For a decade now, 65-year-old Sreng has been suffering from a pterygium, or noncancerous lesion, in his right eye. “This causes him blurred vision, irritation, itchiness, [and] redness,” explains our medical partner, Children’s Surgical Centre (CSC), “and he is afraid of sunshine.”
Sreng is a rice and crop farmer by trade, but because of the growth in his eye, “it is hard for Sreng to do work well, or go anywhere outside by himself,” continues CSC.
Sreng’s difficulty navigating the world outside his home in Cambodia affects his ability not only to farm his crops, but also to engage in his favorite pastime: visiting his place of worship—the local pagoda. There, he likes to listen to the monks pray, as well as to participate in rituals himself.
For $150, Sreng can get the treatment he needs to improve his vision so he can participate in both work and worship more regularly. He’ll receive a pterygium excision surgery, a procedure that will remove the pink, fleshy lesion on the white of his eye. Funding will also cover his stay at the hospital as he recovers from the operation.
After his pterygium excision operation, “Sreng’s burning, irritation, and redness will be relieved. His eye will look much better,” CSC tells us.
Sreng’s wife says she is hopeful that after the surgery, she and her husband will no longer have to “worry that the cyst will grow bigger than it currently is and give him further problems in the future.”
