It's something many people take for granted, but just imagine what your life would be like without your eye sight?
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With 90 per cent of vision loss both preventable and treatable if detected early, Daylesford man Ted Nason is encouraging people to get an eye test.
The 71-year-old grandfather and men's shed member has learnt to value his vision.
Diagnosed with type one diabetes at age seven, Mr Nason was given a reality check about how the disease could affect his quality of life if he didn't start to care for his health at age 14.
While visiting a specialist in Melbourne, the doctor took him on rounds around the hospital to visit a number of different patients with varying conditions, including a patient with a foot infection that was about to be amputated, in order to show him that diabetes is a serious condition.
Diabetics have a higher risk of developing serious eye conditions and it was meeting an 18-year-old woman, who had completely lost her vision, that really moved him.
"When I asked her why she was blind she said it was because she didn't worry about her health and her high blood sugar caused her to lose her sight."
Once you've lost it, you can't get it back, it's gone.
- Ted Nason
"I thought, that's not going to happen to me. I started looking after myself, and years later, my eyes are one of the important things in my life now," he said.
Mr Nason went on to attend trades school and has spent much of his life using chainsaws and other heavy machinery as well as chopping wood while developing a property at Wheatsheaf.
He started getting his eyes tested at 18 when he was to sit for his drivers licence and has done so every year since.
"Sight is such an important sense to have. If you lose your eyesight, you're in a real mess. That's why I've been very careful of it and have tried to do the right thing."
He now takes exceptional care of his health and regularly monitors his blood sugar levels and injects himself with insulin several times a day. He also goes for regular walks with his dog.
"We're asking people to make sure they look after their eyes and book in for an eye check today. All you have to do is cover your eyes and ask yourself, how you would manage if suddenly you couldn't see, just like that?"
The appeal is part of the Vision Initiative, a state government funded program aiming to prevent avoidable blindness while addressing the impact vision loss can have.
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