THERE aren’t many couples who would forego their wedding gifts in favour of donating to charity, but that’s just what one Southampton couple has done.

Sally and Jason Gould were planning to get married but knew that as a mature couple with their own homes, they didn’t need the traditional gift list.

Instead they asked wedding guests to donate money, and were overwhelmed when generous friends and family gave £3,000.

And when the couple were deciding who to give the funds to, the choice was obvious.

Jason had spent three years attending University Hospital Southampton for treatment of an eye condition called macular oedema, diagnosed after a routine eye test in 2011.

An abnormality in blood vessels at the back of his eye was picked up from photographs, and a couple of days later he was referred to the hospital’s eye unit.

The condition means that a build-up of fluid on the back of the eye can lead to blurred vision.

Jason, 50, participated in a research programme run by Professor Andrew Lotery, an award winning research director at charity Gift of Sight, which researches the causes and treatment of blinding eye diseases.

His treatment involved injecting his eye with a drug called Lucentis, which keeps the vision stable.

The fifty-year-old business developer with Ringwood brewery said: “The treatment is quite expensive and I knew that the research would benefit the people coming after me and help them.

Sally said: “We are later in life, established and all set up and already living together. When Jason proposed we went about setting a date, but we didn’t know what to do about gifts so we thought it would be nice to ask for donations.”

“Half the people at the wedding didn’t know he had the condition, so when people found out I think they were generous because it was something particular to one of us.”

The Totton couple, who also raised £2,000 last year in aid of Alzheimer’s, first met at Bartley Middle School in 1978 at the age of 11, and were reunited after a school reunion in 2002, before getting together in 2012.

They said: “We feel very passionately about supporting Professor Lotery’s world class research.”

A spokesperson for the charity said: “Gift of Sight are honoured to have been a part of Jason and Sally’s special day and very grateful for their kindness and generosity.

“This huge donation will make a significant difference to the critical vision science research being carried out in Southampton.”