Children with eye disorders benefited from two years of fundraising by Play2Give to help fund cutting edge imaging equipment.
The Oxford Paediatric Eye Fund, based at the John Radcliffe Eye Hospital, was one of our charities who received a helping hand through our fundraising activities and events across two years.
Our support helped fund incredible diagnostic equipment to help children and premature babies born with eye sight threatening diseases, for the PEF part of the Oxford Hospitals Charity.
Across 2014 to 2015 we raised over £3,340 for the Paediatric Eye Fund (PEF) enough to have helped fund a RET-CAM – one of many specialist cutting edge imaging equipment, a revolutionary piece of kit, we were proud to fundraise towards. The RET-CAM being a revolutionary piece of kit used to photograph the retina of infants with a range of disorders, from cancer of the retina to Retinopathy of prematurity and shaken baby injury.
We raised the funds through events including two charity nights which saw not just discos but sponsored chilli-eating contestants and sponsored doughnut-eating contests combined for entertaining evenings, obstacle runs, bag packs and collections in Sainsbury’s Didcot, fitness spinathons, sponsored walks, football matches, raffles and much more.
Pictured right is Ross Downes, who was heavily involved at the time in leading fundraising efforts with Oxford Eye Hospital clinicians with our very own Andy Baker and Dale Harris, with a grand cheque totalling proceeds we raised in 2014.
Consultant Ophthalmologist at the Eye Hospital, Srilakshmi Sharma, who said of the scanners in 2016, which we helped fund: “Imaging of the retina in children is a vital way to see how the eye’s light sensitive tissue, the retina, is being affected by the conditions affecting the eye which causes loss of sight.
“Children don’t often stay still and they are much smaller so we need to harness technological advances and use equipment that is portable or small enough to be used on an infant.
“The new cutting edge equipment will help us quickly and easily obtain images of the retina and make prompt diagnoses and treatment decisions on the smallest of children. We want to say an enormous ‘thank you’ to our donors, including Play2Give.”
Supporting charities particularly focusing on “children, health and disability” causes links in well with our dedicated support to hospital related causes such as the PEF locally. For Andy he received surgery aged three at the Oxford Eye Hospital, so supporting such a cause to give back to other children with eye disorders was another cause with personal significance, to make a long term impact for the benefit of advancement in medical treatment for youngsters.
Thank you to everyone who continues to support our amazing fundraising organisation.
It is only thanks to our local community and all of our supporters who get behind our events, take part in activities, donate money or toys, to helping out their time on stalls and in other ways, that we are able to continue helping the likes of Oxford Children’s Hospital and so many other charities and people in need locally.