Doctor has vision for Africa

A Preston-based doctor has used his skills to help restore the eyesight of hundreds of people in Africa.

Dr Jag Gandhi, 31, an ophthalmologist at Royal Preston Hospital, travelled to Ndola in northern Zambia.

There he taught local paramedics about diagnosing basic eye conditions and carried out 200 operations to remove cataracts - which are responsible for making five million people in Africa blind.

Dr Gandhi said: "The facilities were very basic and there are so many, including people in their twenties and thirties, who have cataracts.

"But the look on someone's face when you have just restored their eyesight is unforgettable."

Dr Gandhi went to Africa with friends, Dr Jeremy Joseph, based in Watford, and Evangelos Sioras, who works at Royal Bolton Hospital. The trio raised £4,500 themselves to pay for the trip and family members, including Dr Gandhi's father, Kirpal, chipped in to help.

Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and ophthalmic companies also donated equipment and materials for the surgery.

They used a specialist technique to remove the cataract where they worked under a portable microscope and replaced the natural lens of the eye with a plastic one.

It is the third time the trio have gone to Africa for this kind of project.

They went to Rundu, in Namibia, in June 2003 and Nakuru, in Kenya, in June 2004.

Dr Gandhi said: "We were taken to a local shanty town and the poverty is astounding.

"There are so many people living below the poverty line, some only getting $3 a week to live off.

"I understand that I can't help everyone.

"What I do is just a drop in the ocean but it benefits some people and means the world to them."