UXBRIDGE LIVING

For over 20 years Dr. Vi Tu Banh has been proud to provide residents of Uxbridge and surrounding areas with eye care they can count on. His welcoming, and beautifully appointed office features a selection of fashionable frames for patients to choose from.

Dr. Vi Tu Banh

BY LESLEY WILKINS PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF DR. VI TU BANH

A life devoted to paying it forward.

For many of us old enough to recall the end of the Vietnam war, the harrowing stories of the Vietnamese “boat people” fleeing the newly reunited country have long faded from our memories. But for Dr. Vi Tu Banh, a successful optometrist in Uxbridge, the story of his family’s journey from thriving business owners in South Vietnam to refugees building a new life in Canada is as fresh in his mind as it was 40 years ago.

Growing up in South Vietnam in the 1970s, to a soundtrack of dropping bombs, Vi Tu recalls his close relationship with his grandparents. “They treated me like a prince,” he says. The first of seven children, Vi Tu’s survival had been unlikely after his mother suffered a severe fever while pregnant. Her remarkable recovery and Vi Tu’s birth were a source of joy and celebration for an already close family.

Vi Tu’s early childhood in Vietnam is sprinkled with fond memories of helping in his grandfather’s shops. A successful clothing business with two thriving locations, Vi Tu recalls the straightforward business ethic taught to him by his grandfather: “your job is to get people what they want, don’t rip people off, and put money in the cashbox.”

It was the confiscation of that business by the incoming communist government at the end of the Vietnam war, in 1975, that changed the direction of his family’s life forever.

Following years of turmoil and hard work, one evening in 1979 the Banh family boarded a cramped 60-foot wooden boat with hundreds of others and prepared to set off in search of a better life.

After drifting between refugee camps for five days, the small wooden vessel was intercepted by an American fishing boat and the refugees were transported to the previously uninhabited island of Air Raya in Indonesia.

Thinking back on his family’s time at the refugee camp, Vi Tu wonders “how we survived nine hours let along nine months in that place.” With no permanent structures, food stores or adequate medical supplies, an estimated 12,000 Vietnamese “boat people,” as they were dubbed in the news, were held on the island while awaiting resettlement.

Few people saw any hope for the Ban family being resettled as countries sponsoring refugees favoured those with professional qualifications. A tailor with a wife and six children did not have good prospects. But then, in response to the Vietnamese refugee crisis, Canada introduced an unprecedented program allowing, for the first time, private citizens to sponsor refugee families. It was through that program that five Uxbridge residents, spearheaded by Barb and Ted Murphy, joined forces to bring the Banh family to Canada.

And so, within a year of stepping onto that crowded wooden boat on the shores of Vietnam, the Banh family began their new life in Uxbridge.

Small town life did not last long for the Banh family. Vi Tu’s father soon found work in Toronto, and with the help of their sponsors, the family were on the move once more. “I remember as the truck was driving out of town, I said to my father, I will come back,” says Vi Tu.

And come back he did. In a spirit of gratitude and a keen desire to pay it forward, Dr. Vi Tu Banh returned to Uxbridge in 2001 to open an optometry office with a strong focus on putting patients first.

In 2008, when Ted Murphy had passed away, Dr. Banh established the Ted Murphy Award in his honour. Presented by Barb Murphy, the award is given to two graduating students from Uxbridge Secondary School each year.

In 2013, Dr. Banh felt that he wanted to do even more for his patients and began additional training and the study of Vision Therapy as a way to help patients suffering from the effects of concussions. His treatment plans include multiple modalities, including lenses, prisms and filters, along with targeted exercises to utilize neuroplasticity as a way to help retrain the brain and lessen symptoms such as balance loss, visual disturbances, headaches and more. “I believe that by treating patient symptoms, I will be able to help more people, paying it forward to the people of Uxbridge,” he says.

Dr. Banh recently celebrated 20 successful years in Uxbridge and continues to support the community at every opportunity. It’s clear that Uxbridge is delighted and fortunate to have him back.

You can find Dr. Banh’s beautifully appointed optometrist’s office at 2 Elgin Park Drive, Uxbridge. For more information visit: uxbridge.com/health-and-wellness/optometrist-vitu-banh.php

Proud family man Dr. Vi Tu Banh at step-daughter Meagan Lum’s graduation from the New England College of Optometry in May 2020. Dr. Banh’s wife, Vision Therapist Mamie Leung (right) and Dr. Meagan Lum work alongside Dr. Banh at his Uxbridge optometry office.