Next PINGU meeting in Birmingham

The next meeting of the PINGU (Patient involvement group for uveitis) is planned for 30th September 2014 at 6:30 pm in the CRF on ward D46.

This is a local support group for people with all types of uveitis that the Birmingham and Midland Eye Centre run.  If you want to obtain more information about uveitis and its treatment, come along and meet others with this type of eye problem as well as some of the eye clinic staff.

Please do let Sue Southworth know if you are planning to attend.

 

Sue Southworth, Research Nurse/ Co-ordinator

Birmingham and Midland Eye Centre

Tel +44(0)121 507 6844

 

3 small grant awards for research into Birdshot

We are delighted to announce that we have just heard from Fight for Sight that the call for the Joint Small Grant Awards Scheme is now open.

The link to the Small Grant Awards Schemes webpage is http://fightforsight.org.uk/funding-types/articles/small-grant-awards-schemes

This year we have  three small grants of £15,000 available for Birdshot Research.  The closing date for applications is 5pm on Wednesday 27 August 2014.

 

 

Help Chris raise money for Moorfields Eye charity

We’ve just received the following from Chris Hames, one of our members which we would like to promote.  He’d really appreciate your support!

Like a fool & something to do on a Sunday I have elected to cycle the London Surrey 100 cycle ride on the 10th August 2014. I thought for my effort it would be a good idea to raise some money for Moorfields Eye Charity & aim to raise at least £550. I do do some cycling when it is not windy & the sun is shining, but to date (two weeks ago) my maximum has been 51 miles & I did spectate on the Tour De France at the weekend just to see “how easy” it is (still not convinced). Any way, if you can post my link on the website https://www.justgiving.com/chris-Hames1/, I would appreciate as much support as I can to gee me up Box Hill & Leith Hill, finishing on the Mall hopefully will be the easy bit.

Many thanks,

Chris Hames.

Getting the word out to opticians and optometrists

FD584 Logo Final copy image001Opticians and optometrists are a group of people BUS really want to reach as they are the normal port of call when something goes wrong with your sight.   In my own case I must have gone to different opticians complaining about various symptoms four or five times before one of them realised that there was  something wrong with my eyes and asked if I would like to be referred!

It was with great pleasure that we came across 2 websites for opticians and the public where there was a charity section and where our details could be added:

The “Local Optician” public site is reached by over a 1000 people each day and the “Primary Health Net” for professionals is read by over 7500 professionals, 4 x a month.  They are also going to announce our presence in their regular fortnightly newsletter to their professional members.

We also notice that a link to our website also appears in The Ask the Optician section on the Specsavers website.  specsavers-logo-gbenIt comes under the Eye Health section.   If you type Birdshot into the box it takes you to this link, which in turn provides our website address and the comment: 

“There is a web site devoted to this disease that has all the information you my need”

http://www.specsavers.co.uk/ask-the-optician/what-is-birdshot-chorioretinopathy/

It’s good to see that more and more opticians have now actually heard of Birdshot Uveitis and are taking an interest in it.  Reassuringly,  a growing number of BUS’s UK members have been referred straight to a uveitis specialist after their opticians examination revealed a problem.