By Annette Campbell
If you’re one of the thousands of Australians who’ll sport their sunglasses to work or school on February 29 — Sunnies for Sight Day — you won’t just be helping to save the sight of people worldwide. You’ll also be doing something to save your own!
Sunnies for Sight Day raises much-needed funds to aid the great work of the International Centre for Eyecare Education (ICEE), but it also increases awareness of the importance of wearing sunglasses — particularly under our often harsh Australian sun.
“Sunnies for Sight Day is two things,” explains ICEE’s Professor Brian Layland. “It is an event we’ve conducted for a number of years now, to encourage people to wear their sunglasses to work or school for that one day, and donate a gold coin.
“And it does also draw attention to the need to wear sunglasses, and the consequences of not wearing them. There are adverse affects of long-term sunlight exposure and a lot of damage is done in the early years as a result of exposure to ultra violet (UV) light.
“The end result can be the onset of cataracts at an earlier age; and damage to the ‘macular’ area of the eye. These used to be age-related conditions but there is evidence now that the age of onset is a lot earlier if you’ve been over-exposed to sunlight and UV in earlier years.”
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