RP International founder, Helen Harris Dies on Christmas Eve Just Hours Before Her Holiday Television Broadcast to …

Woodland Hills, California (PRWEB) December 25, 2014

Helen Harris RP (Retinitis Pigmentosa) International founder dies in her home in Woodland Hills, California after an 8 year battle with breast cancer.

Helen Harris passed away on Christmas Eve evening in her home in Woodland Hills California after an 8 year battle with aggressive metastatic breast cancer.

As the founder and volunteer President of RP International for over forty years, she pioneered and championed many of today's greatest breakthroughs in restoring and preserving our childrens eyesight. Retinal cell transplants , adult stem cell transplantation, groundbreaking treatments, procedures and technologies all aimed at curing RP, Macular Degeneration and related allied diseases which affect millions of Americans.

Sadly, one of Helens favorite contributions to helping blind and visually impaired fully enjoy the holiday season, The Eyes of Christmas and Its a Wondeful Life described for the blind aired just a few hours after she had passed away.

NBCs, Its a Wonderful Life narrated in Descriptive TheatreVisionTM by former President George H.W. Bush, and a second charity production, called The Eyes of ChristmasTM a holiday classic and the only television show in the country specifically made accessible with TheatreVisionTM. The host from inception has been Vin Scully, Dodgers hall of fame announcer and Bob Hope in Sight Telethon Co-host. The show is broadcast on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning nationally on ION Media Network and on FOX TV in Los Angeles. The broadcast features Co-host Clive Davis, musical performances and audio holiday description from many top stars ranging from George Clooney to Garth Brooks.

Helen created the Vision AwardsTM to bring national attention to pioneering visionaries in medical research, entertainment, the arts, music and technology. All in an attempt to promote and advance the need to cure RP and restore eyesight to 26 million Americans.

Before going blind from RP, Helen was an artist and painter, her collection of paintings created while over 99% blind, will be donated to the charity then auctioned, in an attempt to raise $1,000,000+ to endow a permanent medical fund in her name and to guarantee that all future young researchers have a place to turn for funding and that RP and Macular Degeneration patients calling in for free on the 800 Fight RP line continue to receive free counseling, doctors assistance and even talking computers.

It is Helens fondest wish that the volunteer-based effort she started be funded to completion, with experimental work now entering mainstream medicine, she may just have succeeded in doing what every major medical establishment had told her 40 years ago was impossible, restoring sight to the blind!

The charity and her family remain committed to finishing what Helen took from just a dream to a potential cure. Funding is desperately needed now to finish this extraordinary miracle of restoring eyesight to our children and loved ones. Please consider donating to RP International the non-profit charity Helen established almost half a century ago by visiting. http://www.RPInternational.org, Calling (800) Fight-RP or mailing a contribution to RP International, Post Office Box 900, Woodland Hills, California 91365.

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RP International founder, Helen Harris Dies on Christmas Eve Just Hours Before Her Holiday Television Broadcast to ...