A frame for all

John Snelgrove has been providing optical services from his Enhanced Optical Service practice in St Albans since 1993 (figure 1). He has always been keen on providing vision care for all, and has built up a reputation in offering the best possible care for the most vulnerable and inaccessible members of the community, whether they be elderly and in residential care homes or sheltered accommodation, those with impairments or the homeless.

Since coming across a journal article some years back which stated there are 500 million people across the world unable to work because of uncorrected refractive error and presbyopia, Snelgrove has harboured a desire to try to solve vision problems on a much larger scale than his current practice patient base. To achieve this, he has since set up a charity, EyeNeedSight (www.eyeneedsight.co.uk) to promote and provide the available solutions for the supply of spectacles to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and charities who support the Vision 2020 global initiative. More impressive yet, he has designed such a solution, a unique adaptable spectacle called Style-Eyes and a versatile way of dispensing it to those in need.