from Katlyn Smith story (www.southbendtribune.com/ posting)
University of Notre Dame biology club will play host to the first-ever VisionWalk Sunday on campus. The 5K walk will raise money for the Foundation Fighting Blindness, an organization supporting research of retinal degenerative diseases. With more than 45 other VisionWalks across the country, the event is the signature fundraiser for the foundation.
Notre Dame senior and VisionWalk chair Maria Sellers first interacted with vision issues when she visited the Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, the former ND president, her freshman year. A self-described "avid reader," Sellers asked Hesburgh about the books lining his office. "He told me he loved to read, but unfortunately, he'd been losing his sight to macular degeneration," Sellers said. "Now he was mostly reading books on tape, and that had a profound effect on me and caused me to look a little more into the field of retinal diseases."
Sellers, a management consulting major and resident of Grafton, Ohio, studied in London last fall. As an intern in the financial department at London's Moorfields Eye Hospital, Sellers encountered state-of-the-art research and treatment, some of which the foundation financed.
"A father who was previously blind and hadn't been able to see since he was growing up was actually, after surgery and treatment, able to see his child being born," Sellers said.
Sellers is hopeful researchers could find a cure for some forms of blindness in 10 years or less.
"I feel like it definitely is attainable," Sellers said. "I know that areas they are having the strongest success in are LCA (Leber's congenital amaurosis) and macular degeneration."Registration for the general public is $15 and available the day of the event at noon in the Morris Inn courtyard. Registration for students is $10. The walk will begin on the South Quad at 1:30 p.m.
Speakers before the walk will include Dr. Steve Gerber of Advanced Ophthalmology of Michiana.
Sellers hopes the event will raise more than $10,000 for the foundation. Sellers said the money raised from Notre Dame's walk would not support embryonic stem cell research.
With more than 10 million Americans suffering with vision loss, Sellers said attendees will celebrate how God has graced them. "All these students and faculty and community members are going to come together, support a cause, go outside themselves and use the gifts they're given," Sellers said. "Just seeing the first event go off, I feel like, will be very rewarding."
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