Two patients suffering the most common form of sight loss in Britain can read again after a groundbreaking stem cell patch was transplanted into their eyes.

An 86-year-old man, and a woman in her 60s, had both been diagnosed with wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a condition which causes loss of central vision.

AMD affects more than 600,000 people in Britain and occurs when the specialised light-sensitive cells at the very centre of the retina - a region called the macular - become damaged.

Currently the only treatments available are injections into the eye, or laser surgery, which both slow the growth of blood vessels which harm the macular. However they only partially restores sight and do not work for everyone.

Now scientists at University College London (UCL) and Moorfields Eye Hospital in London have shown sight can be restored using a patch of stem-cells which replenishes the damaged area.