Community stories

When I was 45 years old, a routine appointment with my mother's ophthalmologist found that I had already lost some vision in my left eye due to glaucoma.

From Cairns to Fremantle and Singapore to Dublin, a career in orthoptics can take people places they never thought possible.

Glaucoma has been a long haul for me - 41 years of using eye drops every day, plus 9 eye operations at the last count...

My mother had glaucoma, but not my father. All my sisters have it, and some brothers, not at all...

I started volunteering with Glaucoma Australia during my third year of medical school at Monash University.

I have seen first-hand the impact that Glaucoma Australia's advocacy and awareness campaigns have made in the lives of my family and community, and I wanted to contribute actively to ensure that impact continued for other communities.

I first heard about the volunteer Clinical Educator opportunities at Glaucoma Australia from my university and have been volunteering since February this year. 

Whilst on holiday to Cairns in 1995, and trying to play tennis with my children, we noticed that I quite often could not see the ball to hit it back. I then noticed that I also had a problem with steps...

I was around 17 years old when I noticed my vision was getting clouded in the right eye, but this was for only short periods and regularly cleared up, so I didn’t make much of it at the time...