Scientists launch first attempt to halt most common cause of age-related ...

Surgeons have attempted for the first time to halt a common form of blindness with a single injection of gene therapy.

A team from Oxford University has for the last 12 years been experimenting with gene therapies to slow or halt the progress of different eye conditions.

But until now most of the treatments they have carried out have been for relatively rare problems, such as choroideremia, which affects 1,200 people in Britain, and retinitis pigmentosa, which affects 16,000.

Now the surgeons have launched their first attempt at halting age-related macular degeneration - known as AMD - which is the most common cause of blindness and affects 600,000 people in the UK. 

The team is carrying out a trial of ten patients at Oxford Eye Hospital.

The small trial is mainly designed to test its safety - but in time it should give an indication of whether the treatment will work, in which case a much larger trial will be launched.

The first patient, Janet Osborne, 80, who underwent the treatment under local anaesthetic last month, said the central vision in her left eye has deteriorated and is very hazy, making household tasks very difficult.

‘I still enjoy gardening with my husband, Nick, who grows a lot of vegetables,’ she told BBC News.

‘If I can keep peeling and cutting the veg, and retain my current level of independence, it would be absolutely wonderful.

‘I wasn’t thinking of me.

‘I was thinking of other people. For me, I hope my sight doesn’t get any worse. That would be

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