“With your help a cure is in sight.”

October is Blindness Awareness Month.

One out of every 28 Americans over the age of 40 suffers from some form of blindness. While retinal degenerative diseases cause vision impairment to over 10 million Americans, there is good news. Great advancements are being made each year to halt blindness and even restore sight.

Retinitis Pigmentosa, a well known cause of blindness, is an inherited, progressive disease that causes degeneration of the retina. Leber’s Congenital Amaurosis (LCA) is a severe childhood form of RP. A landmark Phase 1 clinical trial of gene therapy for LCA has restored some vision to 20 young adults and children who were virtually blind from this disease. This therapy was first tested in 40 blind dogs, including the famous Briard named Lancelot.

At the 2009 Day of Science meeting hosted by the Foundation Fighting Blindness, Dr. Al Maguire showed a video of a formerly blind eight year old boy who could navigate an obstacle course following this gene therapy. Dr. Maguire ended the video with these words, “That boy has put away his blind cane and is now enrolled in a mainstream school.”

Normal vision	As seen by a person with retinitis pigmentosa
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Second Sight is a medical products company in Sylmar, California that has developed implantable visual prosthetics to enable the blind to have some vision. The device, called Argus II, has been approved by the FDA for study groups and is being used by two investigational teams.

New breakthrough treatments have also been developed for macular degeneration—-both wet and dry—and for diabetic retinopathy. These involve injectable drug therapies, laser treatments, surgery, and even vitamin and mineral procedures.

Dr. Steven Schwartz of UCLA’s Jules Stein Institute has worked with several new drugs and reported, “For the first time in my career I have actually been able to restore vision to patients who otherwise would never be able to get back their central vision. It is a spectacular advancement.”

His macular degeneration patients include actor Dabney Coleman who had his vision improved from 20-400 to 20-40 in his left eye and is playing tennis again.

Dr. Jeffrey K. Luttrull, a retina specialist in Ventura, California, assures his patients that he fully expects sight-saving and even sight-restoring treatments for currently blinding diseases such as RP to become available to patients within the next 10 to 20 years—-maybe sooner. And, he forecasts more dramatic discoveries in the fields of age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy.

These vision improving treatments have this in common—–they have each benefited from necessary funds to make research and development possible.

Foundation Fighting Blindness is a major help in raising awareness and money. The FFB has funded thousands of research studies at prominent institutions all over the world. At this time FFB is responsible for 137 grants at 59 institutions. Since its inception in 1971 the Foundation has raised more than $ 350 million.

Dr. Morton Goldberg at the Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins University Hospital, speaks for hundreds of doctors and specialists when he says, “Foundation Fighting Blindness is an extraordinary organization. It has given hope to people who didn’t previously have hope.”

Many fundraising efforts are employed, including Dining in the Dark dinners and Swim for Sight meets.

In 2006, the Olenicoff family lost their beloved Andrei in an accident. The family had been and still is very involved with FFB and the Vision Walk because Andrei had suffered from RP. To honor Andrei’s inspirational life a memorial foundation was established. Natatia, Andrei’s sister, recently opened a restaurant in Irvine, California called Andrei’s Conscious Cuisine and donates all profits to Andrei’s Memorial Foundation.

Vision Walk is the signature fundraiser for FFB and has 46 walks and 25,000 walkers across America in 2009. The walk has raised over 10 million since it began in 2006.

The Los Angeles Vision Walk will take place October 25 at Will Rogers State Beach in Pacific Palisades. The walkers are divided into teams—-each with its own story and goal.

One team, Jessie’s Sight Savers, was formed by Marsha and Fred Wolinsky of Oak Park, California to help all who suffer vision loss. The cause is close to their hearts because their 17 year old Jessie was first diagnosed with RP at the age of seven. Marsha’s mother now has macular degeneration, but is benefiting from available therapies.

Jessie is a lovely highschool junior and is the leader of the team. She urges all who can participate to join them with these words, “Together we can cure blindness.“