About Us

The Foundation Fighting Blindness is a Canadian health charity that was founded in 1974 by a small group of families intent on finding a cure for the disease robbing their children of sight. At that time retinitis pigmentosa, macular degeneration and other retinal dystrophies were thought to be incurable. Undaunted, these families enlisted the support of Canada's leading medical scientists and set to work collecting money for vision research. From these humble beginnings, The Foundation Fighting Blindness has grown to become Canada's leading private supporter of retina research, having given more than $25 million to groundbreaking eye research taking place at universities and hospitals across the country. The Foundation Fighting Blindness has funded dozens of research discoveries to identify the causes of genetic forms of blindness. These discoveries have helped bring scientists to this very exciting time in vision research. Today marks the first time that a treatment exists to prevent vision loss and restore some vision for those with an eye disease called 'wet' age-related macular degeneration (AMD) - and the first time human trials are happening to test treatments for patients with some types of retintis pigmentosa, Leber congenital amaurosis and choroideremia.