This is quite an astonishing figure: almost a quarter of a million people in Ireland are living with sight loss – 75-80 per cent of which is preventable.

Fighting Blindness is hosting a public engagement day tomorrow (Saturday 7 November) for Retina 2020, which is an opportunity for people with a vision impairment to hear directly from experts of the advances being made and to ask their burning questions.

Kieran spoke to Dr Pearse Keane, an opthalmologist from Moorefields Hospital in London who’s at the cutting edge of research into early detection, but he spoke to Peter Ryan, a Tipperary Councillor but also a paralympian who has lost most of his sight.

If you want to know more, go to www.fightingblindness.ie