Fred and Gabi set up The Fred Hollows Foundation with the help of some friends to ensure his work would continue into the future. Fred died on 10 February and was given a state funeral. He had asked to be buried in Bourke where he had a great affinity with the people and the land. The Fred Hollows Foundation now works in more than 25 countries and has restored sight to over two and a half million people worldwide.
Fred's work continues very much in the way it started: by just getting on with it. The Foundation trains doctors, nurses and healthcare workers, distributes antibiotics, raises money for much needed equipment and medical facilities and performs eye operations exactly like the ones Fred did more than 30 years ago.
When someone's sight is restored, it gives people the chance for a better life. They're able to work, go to school and provide for their families. Fred believed that everyone, no matter whether they were rich or poor, had the right to affordable eye care. Our work won't stop until the injustice of avoidable blindness is completely eradicated in Australia and in the rest of the world. Fred Hollows Fred got things done. An unstoppable vision Like Fred, we're working towards a world where no person is unnecessarily blind.
For everyone, no matter whether they're rich or poor, to have the right to high quality and affordable eye care. His early years. Fred always pushed for change and challenged the established way of doing things. As a committed justice warrior, he put in motion a legacy to end avoidable blindness.
In his time as a humanitarian and eye surgeon, Fred helped restore eyesight to thousands of people around the world. Globally 36 million people are blind and about 1. Almost 90 per cent of those people live in low and middle income countries. Without urgent action the number of people who are blind will triple to more than million over the next 30 years. Most eye health treatments are highly cost-effective.
Globally 4 out of 5 people with blindness or vision impairment can be helped. There are effective interventions available to prevent and treat eye diseases. He became so interested in eye surgery that he moved to the United Kingdom to specialise in ophthalmology. Sir Ed was on a test run for Everest, backpacking up the Tasman Glacier carrying a pack that weighed more than 32 kilograms. I handed my pack over and saw his legs buckle slightly at the knees. In Fred treated two elderly Indigenous Australians from Wattie Creek in the Northern Territory, who then invited him to visit their camp.
He was shocked by the poor state of health — especially eye health — and found it hard to comprehend people were living in these conditions in a developed country like Australia.
Especially concerning was the large number of people suffering from trachoma, a blinding disease rarely found in the developed world.
When Fred visited Bourke a township km from Sydney he found the same awful conditions, and he became inspired to fight for improved access to eye health and living conditions for those who need it most. In the early 70's Gabi was training as an orthoptist when she first met Fred. Not long after, they worked together on the National Trachoma and Eye Health Program and visited more than Indigenous communities in outback Australia.
The project sparked the start of their relationship and an enduring partnership to create change for Indigenous Australians and throughout the developing world. Two years later he visited Eritrea. Visiting these countries had a profound effect on Fred, prompting him to find a way to reduce the cost of eye care and treatment in developing countries.
He recognised the necessity for local factories to produce affordable intraocular lenses for use in cataract surgery. He knew this would significantly cut the cost of restoring sight.
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