The Duchess of Edinburgh receives public support from her brother-in-law, King Charles, for her tireless work

Among royal watchers, the Duchess of Edinburgh is celebrated for her hard work and diligent service, including her advocacy for global health issues like ending preventable blindness. It will have been exciting, then, to see her work championed by King Charles on the official royal family’s social media.

On Instagram, Buckingham Palace marked World Sight Day with a post in honour of the ‘extraordinary progress made against trachoma, the world’s leading infectious cause of blindness.’ The caption referenced how the number of people thought to be at risk of developing the disease has dropped by 94% thanks to the efforts of communities, health workers, governments, and global partners.

The post then foregrounded the Duchess of Edinburgh’s work in the field, as the Global Ambassador for the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness, who has an Honorary Fellowship from the College of Optometrists. According to the royal family, Sophie ‘looks forward to joining eye health leaders at the upcoming Global Eye Health Summit in Antigua and Barbuda in early November, helping to amplify the work being done around the world to prevent avoidable sight loss.’

Accompanying the message was a photograph of the diligent Duchess on one of her many international obligations, when she visited the Kirtipur Eye Hospital in Nepal in 2025. Sophie is abroad more than most royals and very often chooses to advocate for ending preventable blindness on her international tours. In Zambia this September, for example, she attended a reception in honour of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness.

In August, Sophie announced that she would serve as the new royal patron of Visualise Scotland, a charity dedicated to providing support for adults with visual impairment and complex disabilities throughout Edinburgh and the Lothians. It is the latest of over 70 charities and organisations to have named Sophie their patron, with the late Queen Elizabeth’s ‘favourite daughter-in-law’ taking a keen interest in championing people with physical and visual disabilities.

The cause is a deeply personal one for the Duchess of Edinburgh. Her daughter, Lady Louise Windsor, was born with a rare eye condition called esotropia, which caused one eye to turn inwards, requiring corrective surgery. Lady Louise’s surgeries, which took place some time ago, were totally successful, and the young royal has gone from strength to strength, graduating from the University of St Andrews this year.

Lady Louise’s birth in 2003 was a traumatic one. Sophie, then the Countess of Wessex, was rushed to hospital after her blood pressure dropped to near-fatal levels, eventually losing nine pints of blood. ‘It was very scary,’ she recounted in The Sunday Times in 2020, recalling how Lady Louise was born a month early at 4lb 9oz. ‘She had a severe squint and had corrective surgery. It’s still not perfect, but none of us are.’

In 2022, Sophie visited Botswana and Malawi as part of her role as an ambassador for the IAPB. She travelled there to see the progress that has been made in helping people with eye surgery and eye care. On World Sight Day, she joined annual celebrations in Malawi, visiting local clinics to learn about sight-saving surgeries. Other charities Sophie has been associated with in relation to blindness are Seeing is Believing, Orbis UK and The Visions Foundation.

Before awarding the Duchess of Edinburgh with her Honorary Fellowship to the College of Optometrists in 2025, President Dr Gillian Rudduck praised Sophie for her ‘inspirational’ work in the field.

‘We are honoured to present Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Edinburgh with Fellowship of The College of Optometrists to celebrate Her Royal Highness’ dedication to eliminating avoidable sight loss,’ Dr Rudduck said at the time.

‘The Duchess of Edinburgh’s work championing eye health projects in both the United Kingdom and in countries around the world is an inspiration to us all. Fellowship is the College’s highest accolade and recognises outstanding contributions to vision and eye health.’

This World Sight Day, that work has also been championed by the royal family itself.