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On Channel 4’s Unreported World: The Fight for Sight, TV presenter and wheelchair basketball player Ade Adepitan saw the life-changing impact of Sightsavers-supported cataract operations in Malawi.
In the programme, Ade met 80-year-old Emerasi Jesi (Jess) and 14-year-old Rose, both of whom were visually impaired because of cataracts. Ade also met ophthalmic clinical officer Rex Bwana-Usi, who carried out eye examinations on Jess, Rose and the many others queued up for help in the remote medical clinics he visits.
Blogging about the experience of watching Rex work, Ade wrote: “We found out about the many mind boggling challenges he has to deal with just to get to these patients. Reaching his patients is only half the battle because Rex then has to try and get them to hospital for treatment. He has to do all of this even though his department doesn’t have an ambulance! To me his job seemed like an impossible mission.”
Jess (pictured above left with Ade next to her), who had walked barefoot for three miles to reach the clinic, and Rose (pictured below in striped t-shirt), a 14-year-old who had missed out on nine years of school, both regained their sight after being referred for cataract surgery. Ade was there to see the moment their bandages were removed and speak to them about how being able to see again would change their lives.
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