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MrBeast, also known as Jimmy Donaldson, partnered with a local nonprofit and an ophthalmologist to get the job done.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A YouTube celebrity is giving back by helping 1,000 people around the world get their vision back, and 40 of those people live here on the First Coast.
MrBeast has 130 million subscribers and his latest video shows him promising to help 1,000 blind people see for the first time. The video recieved more than 63 million views.
First Coast News talked to one of the patients MrBeast helped on Oct. 7 2022. Jeffrey Yaple says he’s so grateful to be able to see from both eyes.
“I can see every little piece of bark on that tree I can see it, I love it this is great,” said Yaple.
Yaple wore glasses for a while and in the past two years he developed cataracts making it hard for him to see anything.
Thanks to MrBeast, Dr. Jeffrey Levenson, and a local organization called Vision is Priceless, he doesn’t have to worry about bad eyesight anymore.
“I can see as good as I could when I was 16. I don’t need any glasses anymore. The man, I don’t know who he is, but he is very good, and I wouldn’t go to anybody but Mr. Levenson,” said Yaple.
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Levenson says for 30 years he has partnered with Vision is Priceless and they have a program called Gift of Sight, where he provides free eye surgery to those who may not be able to afford to get their cataracts removed.
This is the program that MrBeast donated to help 40 people in Jacksonville get their vision fixed.
“Three months ago I got a phone call from these people and said this is MrBeast and we saw what you are doing here in Jacksonville, and we would love to do it all around the world for a thousand different people,” said Levenson.
Levenson also connected Donaldson’s team with SEE international to reach patients in Jamaica, Honduras, Namibia, Mexico, Indonesia, Brazil, and Vietnam and Kenya.
Levenson says more than thousands of people in Jacksonville benefitted from this program. He says the surgery is painless, quick, and perhaps one of the most successful of all surgical procedures.
“They are suddenly released from this bindless and this darkness, and it’s a really heartwarming moment that I don’t get tired of seeing,” said Levenson.
To see if you are eligible to become a patient for the program, Levenson says you can go to visionispriceless.org, or you can call 904-503-2423.