Dr. P.V. Choksey

Trustee and Coordinator, Fundraising,

Albinism Foundation of East Africa

Dr. Choksey was born on 17^th Nov 1951 in India. She was brought up in Aurangabad where she did her schooling and also study of medicine.

In 1973 she stood first in the order of merit for her MBBS examination and was awarded the “President’s Medal” which is awarded to a woman standing first in any university in India by the President of India. In 1976 she passed D.O.M.S and in 1977 she passed MS in Ophthalmology from Government Medical College Aurangabad. She started her career in teaching in 1977 as a lecturer in ophthalmology and came to the prestigious Grant Medical College and J.J. group of hospitals, Mumbai, as an Assistant Professor in 1980. It is at this institute that she rose to become Professor and Head of the Department of Ophthalmology.

She came to Kenya in 1987 and joined Kenyatta National Hospital as an Eye Specialist in 1988. In 1989 she joined the University of Nairobi as a lecturer in Surgery as ophthalmology was apart of surgery in those days. After teaching many of the famous ophthalmologists of today, she left the University of Nairobi in 1998.

She has been a consultant at the Aga Khan Hospital Nairobi since 1990. In 1992 she was instrumental in starting Flourescein Angiography and laser treatment in this Hospital.

In 1997 she took over as the first woman Editor in Chief of East African Journal of Ophthalmology. She completed both  assignments successfully in  2003 and 2006 respectively. In 1999 she was appointed the Chairman of the Department of Surgery. Since 2002 she has been in full time private practice.

She is the proud recipient of Ophthalmological Society of East Africa Award for outstanding contribution to Eye Care in East Africa 2007.

She started taking a keen interest in Albinism from July 2007 when True Love Magazine approached her to write about the visual challenges of albinism.

She was shocked to see that high refractive errors with severe photophobia remained uncorrected in people with albinism in Kenya.

Ignorance on the part of communities forced children with albinism to study in schools for the visually impaired at primary school level.

She is a founder Trustee of the Albinism Foundation of East Africa and offers ophthalmic services free of cost to people with albinism.

She is happily married to Dr. V.N Choksey an Obstetrician and Gynaecologist and is the proud mother of Mithil a doctor practicing in New York, Tanuja, former Miss India Global Kenya 2004 now settled in Carlifornia U.S.A and Urvika who is pursuing her studies in Medicine at Manipal in India.

Her formula for success is a robust sense of humour, going an extra mile in all her endeavours and balancing her role as a devoted mother with that of a competent clinician.