Actor David Suchet is lending his support to a Christian charity's drive to help more blind children this Christmas.
Christian Blind Mission's 'Colours of Christmas' campaign is raising funds to provide life-changing cataract surgery for children in some of the poorest parts of the world.
A cataract occurs when the lens of the eye becomes cloudy, causing vision to be blurry.
It is one of the leading causes of blindness in the world today but can usually be fixed with surgery.
Christian Blind Mission said the cost of providing the surgery to one child was just £95, but Suchet said that even this was 'tragically out of reach' for so many in poorer parts of the world.
Suchet, best known for his role as Poirot in the long-running TV show, said he was 'proud' to be supporting the campaign to make more widely available a procedure that is 'almost a matter of routine' in the UK.
'It's hard to imagine Christmas without colour, particularly for a child,' he said.
'As a grandfather, I love to see my grandchildren enjoying the bright colours of the tinsel, the sparkling lights, colourful wrapping paper – all part of the joyous celebration of Christ's birth.
'So, it's a tragedy that there are children needlessly living in a world without colour or light, unable to see the faces of family and friends – simply because they live in poverty and can't access a straightforward operation to restore their sight.'
Christian Blind Mission said that removing cataracts from a child's eye is a relatively simple procedure that takes less than one hour.
One of the children it wants to help is five-year-old Sesan, who lives in Nigeria with his parents.
His family makes just enough food to eat off a small plot of land but they live in poverty and their house has no electricity or water. For them, the cost of cataract surgery is too much.
Sesan's father Noah said his child's blindness has 'been affecting the heart of almost everyone in the family'.
His brother helps him to play football with the other children by guiding his hands, but the cataracts are making day to day life very difficult.
'He falls down most times,' says Sesan's mother, Olanike. 'He cannot play with his friends as he would love to.'
To give to the 'Colours of Christmas' campaign, visit here https://www.cbmuk.org.uk/christmas/
