Last month, saw the confirmation of the both the dates and theme for National Eye Health Week 2020. Taking place between the 21st and 27th of September the initiative, led by the organiser Eye Health UK, will focus on what patients can do to look after their eyes and prevent avoidable sight loss.

Last year’s campaign was supported by 3,000 organisations, including NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care.

On the announcement, David Cartwright, chair of Eye Health UK, said: ‘We hope to encourage everyone with an interest in vision and eye health to come together this September to promote engaging eye health messages and create a public health campaign that has a positive and tangible impact on the nation’s eye health.’

A survey of 1,094 adults that took place in October 2019 revealed that one in four adults in the UK said they remembered seeing, hearing or reading about eye health during the awareness week demonstrating the success in raising awareness of the initiative. What's more, the survey highlighted the actions taken by those who were aware of the campaign with 74% saying that they were encouraged to take better care of their eyes and acted by booking an eye examination (37%) or quitting smoking (7%).

Director Priti Kotecha, on the announcement, said, “Eye health is an important topic that can often be overlooked until something happens. Drawing attention to the importance of vision and eye health and raising awareness is a fantastic way to help the public rethink their eye health,”

For more information aboutNational Eye Health Week 2020 visit http://www.visionmatters.org.uk/