Donors needed for eye bank

I was pleased to read about the opening of a very much needed eye bank in Malta. To me, as a person with a visual impairment, who will probably lose her eyesight, this has been very welcome news. Although in my case there is no cure, and no hope of a transplant, there are many people out there who will definitely benefit from an eye bank.

I ask readers to just close their eyes for as long as they can, believe it won't be more than a couple of minutes - and now imagine having them closed forever! The idea definitely won't appeal. We can manage without a limb or two, at least we try and hopefully succeed, but a future without eyesight, especially if you had been born with it, and are about to lose it at a young age, is quite difficult to cope with.

One of course will learn to adapt, as life must go on, but there is no denying that it is hard going.

Thankfully, transplants now offer a solution for anyone eligible for them. Government has provided an eye bank, but then we need donors. What is the use of an eye bank if no one is prepared to donate their sight organs when they die?

Visual impairment - of varying degrees - affects an astonishingly high number of people of all ages. Now many of them have a chance thanks to generous-hearted donors. A number of people die young, through some misfortune, such as a traffic accident. If only they have a donor card on them, they would enrich so many lives by giving people the gift of sight.

The doctors and staff in the Ophthalmic Department work very hard and are a very dedicated team. I have every admiration for them. Now it is up to us, the public as a whole responsible community, to do our fair share, and use the donor card, though first of all we have to acquire one.

Some people fear that if you they carry a donor card, and are in danger of losing your life, the medical staff, will not do their utmost to keep you alive. I can assure you that this is not true at all, and the saying "As long there is life, there is hope" truly stands.

There must be total awareness about the nobility of being a donor. In some cases a cornea transplant will give the person sight. However, although I am referring to eye donors, the fact that each individual who carries a donor card can save and enrich the lives of many people who need all sorts of organs, should be a comforting thought.

After all, what better way of keeping a dead relative's memory alive, than to see a recipient, living life to the full, thanks to the fact that it was your relative who gave his or her organs to save not one, but as many people as possible? It will at least console the bereaved.

We can never say that it will never happen to us or to our loved ones, because only the Lord can decide, and we can take nothing for granted but always be thankful for what we get.