Two blind patients have had revolutionary surgery involving the implantation of a bionic eye to help them to see.

As president of Orbis International, the flying eye hospital, Oliver Foot was responsible for saving millions of people worldwide from blindness, most of them in the developing world. To the charity he brought not only indomitable energy and charismatic and witty leadership, but fund-raising skills that, over the years, brought Orbis more than $200m in funding. He was a lifelong socialist and humanitarian, and a member of an impeccably left-wing aristocratic family; his uncle was the Labour leader Michael Foot. His other great passion was Jamaica, the country of his birth, an island he championed throughout his life and that, according to his wife Gail, "held his soul and heart".

Having lost the sight in one eye when I was 17, due to a detached retina, I am concerned about the sight in my other eye. Early this year, I was diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in that eye and referred to hospital, where I had scans but no treatment. Finally, I was referred to a specialist who did another scan. He suggested an injection into the eye, but said there was no guarantee it would work, and I could lose my sight altogether.

I am 74 and have been diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration (the dry form of the disease). My vision is slowly getting worse and I am finding it more and more difficult to read. Are there any nutritional remedies that will slow down the progression of this disease? I have heard that blueberries are good, but I don't want to spend time or money on hopeless remedies.

A hero's blinded eye

The people are bitterly divided as they prepare to vote in referendum on independence for the Balkan state

Babies born with eye disorders are at risk of permanent blindness because of a shortage of donors for transplant operations.

Robbie McEwen may hail from the other side of the planet, but barring an actual Belgian, you could hardly have asked for a more local winner of the second stage of the Tour de France.

After Fred Hollows, the distinguished ophthalmologist, visited the Northern Territory in 1968 to investigate Aboriginal health, he wrote: "It was like something out of the medical history books - eye diseases of a kind and degree that hadn't been seen in Western society for generations. The neglect this implied, the suffering and wasted quality of human life, were appalling." The Hollows Foundation, which he founded, said yesterday that little had changed. The foundation, which works in remote Aboriginal communities, said that indigenous health and life expectancy in Australia - one of the world's wealthiest nations - are worse than in countries such as Sudan, Bangladesh, Sierra Leone and Eritrea.

EVERY NHS hospital was given notice yesterday to cut the queues for out-patients within a year as the Government published figures showing waiting times are continuing to grow.

'Two men agree that one will tell only the truth, the other only lies. Both get into terrible messes'

TOM LEVITT MP states that "no future claimants of DLA [disability living allowance] and other disability benefits will see their entitlement to incapacity benefit [IB] reduced" (Letters, 14 November). This is utterly wrong. No protection has been offered to people who fail the new contribution test - regardless of how severely disabled they are. The only group who will be protected in future are IB claimants who also receive DLA highest- rate care component, ie, those who need 24-hour care. This small group, which constitutes less than 2 per cent of IB claimants, will be exempted from the pensions means test. But, of course, few people move from work one day to needing 24-hour care the next. In practice people will find their benefit is reduced by the means test over several years, while their condition deteriorates to the point where they finally qualify for the highest rate of DLA care. The vast majority of people we regard as severely disabled - double amputees, blind people, paraplegics etc - will not be protected at all.