Meet the Beautiful Faces that Changed My Heart Forever – Lucy Holmes
Stories | August 3, 2018
Lucy Holmes, Light FM Radio Host, puts faces to names and shares the honest experience of witnessing a Miracle. Find out why her life now will never be the same.
The times I have travelled overseas with CBM have been some of the most incredible moments in my life. I’ve met these people, witnessed their operations, and then I’ve been there when their patches were removed. Ive seen people see for the first time.
It’s breathtaking.
It’s overwhelming.
It’s beautiful and brutal all at once.
Why do you say brutal, Lucy?
Let me tell you about the time I witnessed my first cataract surgery in Nepal. I almost fainted…
…It wasn’t the operation that made me nauseous though, it was the fact that my western life was so comfortable, and so unaffected by these poor people on the other side of the planet that I felt overwhelmed with utter guilt.
I rushed out of the theatre struggling to breathe, realising how blessed I was.
Your moment of entertainment or their life changed forever.
You see $33 is all it takes to restore sight to the blind.
$33 to me was a night at the movies, but to these people, that $33 operation was their life. Their WHOLE life given back to them.
It was their future, their hope.
Meet the man who put a face to it all
I met an old man in Nepal called Kiratnagar. He couldn’t work and feed his wife because he couldn’t see. He lived under a few pieces of sheet metal. Life was so tough.
Then I saw his operation. I stood there in scrubs with hot tears running down my face, and I was overwhelmed with grief and happiness all at once.
I was there a day later when they took off his patches, and I was the first thing he saw.
We didn’t speak the same language so we sat there both crying and then clapping and laughing.
That moment is burnt into my memory.
I’m weeping right now as I type about it. I witnessed a Miracle. I was speechless. Even these words I type seem so pathetic. No words can do justice to what I saw.
Your impact continues…
Three years ago, I met a little six-year-old boy in the Philippines. He was blind and was about to receive his Miracle. The gift of sight. I asked, through the translator, what the first thing he wanted to see was.
He said “I want to see my Mummy’s face”.
Speechless.
Hot tears down my face.
Beautiful and brutal. Hope amongst the hardship.
And the difference? You and I. We are the difference. In a sometimes brutal world, be the beautiful difference.
Every time I have travelled with CBM, the people I have met have asked one thing of me. To thank you.
They want to thank you from the bottom of their hearts.
They understand all too well that it is people like YOU who are giving them their eye-sight back.
They are so thankful. So very, very thankful.
They are thankful for their $33 Miracle. Thankful for being able to see again… and thankful to YOU for caring. Even they struggle to find the words. They are speechless at your generosity.
So be speechless like me, if just for a moment, and give someone the gift of sight this Miracles Day. Be beautiful in heart and deed.
https://www.cbm.org.au/stories/beautiful-faces-lucy-holmes
Related Stories
Rise and Thrive: Building resilient communities through inclusive mental health
As the climate crisis accelerates, communities across the Indo-Pacific...
A Father’s Unconditional Love
Allan is a farmer and father of 21-year-old twin brothers, George and Gerald, who together, live in a remote village in the Bicol region...
Estrella’s journey from patient to mental health advocate
Had you asked Estrella from the Philippines what her future looked like five years...