Celebrating the legacy of patient advocate Elaine Manna
- INSIGHT communications team
- 11 hours ago
- 3 min read
Elaine Manna passed away in July 2025 after many years of valued contribution as a patient champion for the benefits of health data research and artificial intelligence (AI) to improve healthcare. Here, Pearse Keane shares the eulogy he gave at Elaine's funeral, reflecting on their friendship, Elaine's resolve to make a difference, and her lasting impact on eye health research.
My name is Pearse Keane. I’m a consultant ophthalmologist at Moorfields Eye Hospital and a professor at University College London. For the last ten years, Elaine was one of my patients at Moorfields, receiving treatment for a condition called age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the commonest cause of blindness in the UK. She also became a close friend, a powerful advocate for eye research, and one of the most extraordinary people I have ever met.
When I first met Elaine, she had already lost the sight in one eye, and had recently started receiving treatment to save the sight in the other. I remember asking her how it had felt when she started to lose her sight. It was as if my question had unlocked an emotional door: she told me how devastated she had felt, how she had lost faith in herself, and about how her life had become anxious and uncertain. Years later she told me that I had been the first doctor to ask her this, and that our meeting, and this question, had been the first step to regaining her confidence.
Around this time, I was in the early stages of establishing a collaboration with the company, Google DeepMind, with the idea that AI could be used to save sight. I asked Elaine if she’d like to get involved - to say she jumped at the opportunity would be an understatement! She was soon speaking in front of hundreds of people in the Google headquarters in Kings Cross, being interviewed on the BBC 6 O’Clock News, and being a volunteer in front of hundreds of children at the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures.
Elaine also became a self-described “daredevil” fundraiser for Moorfields Eye Charity, with a series of increasingly hair-raising escapades! These began with a tandem sky-dive, followed by a trip down Europe’s longest and fastest zipline, before culminating in a “wing walk”... being strapped to a post on the wing of a biplane and facing 130 mph winds! As well as raising money, I think these feats were a powerful statement by Elaine, that she would not be defined by her sight loss. The woman who struggled to navigate dimly lit rooms was the same woman who was willing to be strapped to the wing of an airplane, soaring through the sky for a cause she believed in.
In mourning the loss of Elaine, we simultaneously celebrate a life lived with extraordinary courage, unwavering purpose, and a generosity of spirit that touched everyone she met. For me, her journey from the depths of a devastating diagnosis to the forefront of medical innovation is a powerful narrative of resilience and hope. She refused to be a passive recipient of care, instead becoming an active and indispensable partner in the fight against blindness.
Elaine taught me that a patient’s voice is one of the most powerful tools we have in medical research. She humanized complex technology, giving it a face and a story, and in doing so, she became a pioneer of AI, not just in ophthalmology but in all of healthcare. In the coming years, I believe that this technology will save the sight of millions of people, and that Elaine’s tireless support and advocacy will be seen as central. Elaine was a patient, a pioneer, and a friend. She was, and will remain, a truly enduring inspiration.
