SIR, 

Research into Ageing, the biomedical research arm of Help the Aged, warmly welcomes the fact that World Sight Day this year (on 9th October) highlighted the importance of fighting vision impairment in later life - a subject which has for far too long been dismissed as 'just' an inevitable part of ageing.

It's high time we got away from the outdated view that sight loss is an unavoidable consequence of getting older. It's estimated that 75% of all blindness could be averted and so it follows that there is much more both here and overseas that could and should be done in terms of prevention, treatment and cure.

It is vital that more research is focussed on sight loss because going blind or suffering from failing sight can be a traumatic and life changing experience.

For many older people it can lead to them becoming socially isolated, can mean they are more susceptible to falls and other serious accidents which may result in them being hospitalised. It may even force them to have to leave their own home to move into residential care.

Nineteen per cent of the world's population is aged 50 or over, but over 82% of the world's blind are in that age group. However, research into age-related eye conditions such as age-related macular degeneration - the main cause of blindness in those over 65 in the UK - is desperately underfunded, and provision of eye health services for older people both in this country and overseas, under-resourced or in the case of some developing countries, non-existent.

Dr Lorna Layward

Research into Ageing (the biomedical research arm of Help the Aged)