Fred Hollows

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Frederick Bossom (Fred) Hollows, (April 9 1929 – February 10 1993) was born in Dunedin, New Zealand and became a world famous ophthalmologist, particularly for his work in restoring eyesight for countless thousands of Aborigines in Australia and people in many other countries.

It has been estimated [1] that more than one million people in the world can see today because of initiatives instigated by Hollows.

He did post-graduate work in Wales before moving to Australia in 1965 where he became associate professor of ophthalmology at the University Of New South Wales in Sydney. From 1965-1992 he chaired the ophthalmology division overseeing the teaching departments at the University Of New South Wales, and the Prince of Wales and Prince Henry hospitals.

Early in the 1970s Hollows began visiting isolated New South Wales towns and stations and Aboriginal communities . He became especially concerned with the high number of Aborigines who had eye defects, in particular trachoma which causes blindness if not treated quickly. In 1971 he set up the Aboriginal Medical Service in suburban Redfern, in Sydney, and was subsequently responsible for the establishment of medical services for Aboriginal People throughout Australia. Hollows himself spent three years visiting Aboriginal communities to provide eye care and carry out a survey of eye defects. More than 460 Aboriginal communities were visited, and 62,000 Aboriginal People were examined, leading to 27,000 being treated for trachoma and 1000 operations being carried out.

His visits to Nepal in 1985, Eritrea in 1987, and Vietnam in 1991, and subsequent visits, resulted in training programs to train local technicians to perform eye surgery. Due to western multinationals not wanting to drop the price of intraocular lenses (IOL), Fred Hollows organized for IOL laboratories in Eritrea and Nepal to manufacture and provide the lenses at cost (about $10 each). Both laboratories started production in 1994. In 1991 he received honorary citizenship from Eritrea. His work in these regions has been continued and expanded by the Fred Hollows Foundation.

Hollows received an Advance Australia Award in 1981, but all the while was appalled at what he called blatant government disinterest in eye care for Aboriginal people, so much so that he refused to accept the Order of Australia in 1985. Nonetheless, he became an Australian citizen on April 26 1989, was a consultant to the World Health Organisation (WHO), and in 1992 was gratified to see the establishment of the Fred Hollows Foundation which has spread to many countries worldwide to provided eye care for the underprivileged and poor.

His selfless service was recognised in many ways. He was given a Human Rights Medal in 1990, and the same year he was named Australian of the Year, and was given the Advance Australia Award for medicine and overseas aid. He was Humanist of the Year in 1991 and over the years received a wide variety of civic, professional and scholastic awards.

Hollows was married twice, in 1958 to Mary Skiller who died in 1975, and in 1980 to Gabi O’Sullivan. He died in 1993 in Sydney (six years after being diagnosed with cancer) and was survived by Gabi and children Tanya, Ben, Cam, Emma, Anna-Louise, Ruth and Rosa.

Upon his death in 1993 the Chief Minister of the ACT, Rosemary Follett, described Hollows to her parliamentary colleagues as an egalitarian and a self-named anarcho-syndicalist who wanted to see an end to the economic disparity which exists between the First and Third Worlds and who believed in no power higher than the best expressions of the human spirit found in personal and social relationships.

He was given a State Funeral service at St Mary's Cathedral in Sydney on February 15, 1993, before his body was taken to Bourke (where he had worked in 1970) for burial on February 17.

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