I WOULD like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all of the three million plus players of the People's Postcode Lottery in the UK.

Thanks to your support, People’s Postcode Lottery has been able to provide over £500 million to good causes since 2005, which is just incredible.

Over £3.9 million of this we have been grateful to receive at Sightsavers.

Money raised by players has been indispensable in helping Sightsavers to fund vital, sightsaving work in some of the world’s poorest countries.

A cataract surgery can cost as little as £30 but it has a transformational effect.

We recently worked with Gordane and Suhura, a married couple from Mozambique, who were both almost blind from cataracts.

They were able to have sight-restoring surgery within a week of each other and it has turned their lives around, enabling them to return to normal day-to-day activities such as cooking, working and socialising.

And perhaps most valuable of all, they were able to see each other again.

It's a win-win situation for everyone.

So once again, a big thank you to all the players in the North West for your support.

To find out about some of the lives being turned around by players' support, please head on over to sightsavers.org/ppl or give Sightsavers a call on 0800 089 2020.

Dr Caroline Harper, Sightsavers chief executive.