We’d like to thank BUS member Nick Bucknell and his fellow saxophonists from his band “Sax in the Styx” for generously donating their fee from a recent gig. To the left a picture of the four of them performing in the summer sunshine. Many thanks to all for the much appreciated generous support!
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/
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.
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.
Opticians 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. 
It 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.
The following link takes you to Joel’s blog which tells his personal Birdshot story which he has decided to share with other Birdshotters. Joel is from Texas, USA. Continue reading
BUS recently received an invitation below and would like to advertise the following Uveitis event and encourage members to attend if they live close by and are are interested and able. It’s a great initiative and gives you an opportunity to meet others who suffer from Birdshot and learn more about the Birdshot and Uveitis research that is being undertaken at the Wilmer Eye Institute. Continue reading
BUS is delighted to report that the second “Birdshot Clay Pigeon Shoot” at the Royal Berkshire Shooting School, Pangbourne was a resounding success, equaling the fantastic results achieved in 2013. Continue reading
Below are links to the different talks which were given at the 2013 Birdshot Symposium, hosted by Stephen Foster from the Ocular Immunology and Uveitis Foundation in Boston USA. Its a terrific resource of talks given by specialists from across the world, which you can dip into if you want to find out more and hear what the experts have to say. Note: they are aimed at doctors not patients so they are quite technical and detailed so will probably be better watched in separate sessions. They are posted on the Ocular Immunology and Uveitis Foundation website:http://www.uveitis.org/video/
BUS had a fantastic afternoon on the Phoenician Thames Sailing Barge last Saturday 3rd May, thanks to our hosts John and Janet Hall, and our fantastic speakers, Prof Glen Jeffery from the Institute of Ophthalmology and Chris Hogg a clinical scientist from Moorfields Eye Hospital. Over 30 birdshotters and their friends met socially in the beautiful informal setting. Continue reading
The Birdshot Uveitis Society International facebook group has become super active over the last few months. Its membership has more than doubled with a membership of circa 150, involved in numerous discussion threads where people are able to chat about their Birdshot, get support from others with the condition or even just have a moan! If you haven’t visited the group and want to share information with other birdshot sufferers, you can drop in at https://www.facebook.com/groups/Birdshot/. It’s very easy to ask and answer questions and keep in touch. Although it is not as private a discussion venue as the BUS Birdshot forum, (where you have to be a member and logged in to see the posts,) people seem to like the familiar facebook format. There is real sense of camaraderie amongst a growing international community. Continue reading