Many a famous Fred has
come out of New Zealand. Firstly there is Fred Dagg, a fictional satirist who
spent years entertaining his New Zealand television audience; his alias John
Clarke is now a top script writer living in Australia. Sir Fred Allen who was the
most successful All Black Coach of all time winning 14 Test Matches in a row,
but the most prestigious Fred is Professor Frederick Hollows OM; an
Ophthalmologist born in Dunedin who had a vision of ending avoidable blindness.
Fred, as he liked to be called was a humanitarian,
he was touched by the drug of internal humanness, a man greatly recognised and
acknowledged for his work of “polishing lenses which brought sight to the blind in the poorest of countries…”
Having been a long distance admirer of Fred Hollows I wanted to know more about him so my research led me on an internet search to a list of the top 100 most inspirational people of the 21st century. Historical names from the past such as Albert Einstein and Mother Teresa were listed as were the most current icons, people such as Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama. But, nowhere on that list was there any mention of the inspirational Philanthropist, Fred Hollows.
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| Born in New Zealand with a vision to save the world |
Having been a long distance admirer of Fred Hollows I wanted to know more about him so my research led me on an internet search to a list of the top 100 most inspirational people of the 21st century. Historical names from the past such as Albert Einstein and Mother Teresa were listed as were the most current icons, people such as Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama. But, nowhere on that list was there any mention of the inspirational Philanthropist, Fred Hollows.
I didn’t
let that put me off, after a bit more digging I discovered that a young Fred
Hollows was invited to attend Otago University in
New Zealand to study medicine simply because he come up in the top 100 in New Zealand,
in science. Credit where credit is due I say; the influences from his earlier
life had formed a pathway to his future. A pathway that eventually led to him
settling in Australia.
For a
man who was born shortly before the Second World War his name has come a long
way. The Hollows Foundation he established shortly before he died was recently
named one of the world’s best NGO’s and is listed in the Global Journal in the
top 100. This is a significant achievement. As dreams go they don't get any better and once again the name Fred Hollows is listed in another top 100.
Some might argue this achievement should have earned Fred a place in the top 100 Achievers of the Twenty First Century, but as Joe Boughton-Dent said, “Fred Hollows
didn’t like to have his name up in lights but he would be proud of this
achievement because of what it says about how The Fred Hollows Foundation
works”.
And
that’s it right there; Fred’s name doesn’t need lists and lights, he is already
at the top for the more than one million people who have being granted the gift
of sight. It is a gift for those born into a world which is so vastly different
to that of others.
As
visionaries go, this humanitarian’s work must continue. His decision to train
as many people as he could to continue with the simple and effective low cost
cataract surgery for those who need it most is about keeping Fred’s dream
alive.
Professor Fred
Hollows OM. He was a man who climbed 100 mountains to enable us all to see that
in the end it doesn’t matter which side of the Tasman you were born, it is
dreams that make a difference in this world, not lists.
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