Sarah Richards, 68 years old
United Kingdom

“It was not until after I was diagnosed with glaucoma that I discovered a number of relatives also had the condition. If I had known I was at risk due to my strong family history of glaucoma, I would have made it a priority to get regular, complete eye examinations so I could have potentially received a diagnosis sooner and preserved some of the vision loss I have to deal with today.”

“The first time I noticed that something was wrong with my vision was when I was playing tennis with my 10-year-old godson and I lost! I kept missing the ball on my left hand side. That night, when I was reading, I closed my right eye to test my left eye. I noticed that a whole block of vision was missing.

Glaucoma Patient

“Many people are not willing to accept that they have a chronic disease, until they realize how glaucoma could impact their everyday life. They realize that treating glaucoma is usually necessary to preserve their independence.”

“People who have suffered with glaucoma over a long period of time believe that without treatment they would have lost their sight. In many cases this would also mean having to give up work. Comparing loss of earnings and other costs associated with unemployment, compared to cost of treatment over the course of 25 years, provides a strong argument for treating glaucoma.”

Neeru Gupta, M.D., Ph.D., FRCSC DABO

"People are at higher risk of developing glaucoma if they have one of more of the following risk factors; older age, high eye pressure, family history, African or Asian descent, and in some cases if they are nearsighted, or have high blood pressure."