The Second Sight Story

UK registered charity 1080445

We are a sight charity founded by ophthalmologist Lucy Mathen, a former TV journalist.
In 2000 Dr Mathen made an investigative trip across the breadth of rural north India. She found hospitals full of expensive equipment funded by international charities. But no or too few eye surgeons in areas in which cataract blindness was endemic, most notably the state of Bihar.

Invited into Bihar by one of the few ophthalmologists working for the poor - Dr Helen Nirmala Rao- Second Sight began be providing the ‘missing’ surgeons.
This simple intervention encouraged a reverse brain drain of committed local doctors.
25 years on, it is a wholly different scenario.
Bihar has never before had so many local clinicians ready to work in their ancestral areas in rural and small town Bihar. We work with a growing network of small to medium sized district-based eye hospitals, mostly clinician-led and all providing permanent and comprehensive eye services. Cataract is by no means the only eye condition that can lead to blindness amongst the rural poor.
Our/their Small is Beautiful and Local modus operandi has never been more fit for purpose.
The climate emergency is having a devastating impact in Bihar. Hospitals must pay heed to their carbon footprint. The Bigger is Better approach of the 20th century, constructing very large hospitals and transporting patients long distances, is no longer an appropriate model. It is, however, still happening. Hence we are needed more than ever.
Mindful of the dire poverty of the people of Bihar we remain a no office, no salaries, no admin and no expenses charity.

  ‘To see Second Sight in action challenging precepts, advising and encouraging amazingly dedicated, talented local doctors and enabling them to make a huge contribution to their communities is the equivalent of attending a masterclass in how an NGO should be run.’

Kay Brenders, Management Consultant, Canada

‘Second Sight is everything a charity ought to be - utterly transparent, meeting an unmet need and quick to change with changing circumstances.’

Ray Kipling former Deputy Director RNLI charity, UK

“ I continue to marvel at the cost-effectiveness of Second Sight and the team’s seemingly boundless energy and commitment to eradicating needless blindness …there can be no comparison between large organisations working in the same field in terms of value for money or need for financial assistance - Second Sight wins both of these contests hands down.”

Prof Phillip Bloom, Ophthalmologist, UK 

For more information or to donate please email : lucymathen@yahoo.com or pick up the phone and talk to us.
+44 207 359 1315 or + 44 7957300136
Read the Blog page for updates