Fred's Work

Professor Frederick Cossam Hollows AC was born on 9 April 1929 in Dunedin, and grew up in Palmerston North, attending Palmerston North Boys High School. He initially attended Bible College in Dunedin dabbling with the idea of joining the clergy before settling on a career in medicine. He entered medical school at Otago University, New Zealand after he discovered he wasn't cut out to be a clergyman and decided to become an 'eye doctor' - a trade he described as "good work".

Fred always had a passion for mountain climbing and studying at Otago University enabled him to make use of the spectacular mountainous backdrop. He often spent time climbing with friends on and around Mt Cook, New Zealand's highest peak. For Fred the mountain "put things into perspective - risks and skills, life and death, gives you the measure of problems and people."

Fred Hollows spent several years doing post-graduate work in Wales but in 1965 he moved to Australia to become Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of New South Wales, (UNSW) in Sydney.

Fred was also Chairman of the Division of Ophthalmology at UNSW, Prince of Wales and Prince Henry teaching hospitals.

Fred Hollows saw a growing disparity between the haves and the have nots in eye health and decided to do something about it. Before he died Fred tried to get people in the ophthalmic business interested in helping to bring modern eye surgery to developing countries.

In the 1980s a mystique had grown up around modern IOL implant surgery which put it into the league of open heart surgery or organ transplant surgery. Fred and The Foundation took on that notion and developed ways to make IOL implant surgery safe, affordable and more widely available in developing countries.

Fred, and The Foundation he set up in 1992 to continue his work, wanted to make IOLs available for under US$10 each. The multinational IOL manufacturers refused to drop their prices that low so Fred decided The Foundation would make its own IOLs.

IOL laboratories in Eritrea and Nepal, named after Fred, now make IOLs every bit as good as the multinationals but sell them for the cost of production, with minimum mark ups.

Fred also wanted to develop robust and effective microscopes and YAG lasers for use in cataract surgery in developing countries. In both cases, The Foundation in Australia found Australian companies interested in helping to develop this equipment to The Foundation's specifications, ie low cost, durable, portable and robust.

Today, The Fred Hollows Foundation's vision is of a world where no one is needlessly blind.

The Foundation is still inspired by the vision and energy of Fred Hollows, whose passion for better eye health for poor and disadvantaged communities was driven by a commitment to fundamental social and economic change.

The Foundation's mission draws on those values and beliefs. The Foundation is dedicated to facilitating comprehensive and quality eye care with a focus on cataract blindness. Our primary audience is disadvantaged people in developing countries but we support the principle of access for all people.