About SightLife

Working with surgeons in over 30 countries, SightLife restores sight to more than 20 men, women, and children each day. This is accomplished through eye banking, which is the recovery and placement of eye tissue used in cornea transplants. SightLife’s mission is to eliminate cornea blindness, and we are working to achieve that mission by creating partner eye banks in the developing countries, where 90% of the 10 million people suffering from curable cornea blindness live.

SightLife’s primary service regions in the United States are Washington state, Northern Idaho, Montana, California’s San Joaquin Valley, and Kaiser Permanente in Northern California. We meet 100% of the need for transplant tissue in these regions with no waiting list. We also help to fill shortages in other parts of the nation.

SightLife is a member of both the Eye Bank Association of America and the Vision Share consortium of eye banks.

History

SightLife is one of the leading eye banks in the world. The Lions Clubs of Washington and Northern Idaho first started our eye bank, then known as the Northwest Lions Eye Bank, in 1969, and we still work closely with those groups in the service of restored sight. That first year, we provided 30 corneas for transplant. Times have changed, and SightLife continues to grow. In 2010, we provided nearly 5,000 corneas for transplant, meeting the need in our region and helping fill gaps across the United States and around the world.

1925 Helen Keller travels to Lions International Convention to ask Lions to serve as “Knights of the Blind.” Lions say, “Yes!”
1969 Regional Lions Clubs band together to establish the Northwest Lions Eye Bank.
2001 The Northwest Lions Eye Bank merges with the Montana Eye Bank.
2006 To better reflect its national and international role, the Board of Trustees of the Northwest Lions Foundation renames Northwest Lions Eye Bank as SightLife.
2009 SightLife begins its service to Northern California, helping even more people to see.