This story was written by Joan Jerrard

Fred Hollows

Frederick Cossom Hollows was born in New Zealand on 9th April, 1929. He grew up in Palmerston North and obtained a BA degree in 1946 from Victoria University in Wellington. In 1950 he went to theological college but after one year changed course and set out on a medical career. He finally became House Surgeon in Auckland Hospital in 1957 and in 1958 married Mary Skiller.

In 1961 he went to the UK to study Ophthalmology and took up a position in Cardiff, Wales. Four years later he became Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of NSW.

Fred began work with the Aboriginal communities in Australia in early 1970 and in 1971 set up the Aboriginal Medical Services in Redfern, Sydney with the aim of addressing the inequality of services available to the aborigines . He travelled and worked for three years throughout Australia, during which time he visited 465 Aboriginal communities.

In 1975, with a grant of $1.4 million from the Australian Government, the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists launched the ground breaking work of the National Trachoma and Eye Health Programme, with Fred as Director. Trachoma is an eye disease which can be prevented by proper hygiene and health conditions. After treating 27,000 cases and performing 1,000 operations in Australia, Fred set his sights further afield. Nepal in 1985 and Eritrea in 1987 were the countries he visited to continue his work, restoring sight to hundreds of people. Honorary citizenship of Eritrea was conferred on him in 1991 after he undertook another trip to that country, and then on to Nepal and Vietnam.

The Fred Hollows Foundation was launched in Australia in 1992. The belief of the Foundation is that everyone has a right to sight and the same standard of health services. The Foundation works with local organisations to train personnel so that there is an on-going service readily available to all at an affordable cost.

Fred became an Australian citizen on 26th April 1989. He died from cancer in February, 1993 and was buried in Bourke, New South Wales, where a memorial gravesite was dedicated to him in February 2006. The work of the Foundation was continued by his wife Gabbi O’Sullivan, whom he had married in 1980, five years after Mary’s death. It is now operating with local partners in 30 countries throughout Africa, Asia and the Pacific. Factories for the production of intraocular lenses were established in Eritrea and Nepal in 1994. Intraocular lenses are used in cataract surgery to replace damaged lenses in the eye, and are now produced in these factories at less than 4% of the cost of those produced elsewhere.

Fred received many awards and citations during his life. Some of these are:

The Human Rights Medal, Australian of the Year, Companion General Division of the Order of Australia, Rotary Award for World Understanding and numerous honorary doctorates. In 2004 he was entered into the Hall of Fame in the inaugural NSW Aboriginal Health Awards.

Fred Hollows was a dynamic character – a man of action who, when he saw what needed to be done, went ahead and let no obstacles stand in his way. His legacy is that more than one million people, not only in Australia but world wide, have had their sight restored and are able to lead normal productive lives, a monumental achievement by a man of vision who certainly deserves a place in the ranks of Great Australians.

Written by Joan Jerrard