Claire Hicks and Sir John Wilson

Claire Hicks has followed in her family’s footsteps through the inspiration of her father, the late Sir John Wilson, founder member of the Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind which today is internationally known as Sight Savers. Since 1985, Claire has translated her passion for continuing and developing her father’s mission into practical action by building the international IMPACT programme. IMPACT has restored sight, sound or freedom of movement to tens of thousands of people and helped many more to protect themselves and their communities from the causes of needless disability.

Claire has demonstrated a compelling need and opportunity to prevent a major cause of needless human suffering. She has quietly inspired others through IMPACT which has facilitated 20 million interventions in 33 countries, including over 650,000 operations.

This work stems from her father Sir John Wilson, who played a key role in establishing the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) as its first President. He retired from Sight Savers in 1983, but maintained close links with the organisation. Together with others they founded the IMPACT movement, a global initiative to prevent major causes of disability. One of his main concerns was to bring eye care within reach of poor communities. Blinded himself at the age of 12 by an accident at school, he went on to gain a double first at Oxford University. In 1950 he founded Sight Savers International - formerly known as the Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind which he led for more than 30 years. He was involved in establishing some of the essential elements of today's eye care services in developing countries including mobile outreach programmes and the training of ophthalmic paramedics. Sir John Wilson died at the age of 80 in November 1999.

From this work, Claire drew inspiration and knowledge to continue her father's legacy. Today, Claire's expertise is frequently sought by grant-makers and other people working in the field of international development, demonstrating how well respected her knowledge, experience and approach is. IMPACT’s innovations include a tented sterile operating theatre which can be erected in community halls in Nepal; a floating Hospital in Bangladesh, the ‘Lifeline Express’ hospital train in India, home gardening as a means of tackling malnutrition and poverty and the successful "Operation Cataract" scheme in the UK, which helped shorten NHS waiting lists in the 1980s and 1990s. The idea was to push the hospital walls out into the community, using hotel beds to support elderly people who otherwise were unable to benefit from day care surgery. This was adopted in many parts of the country and promoted by the NHS as a model of good practice. Claire was an active participant in the Department of Health's Action on Cataracts Steering Committee.

“She has worked tirelessly, with great commitment and inventive flair on the prevention of disability around the world – never seeking reward.”

Rachel Hurst OBE

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