Stoke Mandeville Hospital specialist wins award for vital eye work in poorest countries

Larry Benjamin dedicates countless hours to training ophthalmologists and treating children in some of the poorest regions of the world.

He now won the Charity Staff Foundation’s ‘Care Service Provider’ award for his work with blindness prevention charity, Orbis

Over the past 12 years, he has shared his skills with doctors across 14 programmes including Myanmar, Pakistan, Syria, Ghana and Zambia.

Mr Benjamin has been instrumental in the training of Zambia’s first and only paediatric ophthalmologist, working to evolve his skills to enable him to treat complicated child eye conditions.

He also sits on the board of Orbis UK and leads the programme committee, which oversees the effectiveness of Orbis’s work across Africa and Asia.

Rebecca Cronin, CEO, Orbis UK says: “We are so proud of this recognition of Larry’s work - his dedication to Orbis is immense and we’re so lucky to be able to tap into his valuable expertise, which span so many areas.”

There are 39 million blind people globally and 80% suffer from conditions which can be treated or cured.