This is the story of 14-year-old Pikkili Madhavi, who lives in a small village of Cuddapah district in Andhra Pradesh, India. She had given up her education to earn a living for her family, but an eye injury robbed her of her vision. Fortunately, she can now see again - thanks to a timely eye donation, thoughtfully made by a deceased donor's relatives. Madhavi has since returned to the fields where she works.

Her parents, Pakirappa and Parvathamma, are farmers who work for daily wages. Madhavi is their third child, with three sisters and a brother. Seeing her aged parents struggling to feed the family, she decided to leave her studies and join her parents in the field. She was in the seventh class when she began to share her parents' workload.

One day while she was collecting firewood for cooking, a twig hit Madhavi in the right eye. She was treated by a local physician, and did not have any problems for a year. Then Madhavi began complaining of reduced vision in the right eye. She was in despair as she could not see with her right eye. A local physician referred her to L V Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI) at Hyderabad.

Her parents brought her to LVPEI, where Madhavi was examined by an ophthalmologist on July 8, 2005. Her visual acuity was limited to PL+ (Perception of Light). She was diagnosed to have 'Adherent Leucoma' with traumatic cataract, for which she required two surgical procedures, including cataract extraction and corneal transplantation surgery.

The Institute's Patient Counselling Department told Madhavi that she would have to wait for the surgery till a suitable donor cornea was found. The counselor gave her hope, by explaining that LVPEI had an eye bank that worked towards procuring corneas from deceased donors to restore sight to corneally blind patients. Madhavi learnt that corneas needed for surgery could not be bought - they were only donated after one's death.

Madhavi's family was moved when the counselor narrated how eye bank personnel in multispecialty hospitals strive to motivate family members to donate the eyes of their deceased loved ones. They were also informed that Ramayamma International Eye Bank's cornea procurement program was supported generously by ORBIS International, an organization based in USA. Finally, they realized that it was only through team effort that sight could be restored to a blind person; the team comprises eye donation counselors, eye bank professionals, the corneal surgeon and support staff.

For two weeks Madhavi waited for a donor cornea. She underwent corneal transplantation surgery on July 23, 2005, by a gift of sight made by a woman who died of sudden cardiac arrest on July 22, 2005. The donor's son was approached by an LVPEI eye donation counselor who spoke about eye donation to the family members. The son took no time in consenting to donate his mother's eyes. To him it meant a selfless donation to help a corneally blind person for whom those eyes were so precious.