Mayor's Charity

Mayor's Charity Concert - Friday 30 March 2012 7.00 pm Central Hall 'Swings the Thing' Music by Glenn Miller, Irving Berlin, Frank Sinatra, Tom Jones and much more. Tickets £10.00 for Adults £6.00 for Children, please see attached Poster

Barn Dance - Saturday 31 March 2012 7.30 - 11.30 pm Crossfield Hall, Romsey Tickets £15 includes Supper

Mayor's Charity Ball -Friday 27 April 2012 in Southampton Guildhall 7.00 pm with band ‘Rufus Stone’. Ticket price and more details to follow shortly

For more information on the above please contact the Mayor's Office on 02380 832433 or mayor's.office@southampton.gov.uk

This year the Mayor's chosen charities are Alzheimer's Research Trust and Gift of Sight Appeal.

Gift of Sight Appeal

The Gift of Sight Appeal, which is based at Southampton General Hospital, funds world-class research into the prevention and treatment of blindness. The research investigates diseases such as age related macular degeneration (AMD), glaucoma, inherited retinal diseases and childhood conditions such as nystagmus. Age-related macular degeneration is the commonest cause of blindness in the Western World.
The laboratories have identified novel genetic risk factors for AMD, glaucoma and genes which cause a childhood cause of blindness called X linked nystagmus. They have developed a genetic test for glaucoma and one of our current research projects is looking into why corneal ulceration occurs and looking at the best treatment. They are also developing stem cell therapies to restore sight in a wide variety of inherited retinal diseases
Some of our researchers combine laboratory work with treating patients in weekly clinics. This enables them to bring insights from the research laboratory directly to patients. The translational aspect of our work means that some patients who are newly diagnosed with eye disease are asked to provide a sample to help our research. These sample collections allow us to identify genetic risk factors for eye disease which enables us to determine better treatments for affected patients.
Specific diseases we work on include: age related macular degeneration, glaucoma, retinitis pigmentosa, cone dystrophy, nystagmus, corneal ulcers and inflammation.

Gift of Sight is managed by the University of Southampton which is an 'Exempt Charity' (Inland Revenue reference number X19140) as noted in the Second Schedule of the 1960 Charities Act.