Local GP Doctor Jonathan Hillman set up the Bridlington Eye Assessment Project after a gentleman came into his surgery 14 years ago. " He'd been to see me two years earlier. He had glaucoma, which can cause loss of sight. I'd prescribed him eye drops to control the condition, but he'd stopped taking them because they irritated his eyes. When he came back to see me his sight had deteriorated so much that he'd become completely dependent on his daughter. That's when I decided set up a small scale screening project to do health checks on the eyes of my older patients. " Later, a major drug company and various charities heard about the project and agreed to support it financially. So the Bridlington Eye Assessment Project, as it was called, moved into bigger premises at Bridlington hospital. People aged 65 or over were invited to go along to the hospital to have their eyes examined using a machine that actually takes a photograph of the back of the eye in great detail. To date, more than three thousand over 65's have had their eyes tested, and in some cases serious eye diseases have been spotted at an early stage allowing the patient to be put onto the right treatment. Eighty nine year-old George Kitching from Bridlington was the scheme's 3,000th patient. " I came along because I thought I might have a problem with my eyes, " Mr. Kitching told us, " but they were able to set my mind at rest. I don't have anything to worry about. The staff on the project are very patient, which is important when you're dealing with us oldies." The Bridlington Eye Assessment Project is the biggest eye screening programme ever undertaken in the UK and it has lead to completely new discoveries about the human eye. Perhaps its biggest breakthrough is the revelation that women have more nerve cells at the back of their eyes than men. This could explain why men are more likely than women to lose their sight through glaucoma, which causes cell damage. But now the Bridlington Eye Assessment Project is at risk. Its funding will run out in February, and unless more money can be found very soon the project will come to a premature end. " To screen all the people we want to we'll need to keep the project going until the autumn of 2007 ", Dr. Jonathan Hillman told us. " Once its stopped the project can't be restarted and we're just hoping some charitable organisation or company will provide us with the financial support we need to keep us going for the next 18 months. " | 
