When was fred hollows married

He identified strongly with Eritrea in its war of liberation against Ethiopia, and was impressed by the underground hospital and medical manufacturing plants in the war-torn country. To counter the extortionate prices of Western manufacturers, he began to raise funds to establish lens factories in Eritrea, Vietnam, and Nepal.

He established the Fred Hollows Foundation in to continue the strategies he had developed: to transfer technologies to disadvantaged communities, enabling them to use existing skills and capabilities to create lasting improvements in eye care. In he was appointed AC; he was promoted to professor the following year. A lover of the Australian and New Zealand bush, Hollows was a voracious reader of poetry and history, and a keen chess player.

Preferring to avoid bureaucracy and deal with problems and people directly, he was prepared to circumvent rules and regulations when he considered a cause justified direct action. Although believing strongly in social justice and equality, he spoke against popular causes which he saw as defying available evidence. Diagnosed with metastatic renal cancer in , Hollows died on 10 February in his home at Randwick. He was survived by his wife, a son and daughter from his first marriage, and a son and four daughters from his second.

In Gabi accepted on his behalf the Schweitzer award of excellence from the Chapman University of California. Gabi has since remarried, tying the knot with John Balasz, a lawyer from Sydney, in Her children have all since left the nest and are working all over the world — something that keeps Gabi up at all hours.

The couple always saw eye-to-eye about the importance of their foundation. While Cam is a doctor, Emma is an environmental scientist and Anna-Louise a nurse. Rosa studied carpentry and hopes to give aid to development projects overseas, while Ruth currently works in IT, but wants to become a project manager for a non-profit organisation.

He sought to empower local communities by founding these factories in Nepal and Eritrea. The lenses were expensive when made in Australia, but cheap and accessible when made locally. Despite being diagnosed with cancer, Fred was determined to keep pushing for change in the countries he cared deeply about. In the last few months of his life, he discharged himself from hospital to fly to Vietnam to train over Vietnamese eye specialists in modern surgery techniques.

Fred and Gabi set up The Fred Hollows Foundation with the help of some friends to ensure his work would continue into the future. Fred died on 10 February and was given a state funeral. He had asked to be buried in Bourke where he had a great affinity with the people and the land. The Fred Hollows Foundation now works in more than 25 countries and has restored sight to over two and a half million people worldwide.

Fred's work continues very much in the way it started: by just getting on with it. The Foundation trains doctors, nurses and healthcare workers, distributes antibiotics, raises money for much needed equipment and medical facilities and performs eye operations exactly like the ones Fred did more than 30 years ago.

When someone's sight is restored, it gives people the chance for a better life. They're able to work, go to school and provide for their families. Fred believed that everyone, no matter whether they were rich or poor, had the right to affordable eye care. Our work won't stop until the injustice of avoidable blindness is completely eradicated in Australia and in the rest of the world.