Eye Heroes
1140. Yusrah Shweikh
1141. Manjul Rathee
Dr Yusrah Shweikh and Manjul Rathee, from London, are the founders of ‘Eyes Heroes’, the UK’s first child-led campaign to tackle avoidable blindness, which has trained over 3,000 children to become champions for eye health.
Currently, the charity has held over 120 volunteer-led interactive school workshops in 18 regions across the UK to train children to become ‘eye health champions’, with over 25,000 children benefiting from the information they have shared. As an ophthalmologist at Moorfields Eye Hospital, Yusrah was inspired to start the campaign after seeing the high number of patients with sight conditions that could have been easily avoided if they had received a routine eye test earlier. Collaborating with designer Manjul, the pair launched ‘Eye Heroes’ to provide training for children on eye health and the benefits of receiving regular eye tests, and enable them to share this information with peers and members of the community who otherwise may be hard to reach. The charity also freely shares resources on eye health online.
In a personal letter to Yusrah, Prime Minister Theresa May said:
“By drawing on your professional expertise, you are supporting thousands of children to become experts in eye health and help prevent avoidable sight loss. Your volunteer workshops are having a real impact on improving eye health awareness and I wish you well with your continued work to roll out the campaign further.”
In a personal letter to Manjul, Prime Minister Theresa May said:
“Together with Yusrah you have designed a successful and pioneering model that has inspired thousands of children across the UK to learn more about their eye health and share this information with one another. You should feel enormously proud of the impact your campaign has had in improving understanding of avoidable sight loss and encouraging people to receive regular eye tests.”
Yusrah and Manjul said:
“It is a huge honour for us to receive a Points of Light award. Being recognised by the Prime Minister will undoubtedly help ‘Eye Heroes’ and our incredible team of volunteers to raise awareness about avoidable blindness in the UK. Thank you!”