'˜Blind' driving experience helps eye charity

Walking Football is proving popular in Banbury

James and Michelle Sutton celebrated the 10th anniversary of their Banbury-based business with a '˜blind' driving event with fellow Banbury Chamber of Commerce members Base Performance Simulators.

Supporters and friends of Butterflies Eyecare enjoyed a drive around a race track in a simulator, with car and track branded with their logos.

They were then asked to repeat it wearing glasses that impaired their sight, to show how poor vision affects performance. The glasses represented common eye conditions such as cataracts, glaucoma, macular degeneration and visual field loss.

As an optician with a family history of macular degeneration, James distributes the Viteyes range of eye health supplements to the NHS on prescription and to opticians, pharmacies and consumers.

James and Michelle at Base Performance Simulators

The joint event raised £540 for Gift of Sight, a dynamic eye health charity based at Southampton Hospital Eye Unit.

Every year, groundbreaking research is published by macular degeneration specialist Prof Andrew Lotery and his team, supported by Gift of Sight donations.

Every year, James and Michelle attend their research update and are impressed by both the scale and quality of the research, including the recent discovery of a link between the pathology of macular degeneration and dementia.