A tribute of kindness in Sidney’s memory

Sidney Hartman had long cherished his eyesight which was of particular importance in his working days in the print trade, but it was during his later years whilst enjoying retirement when he was diagnosed with wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Just a few years later, aged 83, Sidney passed away and it was his daughter Maria, while arranging the funeral details, who organised a collection of nearly £2,000 in his memory, to support the Macular Society’s work.

Honouring Sidney through support for the Macular Society

In Maria’s words, it would have been her dad’s legacy to help others with macular disease. In the end, donations totalled £1,851.86 through the online tributes page which was set up in Sidney’s memory.

Maria said: “People were very, very generous. I wanted to do it because it would be a nice way to mark a memory of my dad. He would want to help people who were suffering with losing their eyesight, like he was, so it just felt right to set the page up, especially it feels like more people need to know about macular disease. I hope the more people that know about the Macular Society, the more support they can get.”

Remembering her dad, Maria described Sidney as “always a very kind man and always working. He was really, really loved by so many people which showed at the funeral. It was a sad day but I got to see so much love that day.”

Through the online tribute page and raising funds, the family have raised more awareness of macular disease itself.

Facing the challenges of wet AMD

Maria said: “Sight loss didn’t put him off going to America and visiting my brother, and he was still doing bits of work where he could like printing business cards for people. He was still trying to carry on.

“He could still see but not clearly and that was frustrating for him. He wasn’t able to drive, and it was sad because he’d had a lot of anxieties about driving alone through his life. He was getting more confident later on but then he couldn’t see as well as he used to.

“He just found everything less clear. He loved watching football but he had to sit quite close to the TV and he explained it like a shadow over part of his eye. Some days it was better than others.”

A tribute inspiring hope for tomorrow

She now hopes for more focus on research and has hope that there will one day be a cure.

She said: “I think for dad it was a very scary process for him to not be able to see his grandchildren and to think he might get to a point where his useful sight would be gone completely. Knowing that, it makes me worried about the disease and whether I am likely to be prone to it.

“I want to see more research, you have to believe in a cure. It would even help if we could detect it early enough, maybe even prevent this disease from getting worse for people.

“I think there are still so many questions about underlying factors, what are we doing that causes it, and if it’s in your family you want to know if something can be done down the line, to help treat or even eradicate it, so people don’t have to go through what my dad went through.”