Awareness Campaigns

National Glaucoma Awareness Week
10th–16th June 2013

The 2012 theme for National Glaucoma Awareness Week was Glaucoma: the Thief of Sight.

Glaucoma is often known as the thief of sight because it typically steals your vision without you noticing.

When symptoms do become noticeable, it's usually only when significant loss of vision has occurred.

It's therefore especially important to raise awareness of glaucoma, so that everyone at risk understands the need for regular eye health checks.

Aims of the week

The main aim of National Glaucoma Awareness Week is to get the word out about glaucoma. It's essential that anyone at risk of the condition gets regular eye tests, yet too few people do.

We produced a number of posters to help raise awareness, which you can still order, free of charge, from us. Many of our members and supporters have put them up in local community centres, libraries, supermarkets, etc. You can also download posters by clicking on the images at the bottom of this page.

We rely on the generosity and hard work of donors, members, sponsors and fundraisers, so that we can continue our fight to beat the thief of sight.

We'd like to extend our thanks to everyone who helped make this year's awareness week a success.

We'll be announcing details of the 2013 week in due course.

If you are a journalist and would like to know more about National Glaucoma Awareness Week, please contact:

Russell Young

Deputy CEO

Tel. 01233 64 81 68

Thank you

Posters

Click on a poster to download the PDF – this may take a couple of minutes.

World Glaucoma Week

What is World Glaucoma Week (previously World Glaucoma Day)?

World Glaucoma Week aims to educate people about how to assess their risk for glaucoma and to be aware of the importance of regular eye exams and disease detection. It also seeks to provide support for diagnosed patients and for members of the advocacy community. Events take place all over the world.

Why was World Glaucoma Week created?

World Glaucoma Week was developed in response to the concern over the worldwide increase in the number of people with glaucoma, as the population grows and ages. More people are therefore at risk of going blind from this disease if they do not have the condition detected and treated.

Another day? Another week!!!

World Glaucoma Day has been a great success over the past two years. In many countries, having World Glaucoma Day on a weekend reduced its impact and the potential for broad community involvement. To accommodate everybody's needs and to maximise global and local awareness efforts, the WGA and WGPA decided to extend the World Glaucoma Day into a World Glaucoma Week. It will always include 12th March (the old World Glaucoma Day), but now we have the opportunity to include activities that cannot fall on that day.

This year World Glaucoma Week was 11th–17th March.

What events are organised, and where?

You can find a list of all organised events in the World Glaucoma Week website, at www.wgweek.net. You will also find other material (like multilingual World Glaucoma Week logos, posters, news releases, etc, as well as ideas for local events to be organised).

What can I do to help?

1. Fundraising

World Glaucoma Week is the perfect time to fundraise for the IGA.

Whether it’s a charity dinner, a dress down day or a sponsored activity, you won’t just be raising much-needed funds – you’ll also be helping to raise awareness of glaucoma. And since it’s World Glaucoma Week, you’ll have a much better chance of getting the press interested in your activities.

We’ll be happy to support you by contacting the local papers to promote what you’re doing and by providing (subject to availability):

• sponsorship forms
• collection boxes
• raffle prizes.

2. Raising awareness

Anyone can organise a local event. You can register online at www.wgweek.net. You can also join an event that is organised near you, such as an educational conference or a glaucoma screening day.

Remember that you can order free glaucoma literature from us on this website.

Again, we will be more than happy to provide you with anything you need or to liaise with the press on your behalf.

Just contact marketing@iga.org.uk if you would like us to help.

About the World Glaucoma Association and World Glaucoma Patient Association

Both the WGA and WGPA were created to minimise visual disability from glaucoma, and to improve the lives of glaucoma patients around the world. The WGA works to optimise the quality of glaucoma science and care through communication and cooperation among national and regional Glaucoma Societies, with companies involved with glaucoma, glaucoma patient organisations and others in the glaucoma community. The WGPA works globally to encourage the establishment of and cooperation among national Glaucoma Patient Associations. The group serves as an umbrella organisation to provide useful information to individuals, health care providers and support groups that are devoted to the fight against glaucoma.

National Eye Health Week
17th–23rd September 2012

Vision really matters. Sight is the sense people fear losing the most, yet many of us don't know the best way to look after our eyes. National Eye Health Week aims to change all that.

Hundreds of organisations from across the sector joined to support the first National Eye Health Week in 2010. Across the UK, charities, health professionals, optical bodies and Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) organised a whole range of activities to promote eye health. These included: a parliamentary reception in the House of Commons, early day motions in all four UK countries, a series of national and regional radio broadcasts, hospital and community based awareness events with OCT or fundus cameras, poster competitions in schools, visits to care homes and sheltered housing, etc.

Eye care charities, organisations and health professionals from across the UK came together once again in June 2011 to promote the importance of eye health and the need for regular sight tests for all.

We'll be announcing more details of the 2012 week shortly, but you can also keep up to date on the Vision Matters website.