Medicash is supporting the world-renowned St. Paul’s Eye Unit in its mission to transform the future diagnosis and treatment of eye disease.
There are currently almost two million people in the UK living with sight loss. By 2050, it is thought the number of people with sight loss in the UK will double to nearly four million.
St. Paul’s Eye Unit is launching a new appeal to raise funds to increase the range and effectiveness of treatments available and save the sight of as many people as possible worldwide.
The Medicash Charitable Trust has donated over £7,000 to St. Paul’s charity, the Foundation for the Prevention of Blindness, to help fund new equipment needed for St. Paul’s next phase of research and development.
Professor Simon Harding said: “This is a very generous donation which will make a real difference to us. In 2017 we will be benefiting from exciting new facilities and laboratories. We need funding for equipment to allow us to harness the latest technology to help us pioneer new preventative procedures which prevent eye disease becoming chronic. Medicash has helped bring us a step closer to enabling us to deliver groundbreaking developments in eye care and shape the way we detect, diagnose and treat eye disease over the next 20 years.”
Medicash Head of Customer Operations Marj Murphy said: “St Paul’s Eye Unit deliver outstanding work both in terms of patient care and research excellence. We were delighted to help provide funding in support of their important new appeal.”
Medicash, originally known as the ‘Penny in the Pound Fund’ has longstanding links with St. Paul’s and shares a history spanning over 140 years. In the 1870’s, the Penny in the Pound made a donation to St. Paul’s Eye Hospital at a time when its financial circumstances meant its future was uncertain. Without that money it is likely St. Paul’s would not exist today.