INXS guitarist Kirk Pengilly is raising awareness of an issue very close to him.

Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness but 50 per cent of people don’t even know they’ve got it.

Kirk was one of 300,000 Australians diagnosed with the illness.

He was just 29 when he first started noticing symptoms but tells Deborah Knight he was able to have laser surgery which saved his vision.

“I was within a millimetre of losing my sight.

“It can get to a point where you don’t know you’ve got it until it’s too late.”

Kirk is urging Australians to get their eyes checked every two years.

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