Pride of Australia: Prof Stephanie Watson is changing people’s lives one pair of eyes at a time

PROFESSOR Stephanie Watson’s work with eyes has helped countless people see and changed lives. Now, she has been nominated for a Pride of Australia award.

WHEN the five-year-old came to Professor Stephanie Watson she was blind, born with a condition in which both her eyes were completely white.

But after Dr Watson worked her magic, in this case a corneal graft, she could see.

“After the operation, she could look into a car park and describe the cars,” Dr Watson said. “It was wonderful to see her, and her parents so happy.”

That’s what attracted Dr Watson to eyes when she could have branched into brains, or hearts, or myriad other things.

“It struck me you could ­ make a difference. You can change people’s lives, you can restore vision in people who can’t see,” she said.

Dr Watson’s work has been remarkable. She has pioneered a new stem cell treatment for dry and damaged eyes, developed a wound-healing model during her PhD and published dozens of papers in journals.

But it’s the work she does restoring sight that earns the love and respect of patients. Like the little boy whose eye was pecked by a magpie, or the man whose sight was ­destroyed by acid in a workplace accident, or the babies she operated on who are now energetic children.

“They are eight and nine years old now and it’s quite ­rewarding to see that. Without that operation, they would not have seen,” Dr Watson said.

It was a patient who nominated the professor for a Care and Compassion medal in the Pride of Australia awards.

“She has saved my sight many times — without payment,” Sandy O’Brien, from Blaxland, said.