Today, November 14th, is World Diabetes Day 2026. This year, the global theme is ‘Early action on diabetes’, and if there is one area where early action provably saves sight, it is diabetic retinopathy screening.
Diabetic retinopathy is the most common cause of preventable sight loss in working-age adults in the UK. Millions of people are living with it right now. Many of them have no idea.
That last part is the problem.
What is diabetic retinopathy?
Diabetic retinopathy is damage to the blood vessels in the retina, the light-sensitive layer at the back of the eye, caused by high blood sugar levels over time. When those tiny vessels are damaged, they can leak, swell, or grow abnormally, gradually disrupting and eventually destroying vision.
The condition affects people with both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. It does not discriminate by age, lifestyle, or how well-managed someone’s diabetes appears to be. And it is remarkably common: research shows that over half of people with Type 1 diabetes will have some degree of retinopathy within 20 years of their diagnosis, and nearly a third of people with Type 2.
Why diabetic retinopathy is so hard to catch without screening
Here is what makes diabetic retinopathy so dangerous: in its early stages, there are no symptoms at all.
No pain. No blurring. No flashing lights. Nothing that would prompt someone to book a GP appointment or visit an optician. Vision can appear entirely normal while damage is quietly building in the retina. By the time symptoms become noticeable, such as floaters, patches of lost vision, or difficulty reading, the condition has often already progressed to a stage where treatment options are more limited, and some damage may be permanent.
This is not a rare edge case. This is how diabetic retinopathy works. And it is exactly why the NHS screening programme exists.
The NHS Diabetic Eye Screening Programme: how it works and why it matters
The NHS Eye Screening Programme (view here) was introduced in 2003. It is one of the most effective public health interventions in UK ophthalmology. If you are aged 12 or over and registered with a GP as having diabetes, you should receive an invitation for a free annual eye screening appointment.
The test itself is straightforward. Drops are used to dilate the pupils, and photographs are taken of the back of the eye. Those images are then reviewed by trained graders who look for the early signs of retinopathy, changes that would be invisible in a standard eye test.
The results speak for themselves. In the first years of the programme alone, over 74,000 people were referred to hospital eye services, and around 4,600 received treatment specifically to prevent sight loss. These are people whose retinopathy was caught before they had any reason to suspect something was wrong.
Attending your annual diabetic eye screening appointment is the single most effective thing a person with diabetes can do to protect their vision.
Who faces the highest risk?
Diabetic retinopathy can affect anyone with diabetes, but some people face a higher risk:
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- People with poorly controlled blood sugar levels
- Those with high blood pressure or high cholesterol
- People who smoke
- Those who have had diabetes for a longer period of time
- People of African-Caribbean or South Asian heritage, who are approximately twice as likely to develop retinopathy compared to the general population
If any of these apply to you or someone you know, that is all the more reason to attend screening appointments every year without fail.
Treatment for diabetic retinopathy works, but only when caught early
If retinopathy is detected early, effective treatments are available. These include anti-VEGF injections to reduce abnormal blood vessel growth, laser treatment to seal leaking vessels, steroid implants to reduce swelling, and in advanced cases, surgery. None of these treatments can undo damage that has already occurred. But they can halt progression and preserve remaining vision.
That is the critical thing to understand about early action: treatment cannot restore what has already been lost, but it can protect what remains. So the earlier intervention happens, the more vision there is to save.
Too many people are missing their screenings
Screening uptake across the UK varies, and in some communities and regions, too many people with diabetes are not attending their annual eye check. Reasons vary. Appointments can feel like one more thing to manage on top of an already demanding healthcare schedule. Or people may assume that because their vision seems fine, there is nothing to worry about.
But the absence of symptoms is not reassurance. It is the reason diabetic eye screening exists.
If you have diabetes and you have not received a screening invitation recently, speak to your GP. If you have received one and have not yet booked it, do it today. The appointment takes around 30 minutes. It is free on the NHS. And it could make the difference between catching a problem early and losing sight that cannot be recovered.
Living well when sight loss has already happened
For the many people in the UK who are living with vision impairment as a result of diabetic retinopathy or another condition, life does not stop. But it does change. The right tools make an enormous difference to independence, connection, and day-to-day confidence.
The RealSAM Pocket Plus is a voice-operated phone designed specifically for blind and partially sighted people. With no need to navigate small icons or read a screen, everything is controlled by voice and touch. The built-in Sight Assistant reads aloud text from medication packaging, food labels, and printed documents. Smart Reminders can be set for glucose checks, medication, and appointments. And Be My Eyes connects users with a sighted volunteer by video call for everyday visual tasks.
Living well with sight loss is possible. But the best outcome of all is protecting sight before it is lost. And that starts with one appointment.
This World Diabetes Day: take early action on your eye health
The theme of World Diabetes Day 2026, “Early action on diabetes,” could not be more relevant to eye health. Diabetic retinopathy is preventable. Sight loss from it is largely avoidable. And the route to prevention is straightforward: attend your annual screening every year, even when you feel absolutely fine.
If you have diabetes, check when your last eye screening was. If it has been more than a year, contact your GP. If you have received an invitation that is sitting unopened, open it today.
Your eyes cannot tell you when they are in trouble. But the screening programme can.
For more information on the NHS Diabetic Eye Screening Programme, visit nhs.uk. Fight for Sight has detailed resources on diabetic retinopathy
To find out more about how RealSAM supports people living with sight loss, visit realsam.co.uk/shop.
