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Research. Counselling. Cures.

Fighting Blindness Newsletter - March 2009

Greetings!

Thanks to everyone who supported our recent Sporting Luncheon which raised an amazing €36,000 to fund research into cures for blindness - a fantastic achievement in the current climate.

Also thanks to our intrepid skydivers who jumped from 10,000 feet to raise thousands of euros for Fighting Blindness.

This month you can read about our work with patient records to help Fighting Blindness research, plus activities to mark the recent Rare Disease Week.

Thanks as usual for your interest and support.

Kind regards,

The Fighting Blindness Team

Fighting Blindness leads patient records survey

Fighting Blindness is currently carrying out a survey of European organisations to help use patient records for high quality research.

Dr Patrick Corley (pictured), Assistant Director of the Fighting Blindness Vision Research Institute, said: "We know that there are hundreds of genes that contribute to vision loss, and by comparing patient records to mutations in specific genes, we can uncover which genes predict who will suffer blindness, and the rate at which the sight loss will progress." Read more...

Rare Disease Week celebrations

Fighting Blindness helped organise Ireland's contribution to international Rare Disease Week with some great results!

Fighting Blindness goes extreme!

Our amazing Australia Cycle Challenge was recently launched with the help of the Australian Ambassador to Ireland and members of the Irish paralympic cycling team.

Why not join us for a 700km road trip on two wheels, including the Great Ocean Road and stop-offs in Melbourne and Sydney?

We're currently advertising our Oz challenge and Everest base camp trek on Setanta Sports channel. Watch the ad.

Ger Comerford has joined the Everest trek after his daughter was diagnosed with a rare eye disease. He's aiming to raise €10,000 towards our research into cures. Read his story.

Check out our other challenges:

Discover incredible Iceland.
A weekend team challenge in the Mourne Mountains, Co Down.
Transylvania Trek - May 2010.
Save the date for our Wicklow Challenge: Sept 11 - 14.

President of Ireland & An Taoiseach to attend conference

The first major international conference on visual impairment to take place in Ireland will be opened by An Taoiseach Mr Brian Cowen and attended by the President of Ireland Mrs Mary McAleese. Read more...

In This Issue

Patients records survey

Rare Disease Week

FB goes extreme!

Have you won €5k?

New FB film

Quick Links

Private Members Draw Winners

Are you our €5k winner?

The winners of our Winter Raffle have been announced with a first prize of €5,000!

Make a difference:
sign up for the

Mini Marathon

There's still time to join Team FB in the Flora Women's Mini Marathon in Dublin on Bank Holiday Monday, June 1. Entries are open until April 21. Sign up today and run, walk or jog for Fighting Blindness!

Fighting Blindness on Film

Watch our new promotional film. A huge thank you to everyone who took part in the filming and to Cityjet who put it together for us free of charge.

Calling all Facebook Fans!

Join Fighting Blindness on Facebook for all the latest updates.

Registered Charity No CHY 6784 Web: www.fightingblindness.ie Email: communications@fightingblindness.ie

Save 10%! As a special thank you to our supporters, we'd like to offer you a 10% discount voucher to use at any of the 28 Hickey's Pharmacies in Ireland. Find your nearest store. Print off your voucher. Feel free to forward this email to your friends so they can also avail of the offer! With thanks to groupschemes.com.