Page 31 - 2016 Annual Report

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INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIA | SECTION NAME |

CASE STUDY:

WESTERN AUSTRALIA

TRACEY’S STORY

Tracey Howard was a young woman when
she had her eyes examined by Fred Hollows
in Broome, Western Australia, in the late
1970s. Fred’s visit was one of 465 that he and
his team made to Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander communities during the National
Trachoma and Eye Health Program, a three-
year crusade to treat trachoma in Australia.
While Tracey, now 73, had no idea who the
doctor was, she was surprised to see him on
television a few years later. “I didn’t know
much about him,” she said. “Then I heard he
was the one who travelled the world and he
became very well-known. I couldn’t believe he
was the doctor man who checked our eyes.”
Her encounter with Fred Hollows was the
start of a long
connection. Fast
forward 40 years, and
Tracey had a cataract
removed this year,
thanks to The Fred
Hollows Foundation’s
partnership with The
Lions Eye Institute.