A KIND-hearted Daily Echo reader has donated £25,000 to Southampton’s pioneering eye research team after reading about their work.

The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, made the generous gift after seeing our front page story about Professor Andrew Lotery’s latest breakthrough in the fight against blindness.

Her donation will be used to help pay for a retinal imaging camera – used to take highly detailed measurements and pictures – that will help researchers develop new treatments.

The £200,000 camera will be the main piece of equipment in a new purpose-built clinical trials unit due to open at Southampton General Hospital’s new bio-medical research Unit in December.

It will be used on patients to find new treatments for eye conditions, such as age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in the western world in people over 50.

Trials will also be carried out on patients with diabetic retinopathy as well as studies into new gene therapies to treat eye conditions.

Prof Lotery, a consultant ophthalmologist at Southampton General Hospital’s eye unit, said he was thrilled with the anonymous donation.

“I would like to thank the woman so much for such an incredibly generous donation.

It will make a huge difference to our work.

“The Daily Echo, too, has been a tremendous support to us, and it’s because of the coverage we got that we received the £25,000 donation. Its wonderful.”

Up until now he has had to carry out 14 clinical trials in the hospital’s eye unit.

“At the moment we are limited for space. The new labs will give us the space we need, make it nicer for patients and make it easier for us to plan future studies.

“All of these trials will help us look at developing new treatments”

Prof Lotery, who is also professor of ophthalmology at the University of Southampton, and his team rely heavily on donations to fund their world-class research through the Southampton Gift of Sight appeal.

They need to raise £250,000 in total to kit out the new clinical trials unit.

Tickets are still available for a fundraising ball at the Botleigh Grange Hotel on June 12.

■ For more details or to make a donation call 023 8059 9073 or log onto giftofsight.org.uk