Forget the London Eye, it may offer great views but it will never take off. Envisage instead the 'Flying Eye', a mobile operating theatre providing the latest sight-saving procedures to the developing world. Only a few have experienced it, including one lucky Kingston alumnus, but a local  17 year-old student will soon join ophthalmologists on September 21 for ten days aboard the world’s only flying hospital.

Sasha, along with two other students, was chosen over 22 other applicants from three ACS International campuses to work in a different type of hospital wing; a 48-seat classroom responsible for saving millions of people worldwide from blindness.

She follows in the footsteps of Beverley Watts, Editor of Now Online, who travelled onboard the Flying Eye after her Kingston postgraduate studies. Ms Watts stressed that she would encourage Kingston University students to take part as it will “change your life”.

She said: "It was amazing to see the joy the ORBIS surgery brought to people who don't have the money to get this treatment."

ACS International Schools Foundation, who has a unique relationship with ORBIS, will sponsor Miss Vohlidkova to spend a total of two weeks in India observing surgery and providing post-operative support.

Sasha said: "I am looking forward to the 10 days spent in Jaipur, both because of what I can offer and what the programme can offer to me.

"I am expecting some rather substantial paradigm shifts during the programme, as, other than ACS, I have not experienced much cultural diversity.”

ACS raises £25,000 every year in return for three of their students to spend one week with ORBIS medical staff to experience the screening, treatment, pre-op, surgery and post-op of blind patients. Students are also offered the chance to participate in rural outreach and listen in to any of the medical lectures that go on during the programme.

Karen Jaques, ORBIS Corporate Fundraising Manager, has said that a similar relationship with Kingston University is a definite possibility.

Ms. Jaques said: “We have not yet worked with university students but would be more than willing to. We could build a relationship with Kingston University but it will need some planning. We are very open to suggestions.”

According to the World Health Organisation, 37 million people worldwide are blind yet 28 million could have been prevented or treated. Over 90 per cent reside in developing countries.

Jennifer Deakins attended the ORBIS internship in 2000 as a student at ACS Hillingdon International School and went on to study optometry at the University of Houston, College of Optometry. She said:

"The effects of providing a person with sight who has been without it for so long are nothing short of miraculous. Even correcting blurry vision can change someone's life dramatically. People in developing countries rely so much on their sight to provide for their families and contribute to their communities.

She added: "I believe experiences like this allow students to truly understand the importance and impact of global citizenship and community service."

ACS has three London area campuses at Egham, Cobham and Hillingdon and is the only school to have an internship with ORBIS. Since 2000, two groups of three students have attended ORBIS internships every year prior to Miss Vohlidkova's trip to Jaipur, to observe the ORBIS Flying Eye Hospital programme in action.

Moyra Hadley, Headmistress of ACS Egham, said: "We offer our students, like Sasha, this unique internship not only so that they are able to experience first-hand different cultures and traditions, but also to give them the opportunity to change someone's life for the better."

The mobile teaching hospital has travelled over places including Tanzania, Bangladesh, Uganda and Myanmar as a unique tool in the fight against preventable blindness in developing countries. The 2009 itinery includes Laos, Dominican Republic, Peru, Syria, Kenya, India, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.

Sulaimani Kabugo, a 16-year-old patient and one of five Ugandans to have their sight restored in a week after their corneal transplant, used to attend a school for the blind and has read with brail since the age of five.

He said: “Now I can see better. That is it from this morning. The doctors told me my sight will continue improving…I read something I couldn’t read the other day.”

Local doctors, nurses and technicians work alongside ORBIS's international medical team onboard the aircraft to exchange knowledge and improve skills. In many cases such as corneal blindness, many could have their sight restored if surgery and equipment were available locally, in this case corneal transplants.

Dr Juliet Otiti, an ophthalmologist at Mulago Hospital, Uganda and a trainee onboard the Flying Eye, said: “We don’t have specialist ophthalmologists. We are all general ophthalmologists but are being encouraged to specialise and the ministry is supporting us."

Sasha is one of the latest of more than 20 ACS International students to board the plane; a self-sufficient eye clinic with an operating room, classroom, library and an audio-visual room to record surgeries for the host doctors' continuing education, since the ACS-ORBIS partnership began.

Rebecca Cronin, Interim Executive Director of ORBIS UK, said: "This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for ACS students to visit the Flying Eye Hospital and observe our dedicated team devoted to saving sight in developing countries."

Miss Vohlidkova added: "I hope the ORBIS internship will not be just a unique opportunity for the three of us, I hope it will be a starting point and that we will be able to go on and build on what we will have learned from it."

On a visit to Vietnam, Oliver Foot, the late President of ORBIS International who led the project for 25 years until a heart attack last year, said:

"This is the true joy in life, being used for a purpose recognised by yourself as a mighty one. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to ORBIS and the whole community, and, as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live."

With more internships being made available and ORBIS keen to build relationships with universities, Kingston students are encouraged to apply to witness operations onboard the ‘Flying Eye’; the world’s only flying hospital, providing better views than anyone thought possible.