Local GP in race for sight

Dr Dev Malhotra, a GP with Brigstock Medical Practice in Thornton Heath, is training for his second marathon to raise money for research into choroideremia – a rare eye condition that affects his 18-year-old nephew Joe.

Dev, aged 38, will run the London Marathon on 25 April in aid of Fight for Sight - the UK’s largest charity funding research into the prevention and treatment of blindness and eye disease. He is committed to raising funds for research to help Joe and others affected by choroideremia. He said:
“I know what pain to expect this time round but it’s great to have a worthwhile cause to spur me on.”

Dev’s whole family are behind his fundraising including his 6-year-old son who is persuading friends at Elmhurst Boys School in South Croydon to raise money by filling Smartie tubes with their pocket money! Joe himself is also involved in fundraising for Fight for Sight at Trinity School where he is studying for his A-levels.
 
“I think Joe is quite inspiring”, says his aunt, Katharine Malhotra, “he gets stuck into everything and doesn’t let his visual impairment stop him doing what he wants to do.”

To support Dev visit his fundraising page.

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For more information call:
Louise Elliott at Fight for Sight on 020 7929 7755 or visit our website: www.fightforsight.org.uk

Note for Editors:

Fight for Sight
Fight for Sight is the UK’s leading charity dedicated to funding world-class research into the prevention and treatment of blindness and eye disease.

Since 1965, the charity has funded millions of pounds worth of research at leading universities and hospitals throughout the UK. Our major achievements in this time include:
• saving the sight of thousands of  premature babies through understanding and controlling levels of oxygen delivery;
• restoring sight by establishing the UK Corneal Transplant Service enabling over 45,000 corneal transplants to take place;
• revolutionising the treatment for children with amblyopia (lazy eye);
• bringing hope to children with inherited eye disease by helping fund the team responsible for the world’s first gene therapy clinical trial; and
• providing £1million for the research unit at the dedicated children’s eye centre at Moorfields Eye Hospital.

Fight for Sight’s current research programme of over £5 million focuses on preventing and treating age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma and cataract as well as the causes of childhood blindness.

Find out more about choroideremia.