For the second consecutive year, Tzu Chi Eye Center has joined hands with the Association of Volunteer Fire Chiefs and Fire Fighters of the Philippines Inc. to bring free, comprehensive eye care to the men and women who spend their lives running toward danger, and to their families.

Over 320 patients — comprising volunteer firefighters, their spouses, children, extended relatives, friends and neighbors — lined up for consultations at the Tzu Chi Eye Center (TCEC) in Sta. Mesa, Manila on 28 June. Volunteer ophthalmologists served all of them.

Firefighter couple John and Liwayway Mortell’s godmother was among the patients. She was diagnosed with cataracts and will undergo free surgery at the TCEC.

Daniel Lacambra has been living with blindness in one eye due to cataract for the past 15 years. The father of a volunteer firefighter will also undergo operation at the Center run by the humanitarian organization Tzu Chi Medical Foundation Philippines.

Another hopeful patient was 69-year-old Jacinta Taroca,whose cataracts had clouded both her eyes to the point that she could no longer walk unassisted.

A total 59 patients were advised to undergo surgery or laser procedures. The Eye Center also provided eye drop medicines and reading glasses to those who needed them.