Several years ago, Karen’s daughters, Grace, now 12, and Gabby, 9, were both diagnosed with eye conditions that, if left untreated, could have severely damaged their eyesight.

Grace was nearly four years old when her mother, Karen, noticed she had a problem with one of her eyes. “I noticed one of Grace’s eyes kept turning inward. She was diagnosed with far-sightedness and began to wear glasses with strong prescription lenses,” Karen said.

Grace’s eye condition has since improved; she has her eyes tested every year and continues to wear glasses at school, for homework and using the computer. But Karen never expected Gabby, Grace’s younger sister, would be diagnosed with an eye condition when she was six years old.

“Gabby had no obvious turn in her eye so I assumed her eyesight was fine. I only discovered Gabby’s eye condition when her school teacher suggested I should get her eyes checked,” said Karen.

“Gabby would rub her eyes when doing homework, but at the time, I thought she was just tired. It turns out she had amblyopia, often called ‘lazy eye’, in her right eye, and because it wasn’t diagnosed earlier, it has been harder to fix,” she said.

Gabby was prescribed glasses and Karen was instructed to patch her good left eye to allow the vision in her right eye to strengthen. Since then, Gabby's eyesight has improved dramatically - her right eye now has 60 percent vision, up from 10 percent vision - and it continues to improve.