Brendan Lacey, Dr Vasuki Jothi and Professor Colin Willoughby, Ophthalmology Consultants and Nurses Allison, Krisztina and Ruby from Kingsbridge Private Hospital jetted off to Cambodia to take part in a weeklong Charity Cataract Mission.

Working with KHMER Sight Foundation, our team alongside many other clinicians from across Belfast and Northern Ireland made the trip to help fight blindness in Cambodia. This mission makes it possible to provide free eye surgeries for Cambodians from rural communities. Every day, the team are performing approximately 40 cataract surgeries alongside follow up reviews the following day.

Over the course of 5 days, around 140 surgeries were completed including both cataracts and pterygia excision.

The Kingsbridge Foundation, supported by Kingsbridge Private Hospital in Belfast helped to fund this trip to help the team share their time, resources and skills to help strangers across the world to see again.

Shane Higgins, Optometrist at Kingsbridge Opticians says, “the smiles at the follow up visits have made it all very much worthwhile.”

Pictured: Shane Higgins, Optometrist at Kingsbridge Opticians with 3^rd and 4^th year medical student volunteer staff who helped to interpret the whole mission.

Pictured: Shane Higgins, Optometrist at Kingsbridge Opticians, Dr Vasuki Jothi and Professor Colin Willoughby, Consultants at Kingsbridge Private Hospital with Allison, Krisztina and Ruby, Nurses at Kingsbridge Private Hospital with volunteer staff and patients.

Shane Higgins recorded a walk through of what a day looked like during their time in Cambodia. Check it out below: 

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