WORLD SIGHT DAY 2023
THURSDAY 12th OCTOBER
Central Square, Basingstoke
BASINGSTOKE LIONS RECYCLE FOR SIGHT
Morrisons will be collecting your unwanted spectacles from Monday, 9th October – Monday, 15th October.
World Sight Day, now in its 11th consecutive year, comes once again to a stand in Central Square on Thursday, 12th October between 9am – 3pm, courtesy of The Basingstoke Lions Club. On a global scale, the aim of this day, on which Lions Clubs around the world conduct various sight-related projects, is to focus attention on the universal issue of avoidable blindness and visual impairment and thus raise awareness about the importance of eye health and the need for quality eye care services for all.
Lions' activities include vision screenings, eye health education programmes, and the donation of assistive devices to those with vision impairment. In this last regard therefore and as in previous years, people are invited to bring their redundant spectacles – prescription, non-prescription and sunglasses – to the Lions stand where they will also find information on sight loss, small items of equipment which can assist with the daily living challenges of visually impaired people and advice on local sources of help.
Around 1/1.30pm the Club's very own "Lennie the Basingstoke Lion" may be spotted 'on the prowl', when he drops in on Leightons, Vision Express and Prime Opticians in the Town Centre to collect the haul of spectacles already donated by their own customers.
An additional facility will be a spectacle collection point in Morrisons Supermarket from Monday 9th October for the whole week, thus providing an alternative option for those who might find that preferable.
Spectacles are the most common and least expensive method of correcting refractive errors, the largest cause of vision loss. But globally, more than half of those requiring, for example, near-vision spectacles cannot access them due to factors such as poverty, isolation, poor availability, poor access to eye heath facilities and lack of awareness.
So once again the Basingstoke Lions Clubs reaches out to the community to ask that you dig out those old specs and bring them to the Lions' stand or to Morrisons – they will find new homes!
You get to declutter – and others may get to 'see'… On behalf of those others, thank you.
Note: No spectacle cases, thank you
Contact : Ann Vicars - av@mypostoffice.co.uk - www basingstokelions.org.uk
