A hospital-based charity that takes eye screening services to diabetic patients across Kent has bought its sixth van.
The Paula Carr Trust, set up 15 years ago, has centres in Ashford and Maidstone and vans which take mobile services across the whole of Kent.
And with diabetes on the increase, the charity's expansion plan is set to continue, the trust said.
A spokesman said the service would test 26,000 people this year – 8% will have sight-threatening conditions.
The trust was set up in 1989 in memory of Paula Carr who had diabetes and died at the age of 13.
In 1994, the charity put its first white-van woman on the road to travel around Kent and photograph the back of people's eyes.
The centres run by the charity test for eye disease, give advice about diet and how to manage diabetes, provide blood glucose meters and screen for the condition.
Statistics from the trust show that two million people across the country are thought to have diabetes without knowing it.
One of the complications caused by the condition is retinopathy, or haemorrhaging at the back of the eye.
The vans are booked by doctors' surgeries, whose staff book their patients into the service for checks.
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