A humanitarian trip to help eye surgeons working in Haiti inspired a Bermudian woman to launch an appeal for sunglasses to help protect people’s eyesight on the poverty-stricken island.

Now Lucy Willitts, a retired bank worker and after-school care assistant, is on a mission to collect as many pairs of shades as she can.

She explained that dirt, dust and malnutrition, as well as the bright sunshine, could cause serious damage to the eyes of Haitians and that medical care is thin on the ground.

She said: “It’s on my heart that because of the human catastrophe in Haiti, with the dust, the sun and of course malnutrition, I propose to do a sunshades drive.

“I’m appealing to schools, churches, grocery stores, offices, everyone.

“The goal is to fill a container and send it to Haiti,” Mrs Willits explained. “I was told by a friend, ‘Lucy, you want the impossible’, but I said, with God, nothing is impossible.”

She went to the island after friend Maureen Moore, whom she met at the Eliza DoLittle food programme at the Anglican Cathedral, said she was planning a return trip to Haiti.

Ms Moore, a full-time missionary for 12 years, said she would be working with Northwest Haiti Christian Mission to assist a team of eye surgeons.

Ms Willitts, 74, of Pembroke, “jumped at the chance” and the pair joined more than 30 other volunteers from America on October 6.

She and Ms Moore, a 71-year-old retired lab technician from Paget, were based at a NWHCM facility in Saint-Louis-Du-Nord, which is staffed by Haitians and offers a range of services, including medical and dental clinics, orphanages, a seniors home and a nutrition programme.

They explained that ultraviolet rays as well as other radiation from the sun has been linked to eye damage including cataracts and macular degeneration.

The risks are greater for people living closer to the equator, such as those in Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere and where few can afford quality sunglasses.

Ms Moore said malnutrition, including vitamin A deficiency, and a poor standard of medical care also increased the risk of major eye problems.

The optical team the two were attached to saw up to 200 patients daily and doctors carried out 147 operations, mostly for cataracts, in just four days.

Some people travelled up to 100 miles to get to the clinic.

Ms Willitts said: “The most horrendous was a 34-year-old Haitian who was a schoolteacher originally and had developed an eye problem.

“She went to different doctors and hospitals and all they gave her were eye drops. I’ve never in my life seen anything like this, it was like a horror movie.

“Her eyeball was resting on her cheek, she had a tumour way back in her head and it was pushing the eyeball out of the socket, it looked like a miniature elephant trunk. She was in tremendous pain.”

Although the woman was expected to live for only six months, surgery meant her last days would be more comfortable.

She added a teenager called Carlos had been shunned by his community because he was blind.

But treatment to one eye, he could see well enough to make out the number of fingers held up by a nurse at a reasonable distance.

Surgery on his other eye is due to be carried out next year.

It is hoped he will now be enrolled in school with a view to a return to the clinic to work as an interpreter.

Ms Willitts appealed to everyone in Bermuda to fill a cardboard box with sunglasses — for adults and children — and mark it “Shades for Haiti”.

She said: “I know we are only 60,000 but I think we can do this.

“I’m hoping every single person will be willing to donate shades. We will give it some time, we will see how long it takes.

She told the public: “You’re going to help somebody from going blind.”

Ms Willitts worked with Catholic nun Mother Teresa in Calcutta, India, in the early 1990s and a conversation with one of the nuns who had been to Haiti sparked her desire to visit the country. She said she considered Haiti to be in worse shape than the slums of Calcutta — now Kolkata.

The Bermudian pair’s arrival in the country was memorable — the country was hit by an earthquake that measured 5.8 on the Richter Scale.

Ms Willitts said: “The building started to shake, it burst our pipes, it was a nightmare.

“The reaction was raw nerves because there were after tremors the following two days.

“We were eight miles from the epicentre, which was Port-de-Paix, and heard there were 18 people who died.

“As a result, everybody’s nerves were on edge, including the doctors.”

Boxes of sunglasses can be delivered to The Garden Market, on Serpentine Road, Pembroke.

Ms Moore added she would also like to contact any Haitians in Bermuda.

• For more information about the sunglasses donation drive, e-mail Ms Moore at maureen.moore@me.com