Allergan, the international pharmaceutical company – producers of Lumigan, Alphagan, Betagan UD, Combigan and Ganfort (amongst others) are working with us and helped to fund some vital services during the pandemic. Their support enabled us to respond to the COVID-19 emergency by building resilience in our staff team and implementing work to strengthen our services. They helped fund a new telephony system which aids remote working and enables us to continue running our helpline. They are also helping us develop new digital support services such as virtual glaucoma support groups.

Specsavers are helping us in raise awareness of glaucoma and good eye health. We are working together on a number of projects and campaigns. There are c700,000 people in the UK with glaucoma, of which 50 per cent are undiagnosed. The only way to know if someone has glaucoma is through eye checks with opticians.

We work closely with the DVLA to provide representation for people with glaucoma and to improve the systems, processes and way in which people with glaucoma are managed when reporting glaucoma in both eyes to the DVLA. We helped to develop an online system for reporting glaucoma, developed systems allowing people to raise concerns individually with the DVLA, effected change with people now being able to request a copy of their visual field test and clarified the testing conditions that should be met when taking a driving visual field test at the approved optometrist.