PSALIVE.TV In Fundraising Initiative For Sight Savers

PSALIVE.TV, which provides web-streaming of live action on the PSA Tour, has established a fundraising initiative with the international charity Sight Savers International.

At a reception on World Sight Day at the Royal Academy in London, which was attended by the Countess of Wessex, PSA President Mark Chaloner and Fiona Harrison, Managing Director of Horizon Software, PSA's technology partner, met with Sight Savers' Malcolm Dent to celebrate the new initiative. Sight Savers International will be encouraging its corporate partners to watch live squash on PSALIVE.TV through a special PSALIVE.TV promotion.

With 75% of the world's blindness treatable or preventable, PSALIVE.TV is contributing to one of the most incredible goals of this century: to eradicate preventable blindness in the world by the year 2020.

Every time someone watches a squash match on www.psalive.tv , a contribution is triggered for Sight Savers International.

Working in 32 countries across the world, the charity operates in the most underserved communities preventing blindness, restoring sight and providing support for those adults and children who will never see again. Since its launch, Sight Savers has restored the sight of 5.4 million people and Cataract is the world's leading cause of blindness, with around 20 million people blind as a result. A simple 20 minute operation can transform someone's life from darkness to light. The impact on the person's life is huge, enabling them to work again and lead an independent life freeing family and community members from looking after them.

Individual lives such as Elizabeth from Kenya can be transformed. She started losing her sight in 2002 and as her sight deteriorated she became increasingly depressed and house bound. Her son, a herdsman earning only £15 a month, did not have enough money for surgery or even the transport costs to the nearest town to seek help.

An outreach team, supported by Sight Savers, discovered her inside the house and she explained: "I cannot live with the thought that I cannot see my children and my grand children every day. I am tired of depending on children in the village for mobility."

Once her cataracts were identified, the team accompanied her to the eye unit so that she could have her eye sight restored and she had cataract surgery of the right eye the next day. After her eye patch was removed the next day the first thing she wanted to see was her son, Maritim. She then walked around the hospital greeting everybody. Her excitement at being able to see again was quite obvious.

"The more matches you see on www.psalive.tv, the more people like Elizabeth can be helped by Sight Savers," said Fiona Harrison. "Thank you for your support."