YouTube star MrBeast, real name Jimmy Donaldson, has in his recent video taken his fans through the heartening journey of how he sponsored cataract surgeries for 1,000 people around the world, among them Kenyans.
Cataract surgery involves replacing the cloudy lens inside your eye with an artificial one. It has a high success rate in improving one's eyesight. It can take 2 to 6 weeks to fully recover from cataract surgery with medical experts assuring permanent results.
The 24-year-old YouTube pro, in the video posted on Sunday, worked with a surgeon who conducted the first round of surgeries in Jacksonville Florida, United States.
Jeff Levenson, as identified by CNN, is an ophthalmologist and surgeon who has coordinated the “Gift of Sight” program for over 20 years, which provides free cataract surgery for uninsured patients who are legally blind due to cataracts.
"Half of all the blindness in the world is people who need a 10-minute surgery," he told MrBeast in the video.
The ever-bountiful Donaldson was also not shy to yet again offer copious amounts of cash to some of the patients.
Two of the patients were awarded Ksh.1.2 million ($10,000).
Satchel, who had poor vision from birth and almost lost his entire vision after a go-karting accident, was given a brand new Tesla because "he mentioned multiple times that he really wants to drive after this procedure."
"All I see is blur and colour, I can barely see shapes. I wanna drive and since I can't I just stay at home," said Satchel before the surgery.
Another patient, Jeremiah, was awarded Ksh.6.2 million (50,000) to put towards college. He had just got done with his high school studies.
Not only did patients from Florida benefit from his benevolence but also individuals from all over the world. Donaldson said that he was seeking to help as many people as possible because they could not easily access the treatment.
"We are also going to other people in the world because unfortunately nearly half of the people with curable blindness do not have access to this surgery. So I wanted to provide this to as many people as possible," said Donaldson.
Some of the countries his team visited were Mexico, Honduras, Indonesia, Brazil, Vietnam, Jamaica, Namibia and Kenya.
His generous hand likewise stretched towards Dr Levenson who received a Ksh.12.4 million ($100,000) donation to his program.
"It will bring sight to thousands of people," said Dr Levenson.
The video, at the time of this publication, has garnered 57 million views.
MrBeast has 130 million subscriptions to his channel, making it the fourth-most-subscribed on the platform and the highest as a non-corporate entity.
Donaldson began posting videos to YouTube in early 2012 at the age of 13 under the handle MrBeast6000. He then went viral in 2017 after his "counting to 100,000" video has since become increasingly popular.
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