$50 million new donation from Tom Snow aims to foil Glaucoma, follows his earlier $100 million gift for immunology research

Tom Snow is in the business of backing winners, and his latest bet of $50 million aims to combat an all-too-common but debilitating disease that affects 80 million people globally.

Glaucoma causes gradual blindness and is often only detected when it is too late.

“This is about backing long-term, big research projects that require 10- to 20-year horizons to deliver. Big science takes time to deliver and this donation is about accelerating that process,” said Snow, the billionaire philanthropist who heads the Snow Medical foundation.

“This is about bringing multidisciplinary teams together in a concerted effort on one area, which has never been done in any systematic way worldwide.”

The $50 million over 10 years will go to the University of Sydney’s Professor Jonathan Crowston and his team to back his transformational research into glaucoma and its treatment.

Glaucoma is the result of damage to the optic nerve. The loss of sight is usually gradual, particularly peripheral vision, with no cure. Early detection is the only solution, with the condition treated by eye drops or laser surgery to treat pressure on the nerve.

Of the 80 million people affected, 4.5 million are completely blind in both eyes. Unless diagnosed in time, the disease, referred to as the “sneak thief of sight”, progresses silently until significant vision is lost.

“Current treatments target pressure on the optic nerve with eye drops or laser surgery,” Crowston said.

“What we don’t do is actually treat and protect the nerve, and that’s what we’re trying to do. It’s akin to only treating blood pressure for heart disease, but not having any treatments that directly protect the heart.”

His approach, which is already a decade in the making, will mitigate the need to lower eye pressure on the optic nerve, thereby reducing some of the costs.

“In the next year or two, we will be designing new therapies, along with the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Scientists, which have a proven track record in the drug discovery and optimisation and translation into pre-clinical phase.

“Our goal is to develop something that every glaucoma patient gets that protects their optic nerves, rather than needing to get their pressure.

“We know that many people with glaucoma will not lose their vision but about 10 to 20 per cent will go blind in their lifetime. We are bad at predicting who those people are. So the first clinical cohort will help us find ways of assessing which patients have glaucoma that has a fast progression.”

Kelly Blanch, 49, has an extremely rare form of glaucoma that is congenital, although there is no family history. She is now partially blind in her right eye, a side effect of surgery when she was just five months old.

Blanch’s mother, concerned about her watery eyes, dragged the young baby from GP to GP until she finally got a diagnosis. That resulted in her immediately being operated on to relieve the pressure on the optic nerve.

She still uses drops to control the pressure in both her eyes, eats well and has regular check-ups with her ophthalmologist.

Blanch said her semi-blindness had been a small blessing in disguise. She works as an accredited animal communicator, healer and psychic, tapping into senses that have been bolstered by the partial loss of her sight.

“I’m a very old soul,” Blanch said. “I’ve always been highly sensitive, very in tune with animals and people. I look at it as a gift that I’m very much in touch with my other senses.”

Last year, Snow Medical made a $100 million donation over 10 years to the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research and Royal Melbourne Hospital to advance Australia’s already global position as a leader in immunology research.

Tom Snow is Chair of Canberra Airport as well as Chair of Snow Medical Research Foundation, which has invested over $200 million into the Australian medical research sector.

Tom Snow is also the Founder of Equality Australia, and was a Co-Chair and Founder of the Equality Campaign, which led the successful Yes vote in the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey and saw in the successful legislative change for marriage equality.

Before the marriage equality campaign, Tom and his business partner created Whitehelm Capital.

They built Whitehelm into an infrastructure fund manager with nearly $5 billion in funds under management across 44 infrastructure assets and $16 billion in funds under advice.

Tom has served as a director at Perth Airport, the Port of Adelaide, Bankstown Airport, Peninsula Link, Etihad Stadium and the Australian Science Festival.

He was also Chair of the Canberra Convention Bureau.

He is a Rhodes Scholar, and is a proud father.