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A big THANK YOU to everyone who got involved!

Let's make 2012 bigger and better!

 

Hundreds of organisations from across the sector joined together to support the second National Eye Health Week from 13 - 19 June 2011. To see a list of who took part click here.

Across the UK, charities, health professionals, optical bodies and PCTs organised a whole range of activities to promote eye health - see a summary below...

For a comprehensive list of 2011 events click here.

National

          Fundus Camera at UK Vision Conference            

A range of events designed to promote the campaign to decision-makers in government, the optical sector and the health sector.

These included: 

  • A parliamentary reception in the House of Commons
  • A Cross Party Vision Group event at the Welsh Senedd
  • A stand at the UK Vision Conference
  • An awareness stand in the atrium of the Department of Health

Some organisations also timed the release of eye health related publications to coincide with the Week and helped to gain maximum exposure for the campaign. 

There were also hundreds of articles in national, regional and online press.

Regional 

 

        Awareness stand at the Department of Health             Fundus Camera at the Department of Health

Thousands of leaflets, posters and balloons were sent out to a huge range of organisations and individuals. This meant that the campaign reached lots of people in lots of places - schools, hospitals, libraries, shopping centres, the work place, the opticians, to name a few.

Events included:

  • Poster competitions in schools
  • Eye health themed school assemblies
  • Community and hospital based awareness events with OCT and/or fundus cameras
  • Radio interviews with celebrities such as Paralympian, Ian Rose, and eye health specialists
  • Raffles and competitions to win National Eye Health Week T-Shirts
  • Health food fairs with particular emphasis on eye friendly food
  • People dressed as carrots doing star jumps on the Millenium Bridge in London

 

Patch Party

Online

 

         Carrots on Millenium Bridge            Eye Health Fair

National Eye Health Week 2011 saw growth in the online element of the campaign - a recognition of the importance of social networking in getting the message across and involving people/organisations.

  • One key online event was a Twitter 'Eyespy' competition where people sent in interesting photos of what they could see at that moment.
  • Under the banner 'I care about eyecare' both Twitter and Facebook proved an immensely popular medium for individuals and organisations to share their thoughts about the importance of eye health.   
  • Another important part of the online campaign in 2011 was E-Advocacy. This provided an easy way for people to email their MP and encourage them to attend the parliamentary reception, as well as focus their attention on the importance of eye health.
 

 

For more up to date information take a look at our facebook and twitter pages. We must now build on this momentum for 2012 and have even more organisations taking part and activities being staged.

What can your organisation do to promote eye health in the run up to and during National Eye Health Week 2012?

Don't forget to register your activity on this site!

To see what happened during the inaugural National Eye Health Week in 2010 click here!

Get involved because Vision Matters!