Campaigner's plea for Burnley sight loss support group (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Campaigner's plea for Burnley sight loss support group

5:00pm Friday 4th September 2009 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(1)

A PLEA has been made to set up a support group for an eye condition which could affect up to three out of 10 people in Burnley.

Health campaigner Olivia Weston, from Cliviger, made a heartfelt appeal to Burnley politicians at a full council meeting for help in setting up a self-help group locally for age-related macular degeneration, sight loss in the elderly.

Today sufferers have to travel as far as Bolton, Bradford, or Bingley, to reach the nearest support scheme for the eye disease, which can leave people unable to read, or watch television.

Mrs Weston told councillors: “There is no help, or support, after the initial diagnosis.

"There are several self-help groups in operation, but nothing in this area.

"It is a traumatic experience for anyone and I am sure there are a lot of people here who will have been affected by this.”

Nationally there is an awareness week for the condition from September 19 to 22.

Mrs Weston add-ed: “We want to help people to get an early diagnosis and get the practical advice and help they need later.”

If a Burnley self-help group was to be formed, then it would require specialised accommodation, said Mrs Weston, appealing to coun-cillors for assistance.

Councillors were told that the authority’s community services director, Mick Cartledge, had been instru-cted to help Mrs Weston’s cause.

Coun Margaret Lish-man, deputy council leader, said both she and her sister-in-law, Coun Anne Kelly, had personal experience of the condition as her mother-in-law had been diagnosed as a sufferer.

Added Coun Lishman: “We understand fully what she is saying about the need for a local self-help group.

“We often found it very difficult to find advice and support in the very early stages of the condition, when you are not quite sure what to do after the original diagnosis.”

Organisations like the Royal National Institute for the Blind had been “an enormous help” and a support group would help those efforts, she said.