'I WISH HE HOLLOWS COULD SEE US NOW'

The Kiwi hero's widow is dedicated to continuing his work 

-  Jenny Brown.

Fred Hollows was dying and he knew it. Desperately ill in hospital, there seemed little hope that he could complete his last eye-surgery mission in Vietnam. Yet not even cancer could stop the gruff, stubborn and compassionate Kiwi once he made up his mind.

Determined to get to Hanoi as promised, the famed ophthalmologist took drastic action. “He just tore the tracheotomy tube out of his throat and discharged himself from hospital,” recalls his widow Gabi, 69, still in awe of his courage and commitment. “Fred was very sick then, so everything was pretty raw, but none of us thought he would pass away a few months later.”

The enduring image of that final trip features Fred examining the eyes of eight year-old boy Tran Van Giap, whose sight was saved by a simple operation the following day.

Thirty years later, as the Fred Hollows Foundation celebrates its anniversary, the “bittersweet but beautiful” photograph remains central to its crusade – to end avoidable blindness.

FRED’S LEGACY

Since the charity was established on 3 September 1992, it has restored the sight of more than three million people globally and delivered more than 200 million doses of antibiotics for trachoma.

“It’s a wonderful, magnificent, amazing kind of story,” smiles Gabi, who has worked tirelessly for the foundation since Dunedinborn Fred’s premature death. He was only 63 when he passed away in 1993.