Author and journalist Toby Young is to present a BBC Radio Four appeal on behalf of international sight-saving charity ORBIS. In the appeal, which launches on Sunday 9th January, he urges listeners to confine the blinding eye infection trachoma to history.
ORBIS Ambassador Toby Young has been a supporter of ORBIS’s work for more than five years.
He says: “I’m so pleased to be able to share the inspiring work of ORBIS with others, through the BBC Radio Four appeal.
“I support ORBIS’s sight-saving work because of its pragmatic approach. Millions of people in developing countries are blind from conditions that can be treated or prevented. It simply doesn’t have to be this way. ORBIS works with local partners to provide the tools and training needed to get eye care to those in the greatest need.
“With 37 million people blind from treatable or preventable conditions, the problem is huge, but ORBIS has a workable and practical solution. That is why I support them, and why I hope you will too.”
Toby’s appeal focuses on 52 year old Amina, a mother of two from Ethiopia, whose sight was painfully being robbed by the infectious eye disease trachoma. ORBIS trained a medic at Amina’s nearest health centre and after a 15 minute surgery she was no longer in pain or in danger of losing her sight. She said: “I can live again and I am a mother again.”
The appeal will be broadcast all week online at BBC Radio Four [www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/appeal], and will be aired on Radio Four (92.4-94.6FM) on Sunday 9 January at 7.55am and 9.26pm, and again on Thursday 13 January at 3.27pm.
www.orbis.org.uk
Notes to Editor:
For an image of Toby in the studio, Amina, or for more information on ORBIS, contact Krishani Ranaweera, PR and Communications Manager on 020 7608 7273 or kranaweera@orbis.org.uk
