Walking to restore sight

LESS than a week into her month of raising funds to restore sight to the needlessly blind, Torquay resident Donna Symes has smashed her $250 goal.

Promising to walk 150 kilometres in August for the Fred Hollows Foundation, Ms Symes has secured $2700 in sponsorship from family and friends.

“And we’re only at the beginning of the month,” she said.

 

The tally qualifies her for “legacy legend” status with the Hollows foundation, and the funding translates to helping give sight to up to 108 people.

“I think people relate to this foundation as you can restore someone’s sight for as little as $25…that’s crazy,” she said.

The Fred Hollows Foundation continues the work of the New Zealand-Australian opthamologist who dedicated much of his life to curing people around Australia and the world who were often needlessly blind due to poverty or other socioeconomic factors.

Next year will mark 30 years since Mr Hollows death, but his legacy and initiatives continue – most notably through his foundation – and his work is credited with bringing sight to more than one million people around the world.

Having exceeded her fundraising expectations, Ms Symes is similarly set to overshoot her distance goal, before the end of the first week of August she’d already covered 54 of her 150 kilometre goal.

“Each day I post photos of my achievements on Facebook.”

To support Donna’s campaign to restore sight to those needlessly afflicted by blindness visit: www.fredsbigrun.org/fundraisers/donnasymes