Ophthalmologist Hazel Maria Shillingford-Ricktetts met with the Queen of England at the Buckingham Palace. Dr. Shillingford-Ricktetts, a specialist at diabetic retinopathy, joined 200 others to commemorate the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust, a charity trust dedicated to curbing blindness around the world in Commonwealth nations.
Dr. Shillingford-Ricktetts, a foremost Dominican ophthalmologist, personally met with Queen Elizabeth, 93, to celebrate the success of the Diamond Jubilee Trust which has succeeded in restoring sight to 22 million people within five years of setting up the trust. Shillingford-Ricktetts led the thrust of the charity’s work in Dominica and the Caribbean, where avoidable blindness was gaining grounds.
In collaboration with coordinating partners such as the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine together with the Ministry of Health, Dr. Shillingford-Ricktetts established diabetic retinopathy screening program into the public health system for people suffering from diabetes. Considering that diabetes patients can go blind if their health condition is not treated in time, the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust under the able leadership of Shillingford-Ricktetts in Dominica provides effective screening and treatment plan to protect the sights of people with untreatable blood sugar.
The eye-care specialist also led the establishment of a diabetes screening and laser treatment center at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Roseau, this is to bring quality diabetic retinopathy services closer home to the people. The siting of the service in Roseau will ensure that anyone who is at risk of losing their sight to diabetes or any other cause can access quality care at the center.
During the meeting with Queen Elizabeth, Shillingford-Ricktetts also met with Sophie Wessex, the Countess of Wessex, Vice-Patron of the Trust, who had taken the charity work of preventing and treating avoidable blindness to Malawi, Bangladesh and India among 54 other countries where the charity has provided sight-saving surgery to more than 104,000 people with trachoma trichiasis – the world’s leading infectious cause of blindness.
Dr Shillingford-Ricketts is featured in a new book – A Lasting Legacy – which tells the stories of 62 individuals from 54 countries whose lives have changed as a result of the Trust. Dr Shillingford-Rickett’s unique story can be read on page 140 –
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