Organisation
The Founder
Second Sight was founded by British Ophthalmologist Lucy Mathen who retrained as a doctor after 15years in journalism, mostly as a TV reporter.
In the summer of 1996 Lucy got first-hand experience of the cataract blindness problem in India when she took part in a surgical training course in the south. She vowed then that she would contribute something to the work to eliminate reversible blindness in India (the country of her birth) at some point in her career. Four years later she returned to India and headed north. The rural north was the poorest and most neglected area of India so it could be assumed that cataract blindness was worst there. She expected to find poor hospitals and a lack of basic infrastructure. Instead she found eye hospital after eye hospital fully equipped, often by international charities, but unable to provide cataract surgery. The reason? The lack of eye surgeons.
“It was a tragedy. Expensive equipment lying idle, frustrated paramedical staff and the blind remaining blind.”
So in December 2000 Lucy launched Second Sight to provide those missing eye surgeons.
Trustees
The trustees are Mark Rees, a computer software consultant, business-woman Sue Lownds and management consultant Ruth Tipping. All three have close ties with India.
The patrons of Second Sight are : John Craven,OBE and Ophthalmologist Prof.Alistair Fielder.
Website
The Second Sight website was designed by Mark and Leyla Rees and Calum Mathen.