| Graham
Layton and I both served in the Indian Army. After a successful
business career in Pakistan, he retired in 1983 to co-found a charity,
LRBT, providing free treatment for the blind. He built three hospitals,
before suffering a massive stroke, when aged 73. Wheelchair-bound
and with speech impaired, he went on to build five more hospitals
before he died.
10
year old Javed is from a village near Kandahar in Afghanistan.
While playing with friends, an unexploded bomb was triggered,
which killed several: and Javed was blinded. His father took him
to an eye hospital but could not afford the fees. Eventually,
a health worker sent them to LRBT’s Quetta Hospital, where
treatment is free. With sight restored, Javed is back at school.
LRBT’s
nine hospitals have been incredibly successful: and in Pakistan,
I’ve seen that they are incredibly efficient. It costs LRBT
just £12 to remove a cataract and implant a lens to restore
sight. Over 700,000 such operations have been completed.
But
much more needs to be done, for there are still well over 2 million
cases of curable blindness in Pakistan.
As
the Patron of Graham’s charity in UK, I’m making this
appeal for the ninth hospital at Quetta in Baluchistan. The hospital
serves tribal areas where most women are not allowed to mix outside
their immediate family. This often means that they and their children
like Javed, can’t travel to the eye hospital for treatment.
With
your help, we want to expand this hospital: and set up clinics
in rural areas, where the women and children who are needlessly
blind can be screened and referred for treatment. Remember that
with £12 we can restore someone’s sight in Baluchistan.
You
can make a credit card donation by calling 01732 520111. Or you
can post a donation – make your cheque payable to the Graham
Layton Trust and send it to The Graham Layton Trust, 3 Chatsworth
Place, The Warren, Oxshott, Surrey KT22 OSS.
Fundraising
by the Graham Layton Trust is by volunteers and administration
costs are minimal. Of every pound you send, we will send 98 pence
for LRBT to use in Pakistan.
Thank
you and Shukria.
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to fundraising
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