A thriving West Wickham optician is celebrating 10 years of service in the local community by kick-starting a fundraising drive for Deafblind UK.

The Specsavers team showed their gratitude to their loyal customers by giving away free goodie bags, filled with sweet treats for children and stylish glasses cases for the adults. Members of the public were also given the opportunity to cool down in the scorching summer sunshine, with a flute glass of Shloer and a slice of cake offered for any donations towards Deafblind UK.

The celebrations were topped off by two members of staff also celebrating milestones. Christine Harris and store director Bamini Raj were both given the honour of cutting the ceremonial cake to mark their own 10 years of service with the West Wickham store.

Bamini says: ‘Watching the store flourish has been like watching my child grow. I’ve been here since the very start when we had just one single test room and the transformation to now is just staggering.

‘The time has gone by so quickly. We were so excited to have joined the West Wickham community and now we’re celebrating the decade milestone. It’s rather clichéd to say but we really have grown to love our customers and we are extremely grateful that they have trusted us enough over the years to adopt us as their own.’ Now the Specsavers team will be aiming to give back to the community once again by raising money for the UK-based charity ahead of Deafblind Awareness Week (26 July – 2 July).

The charity supports people with combined sight and hearing loss, providing them with peer support to enable them to remain in their own homes and participate in their local communities.

Bamini adds, ‘We’ve had some really productive conversations with Deafblind UK and we feel it’s really important that we raise awareness of the inclusive nature of their work.

‘Dual sensory loss can be an incredibly isolating ailment and our fundraising efforts will be to ensure that people who have combined sight and hearing loss are given the autonomy and control over their lives that they richly deserve.’ For any enquiries please call T: 020 8916 8280, visit the store at 15 High Street or see online at https://www.specsavers.co.uk/stores/westwickham

Submitted by Dan King