THE mayor of Cardigan has lent her voice to residents living with an incurable eye disease over treatment delays that has left some fearing they could lose their sight.

Cllr Sian Maehrlein visited the relaunch of the group for people living with macular disease earlier this month and heard from people about treatment delays.

Macular disease, for which there is no cure, can leave people without the use of their central vision and is the biggest cause of sight loss in the UK.

Conditions such as wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) are treated in the form of eye injections to stabilise bleeding at the back of the eye.

However, many people including those in the Cardigan group have experienced delays in receiving their injections on the NHS, which if not received as planned, can lead to irreversible sight loss – an issue which the Macular Society has highlighted across the UK.

Cllr Maehrlein said she was “privileged” to attend and was keen to find people the answers for their eye treatment delays.

She said: “The group had 12 people who are very concerned about the lack of injections which will speed up sight loss if not done regularly and I could hear the fear in the voices of the people who have been unable to get the injections.

“They are worried about not only losing their sight, but losing their independence altogether.

“This is a very rural area with no transport for many and lacking the support which is needed.

“Please can we find a way forward to get these people the very important treatment they so badly need to help them live their lives as independently as possible.”

Macular Society regional manager for South Wales, Adele Francis, said: “The members of the Cardigan Macular Society Support Group and I would like to thank Cllr Sian Maehrlein for attending our group.

“It is not only welcome to new members who have been diagnosed with macular disease, but also their family, friends and carers.

“We know the peer support can be so helpful and our groups can really help people increase in confidence and become more independent.”

“The mayor’s visit means so much to our group members to know someone is listening and fighting for them, anything that will help to raise the profile of the problem with the backlog in delayed treatment of wet AMD injections, which causes irreversible sight loss needs to be applauded.

“There has to be a quick, short-term solution while working on the medium to long-term solution but for some the damage has already happened and they have lost the remaining central vision they had. For those people this is devastating and unacceptable.”

The group, in association with sight loss charity the Macular Society, meets every second Tuesday of the month, 10.30am to 12.30pm at the Radley Room in the Guildhall, Cardigan.