Allegro Optical in Meltham, West Yorkshire has become the first and only opticians in the UK to become registered practitioners of the British Association for Performing Arts Medicine (BAPAM).
BAPAM membership means it will now work with musical institutions to deliver bespoke eye care to professional, amateur and student musicians.
Opening less than two years ago, Allegro Optical, which has since expanded to a new location in Greenfield, is owned by wife and husband Sheryl Doe and Stephen Tighe and employs seven family members from two generations.
‘BAPAM clinicians have to demonstrate an in-depth understanding of the demands of a performing arts career including playing-related and career-threatening conditions, performance anxiety and stress,’ said Doe.
Doe, who was named Entrepreneur of the Year in 2018, was keen to stress that this did not mean a diminishment of their role as a general optical practice. ‘While we are really proud of our unique music specialism, we are a general practice optician as well as a specialist musicians optician.’
A Yorkshire-based lab produces the musician’s lenses to Allegro’s design and they are then glazed either by the lab or in house in Meltham by Doe’s son Zac.
Current clients already include RTE Concert Orchestra in Dublin, the English National Opera and the English National Ballet.
