A CHARD opticians is hosting a collection drive throughout August for old and unused glasses in support of the Vision Aid Overseas organisation.

Specsavers, located in Fore Street, is asking locals to search high and low for old pairs of specs, as staff aim to collect a record number of glasses for the UK-based charity.

Specsavers Chard store director Stephen Watson said: “We have a donation bin taking pride of place in store and our goal is to reach over 500 pairs of glasses by the end of August. We have invited local business owners, sportsmen, community groups and council members to come down and donate their old specs too.

“At the end of the day the collected specs are boxed and donated to VAO for recycling. The charity uses the money it makes from selling the reusable materials to fund its work in developing countries.”

Victoria Cox, international programme officer for VAO, said: “We look forward to seeing how many pairs of glasses the people of Chard can donate.

“It’s such a worthwhile cause as this is not only preventing specs from ending up in landfills but also raising vital funds for our overseas programmes.”

VAO works in Africa to transform access to eye care services and is part of the Vision 2020 initiative to eliminate avoidable blindness by 2020. Since 2003 Specsavers stores have collected and recycled more than a quarter of a million glasses for the charity, and have raised over £550,000.