Debra Winger
It was the overwhelming statistic that 75% of the 45 million people in the world who are blind could be cured or prevented, that moved the triple Oscar nominated actress Debra Winger to become an ambassador for Sightsavers in 2003.
"What really touched my heart, what convinced me that this was different, was that with many aid organisations, money goes to a lot of people and helps them maybe a little bit," she explains. "Sightsavers helps a smaller number of people - but transforms their lives completely."
This issue is close to Debra's heart because she herself lost her eye-sight for 10 terrifying months at the age of 17, following an accident that left her in a coma.
Her first Sightsavers visit, to Nairobi in Kenya, gave Debra the opportunity to share her experience of losing, then miraculously regaining her sight. She met 56-year-old Mbote Mundia, who thought he'd always be blind. Seeing a Kenyan doctor remove his bandages, following sight-restoring cataract surgery, moved Debra to tears.
She has since visited Belize and India to see more of our programmes in action, and helped organise a photography exhibition in New York, in order to raise our profile in America.
Born in Ohio, Debra emigrated to Israel as a teenager, and served in the Israel Defence Forces. She soon returned to the United States, and made the decision to become an actress following her life changing accident.
Her first role was Wonder Girl in the Wonder Woman television series, but her big screen breakthrough came in 1980 when she starred in Urban Cowboy, earning herself a BAFTA award nomination.
Academy Award nominations for Best Actress were to follow in 1982, when she starred opposite Richard Gere in An Officer and a Gentleman, in 1983 for Terms of Endearment and in 1993 for Shadowlands.
In 1995 Debra turned her back on Hollywood, disenchanted by show-business, yet was to return to acting six years later with a preference for less mainstream films, and earned an Emmy Award nomination for her performance in Dawn Anna in 2005.
Debra currently lives in a small town on the Hudson River, north of New York, with her husband, actor Arliss Howard, and their three small sons, and remains passionate about issues surrounding global blindness.
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