THE Fred Hollows story is one to make us proud. He was an ophthalmologist who made a difference on an international scale that is a continuing legacy to this man of vision whose foundation has restored vision to millions.

Sitting under the imposing G for George Bomber in the Anzac Hall exhibition space it was but a blink away from the perspex of the nose turret gunners space that gave researchers a beginning for the development of the intraocular lenses that are now manufactured in Nepal, Vietnam and Eritrea.

The perspex fragments in the eyes of injured gunners were not rejected by their bodies and the “how” of that research and development was just part of Gabi Hollows’ address to the 250 guests at the Friends of the Fred Hollows Foundation dinner enjoying this opportunity to update on the  Foundation’s work and the myriads of good news stories the six million lenses – thus far – have engendered.

Judy Ingle, Canberra’s most dedicated stalwart of the organisation, has been to Vietnam to see the production of the lenses in the new facility in Da Nang and loves to tell of the Nepalese elders carried for days by families to the foundation’s facilities. Something simple, so profoundly beneficial.