Two key members of Conlons staff recently returned from Ghana where they took 800 pairs, or £10,000 worth of spectacles that Conlons, with the help of Shamir who supplied the lenses, donated to the charity Eye Aid Africa.
During the one-week trip,
optometrist Alice Joyce from the Formby branch and Ian Hechle, branch manager and
dispensing optician from Conlons in Barrow, performed more than 1,000 sight tests and helped to distribute more than 1,500 pairs of spectacles. Alice and Ian travelled to Ghana as part of a team from the charity Eye Aid Africa.
Ian said: "The experience was very moving and served to emphasise how important good eyecare is. In Africa, access to optical services, as well as cost, prohibits many from being able to see clearly, if at all. It was clear it would be a busy week when on the first day we dispensed 227 pairs of glasses and on the second day we had to buy a large number of ready readers and low minus glasses from the market. This exercise was repeated again later in the week and by the time we finished at the end of the week, we had prescribed and dispensed around 1,500 pairs of glasses."
For every pair of spectacles Conlons customers buy, they receive two free pairs. One pair is donated to helping improve eyecare in Africa and the other is for the customer to keep.