DJ John Peel launches mobile diabetic eye screening service

Time:    11am
Date:     Monday 21st October
Venue:  Rookery Centre, Newmarket

Disc Jockey John Peel, famous for his groundbreaking Radio One shows, will launch a new mobile diabetic eye screening service at the Rookery Centre in Newmarket on Monday 21st October.

"As a diabetic, I am aware of how vitally important it is for people with the illness to have regular eye checks," said John Peel.  "There are few things in life as precious as sight, and it seems ridiculous and tragic that someone might lose their sight due to diabetes when a simple eye test can identify problems before it is too late."

The new eye screening service will benefit thousands of people with diabetes throughout West Suffolk.  At its launch on 21st October, consultant opthalmologist Mr Andrew Ramsay from West Suffolk Hospital will demonstrate how the screening works.

This is a Suffolk West Primary Care Trust (PCT) initiative and could result in some people, who would otherwise go blind, having their sight saved. Key to the project is a state-of-the-art digital camera which takes photographs of the retina, the light-sensitive membrane at the back of the eye.  These images are carefully looked at to determine whether there are any changes to the retina as a result of diabetes.

A newly-appointed team of screeners will take the camera around West Suffolk so that the 6,000 adults with diabetes registered at the 28 GP practices in Suffolk West PCT area will benefit from an annual eye check.

Mr Ramsay estimated that between 30 and 50 people with diabetes in West Suffolk go blind every year as a result of retinopathy.

"The real tragedy is that I see people with advanced retinopathy who have never been screened before," he said. "If we can get to them early enough, there is a good chance that we can save their sight."

The West Suffolk mobile eye screening service will be the first of its kind in Suffolk although there are already a few similar services in other rural areas of the UK, including Norfolk.

"As a local man I wanted to support the service because it is of real value to diabetics in West Suffolk," said John Peel.  "It is good to see that the care of diabetics is improving, and that the latest technologies and developments in the field are available to us."

Diabetes is the single biggest cause of preventable blindness in the working age population of the UK and people with the condition are recommended to have their eyes screened every year. A disease called retinopathy, which causes haemorrhaging at the back of the eye, can result in blindness but can be prevented, and also treated successfully, if people with diabetes are screened regularly.

14th October, 2002