guest editorial
Thank You to the Foot Soldiers in Our Glaucoma Awareness Crusade
Thank You to the Foot Soldiers in Our Glaucoma Awareness Crusade

Glaucoma blinded my mother and my grandmother, so when I was diagnosed with the disease 6 years ago, I began a personal crusade to educate Americans about glaucoma and see to it that as many people as possible undergo a screening.

Enthusiasm for volunteering seems to be another family trait that I inherited. Marrying that with my interest in raising glaucoma awareness, I have been traveling across the country with the message that early screening and treatment can save sight. Today, I remain determined to make this a national issue.

I founded the Connecticut Glaucoma Screening Inititive that became the pilot screening program for Lions Club International, helped more than 60,000 people get a glaucoma screening, contributed thousands of hours of community service, and helped educate millions of Americans about glaucoma by driving local media coverage in the hundreds of cities I've visited.

My efforts even resulted in another marriage: I met my wife, Marie, at a screening. The screening also saved Marie's life when a tumor was discovered on her retina.

Corporations Plus Community

As my mission progressed -- for better -- so did my glaucoma -- for worse. Medication upon medication failed to keep my intraocular pressure in check until, finally, I was introduced to Lumigan, manufactured by Allergan, Inc. Within 2 weeks, my IOP dropped from more than 30 mmHg in both eyes to 17 mmHg, where it has remained for almost 2 years now.

I wrote an impassioned letter to Allergan about the success of my new medication and my work as an activist. The company embraced my work with open arms and helped me to create a corporate glaucoma screening program aimed at educating and screening African Americans, who are 6 to 8 times more likely to develop the disease than non-African Americans.

Allergan has been nothing short of inspirational as this program gains momentum nationally, partnering with students, residents and volunteers at medical schools, teaching hospitals, colleges of optometry and other interested organizations.

The screenings are educational on three levels: medical students learn the value of community service; patients learn the value of regular dilated eye exams; and the high-tech nature of the screenings almost always attracts reporters, whose articles help educate thousands of people who are at risk.

Allergan has teamed up with other corporations, such as Topcon, Welch-Allyn, and Heidelberg Engineering to collectively partner with local groups to host screenings. Venues vary from hospital lobby to church hall to community center. They cost the host organization nothing but time and volunteerism.

Uniting such corporate and community institutions toward glaucoma awareness, Allergan has now formed Partnership for Sight, a national glaucoma education campaign. Participants in this effort include the National Medical Association, the Roman-Barnes Society, the Glaucoma Research Foundation, Howard University, Meharry Medical College and the Progressive National Baptist Convention. Under the auspices of Partnership for Sight, I also travel around the country to help provide these much-needed screenings.

Commitment Where It Counts

Allergan's commitment to its partners and to these communities where glaucoma is so prevalent is not only good business, it fits with President Bush's appeal for Americans to devote 4,000 hours in a lifetime to community service.

I would like to recognize some of the local organizations with whom I've partnered. They include Howard University's Open House Health Fair, Long Island College Hospital, chaired by Dr. Kevin Greenridge, and the Los Angeles Eye Institute, which initiated its program by screening more than 235 people referred for free under a grant from the state of California.

You can reach Roger Martin at lehpmartin@juno.com  or (203) 874-9449.