An optician named John Snelgrove founded the charity Eye Need Sight after realizing that many people in remote areas cannot see well due to a lack of correctly fitted glasses. He invented a modular spectacle design that allows glasses to be made locally without specialized equipment. This solves the problem of shipping pre-made glasses. Snelgrove hopes to encourage UK opticians to adopt his design through a "Buy One, Donate One" program where they donate a pair for every pair sold, which could provide over 250,000 pairs of glasses annually to those in need. He operates an opticians in St Albans showcasing his design and "Optician in a Box" kit that can make single-vision glasses in

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Herts Advertiser 23
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Thursday, November 19, 2015
StAlbansoptician
setsuplife-
changingcharity
A
Eureka moment riding
his motorcycle back to
the UK from the south
of Spain led a St
Albans optician to
found a life-changing
international charity, just the latest
chapter in a remarkable career.
John Snelgrove, who first
qualified as an optician over 35
years ago, explained how he came
to set up the charity Eye Need
Sight (registered charity England
and Wales 1152660).
“One day in 2007 I was riding my
gold Harley back from the south of
Spain when I started thinking
about an article in the Optician
Journal where it said that 10 per
cent of the world’s population
cannot work because they cannot
see, it’s not because they have eye
diseases but because they need
correct spectacles including
astigmatism correction.
“The method then was to donate
spectacles, but they were found not
to work because there are six
million different power
permutations so it is impossible to
carry that many donated spectacles
into remote locations, so now they
grind them up and recycle the
metal which provides valuable
funds to the charity Vision Aid
Overseas.”
John felt he could do more, and
went on to invent a world-first in
spectacle design in a bid to
overcome these shortfalls.
He created three prototype
spectacles based upon the mantra
“form follows function”. This
means the lenses have to be round
in order to correct astigmatism in
any alignment, this takes out a
crucial step in the manufacturing
process, namely that pre-made,
pre-cut round lenses allow for the
complete assembly of a set of
spectacles without the need for any
glazing equipment.
“My modular spectacle design
allows for any prescription to be
fitted to any size face anywhere in
the world and is a world first,” he
explained.
“I then set up the charity Eye
Need Sight so that I could promote
the supply of any product and
service that helps the poor, both in
this country and abroad.”
This is just the latest development
in the course of his varied career.
John opened Europe’s largest
opticians in Oxford Street in 1987,
and just two years later ran
Harrods’ optical department.
In 1993 he set up Enhanced
Optical Services, providing visiting
optician services for mental health
hospitals around St Albans,
residential homes in the Herts,
Beds, Bucks and North London
area, also homeless day centres
across the region.
In September John purchased the
opticians at 209 Hatfield Road in St
Albans, opposite Morrison’s, with
the aim of supporting the local
community and promoting his
modular spectacle system to other
opticians as well as members of the
public.
Now he is hoping to encourage
the UK’s other 11,000 retail
opticians to take up his design on a
Buy One, Donate One basis.
“If just 10 per cent of the
opticians in this country embraced
my design on this basis over one
year, over 250,000 pairs of
spectacles could be donated to
non-governmental organisations
who provide help to those poor who
only live on £2.00 per day.
“A good example of Buy One
Donate One is Tom’s Shoes, which
was set up in Venice Beach, Los
Angeles in 2007 after the owner had
visited a shoe factory in Venezuela
and saw many poor children
without shoes affected by parasites
from the soil which were causing
problems with their feet.
“Since then, that company has
donated 45 million pairs of shoes to
the poor.”
Centre stage in John's opticians is
The Optician in a Box, which holds
3,000 pre-cut lenses and 1,000 frame
components. This means he can
make almost everyone a pair of
single vision spectacles to their
prescription in 30 minutes.
John added :”I am seeking
corporate sponsorship of my
Optician in a Box and I'm happy to
have their company logo attached
to the kit.”
■■ Enhanced Optical Service is now
open at 209 Hatfield Road, St
Albans. Telephone: 01727 817132.
■■ John Snelgrove with members of his team
 John Snelgrove - FBDO
CL, Style Eyes modular frame
inventor, contact lens fitter
 Jez Levy - Practice manager,
dispensing consultant
 Derek Demant - FCOptom
DCLP, optometrist, low vision
and contact lenses
 Ann Steel - BSc (Hons)
MCOptom, optometrist
 Leanne Iles - BSc MCOptom,
specialist optometrist at The
Royal London Hospital
 Tahera Merali - BSc
MCOptom, optometrist
MEET THE TEAM