A PENSIONER told today of the “wonderful” moment he could see again after being given a corneal transplant.

Bob Shead, 73, said before last month’s operation at York Hospital, trying to see was “like looking at fog through a dirty windscreen”.

But he said: “When I woke up, it was as if the windscreen was cleared and the fog had gone. Everything was so sharp. I couldn’t believe it. It was marvellous. It was treble wonderful.” Bob, of The Village, Strensall, said he now had better sight than ever before, but said it would not have been restored without someone, somewhere, agreeing to allow their cornea to be removed after their death.

He said: “I would like to give them and their family my heartfelt thanks.”

Bob spoke out in support of The Press’s Lifesavers campaign, which aims to encourage an extra 20,000 people in our circulation area to join the Organ Donor Register by the end of the year.

He said: “I would urge people to consider doing so. It really does make such a difference.”

He told how in recent years, his cornea had become so cloudy and his sight so blurred that he sometimes bumped into scaffolding posts while walking in the city centre, and he could not read.

He said his sight had become so bad that he let his wife, Evelyn, who is blind and uses a guidedog, lead him as they walked through town, but now he had the confidence to lead the way again.

He could also read again, with a magnifying glass and light.

Bob said he had been blind as a child but had had a series of operations which gave him limited but useful sight as a young and middle aged man, but he now had his best sight ever.

He said the transplant by York consultant ophthalmologist Roger Ellingham had been painless and he had been able to go home the following day.

Diane Roworth, chief officer at the York Blind & Partially Sighted Society, said such operations made a huge difference to people like Bob. “It gives them so much more independence.”


• We launched our Lifesavers campaign in December, following the tragic death of cystic fibrosis sufferer Emma Young, 22.

Our aims are to raise awareness of organ donation, to re-open the debate on whether Britain should adopt an “opt-out” rather than “opt-in” system and, above all, to recruit an extra 20,000 donors in our circulation area.

To join the Organ Donor Register:

• Go online at organdonation.nhs.uk

• Phone the 24-hour donor line on 0300 123 23 23

• Text SAVE to 84118

• Do you have a transplant story? Phone 01904 567131.


The transplant

A CORNEAL transplant is a way of removing a damaged cornea and replacing it with a healthy cornea from the eye of a suitable donor.

The Royal National Institute of Blind People said the donor will be a person who has – or whose family has – given consent for their corneas to be used for medical purposes after their death.

The operation, which can be carried out either under local or general anaesthetic, involves the removal of a circular piece of the affected cornea and replacing it with a piece of the donor cornea of exactly the same size and shape.

This new section of cornea is then sewn into place with very fine stitches, which make a distinctive star-like pattern around the outer edge of the cornea.