A mobile eye screening service for diabetics has been boosted by the delivery of another van.

The Paula Carr Trust, which is based at the William Harvey Hospital and takes the service to patients across Kent, has bought its seventh van from an Ashford company.

The trust was set up in 1989 in memory of Paula Carr, who had diabetes and died at the age of 13. It has centres in Ashford and Maidstone which offer vans to take mobile services across the county to test for diabetes.

The distinctive white vans with pink lettering are now a familiar sight around Kent and Motorline Ashford says it is delighted to have supplied the trust with their seventh vehicle, a Renault Master van.

Once the van has been purchased, it is then taken to Euromotive, a converting company in Lympne who kit it out with the necessary medical equipment.

Doctors’ surgeries book the Kent Eye-Screening mobile service for a full or half day, and then make appointments for their patients.

The vans contain state-of-the-art retina cameras to photograph the back of the eye which aims to detect early signs of diabetes, when treatment can be effective.

The vans are equipped to cater for three patients at a time and since the mobile units were first used in 1993, a total of 870 patients have used and benefitted from the service.