Dr Richard Bowman (former CBM Ophthalmologist) will be running his first marathon in Edinburgh on May 21 2011. To support Richard, sponsor him via www.justgiving.com/Richard-Bowman0/. CBM, the overseas disability charity helped over 23 million people with disabilities in developing countries last year.

 Dr Richard Bowman worked as a CBM Ophthalmologist in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania for eight years.  He worked as an eye surgeon at a CBM-supported project, Comprehensive Community Based Rehabilitation in Tanzania (CCBRT) Hospital, where they operate about 7000 cases a year.  Richard’s special interests are children’s eye problems, teaching, training and academic research.

 In 2006 Richard was appointed Director of Training at CCBRT and Honorary Lecturer at Muhimbili University College of Health Services (the national teaching hospital).  Ruth, his wife, a teacher of children with visual impairment, also began a project to try and improve educational resources for secondary school children with visual impairment.  Ruth and Richard have four daughters: Susanna, aged 14; Georgia, aged 11; Eliza, aged 9, and Freya 2.

 Richard said “The privilege of my job as CBM ophthalmologist is that there was potential to make a huge difference, just by concentrating on the one face in front of you at any one time.  I may have seen 100 patients in a day and had difficulty remembering names and faces, but for each of them it might be a life changing experience.”

 “I am running the Edinburgh marathon because  I like a physical challenge. Edinburgh is a beautiful city and my brother-in-law entered it and I want to beat him! I would love to use it to raise money to continue to help restore sight  to children needlessly blind in Africa and elsewhere through CBM’s work,” said Richard.

 Now back from Tanzania, today Richard is now a Consultant in London and a part-time academic at ICEH (International Centre for Eye Health), where he is funded by CBM.For more info visit: http://ow.ly/4z3vs

Blindness is an especially serious problem in the developing world.  A child with sight problems cannot learn without special schooling.  A blind man cannot support his family.  Every five seconds someone, somewhere in the world goes blind.  One child goes blind every minute – just over 500,000 a year. Source: Vision 2020.