OO leaves £100,000 to research

A Staffordshire optometrist has donated £100,000 to medical research nearly a quarter of a century after he died.

Ernest Gallimore provided eye care to hundreds of people from his three practices in Longton, Stoke and Alsager from 1955 until his death in 1981, aged 61.

Gallimore's will was enacted after the death of his widow, Hilda, last year and the donations have been sent to the North Staffordshire Medical Institute he helped to set up in the 1960s.

Around £50,000 has been allocated for research into cancerous cells, £26,228 for diabetes and £23,000 for pioneering equipment to find signs of lung cancer.

Optometrist Robert Edwards took over Gallimore's business in 1979 when Gallimore retired to focus on optometry in industry with Michelin Tyres, where he had worked part-time for over 30 years.

'Even in the 1960s when I joined him he always concentrated on having the highest quality levels of equipment,' Edwards told optician. 'He was a forward thinker and very generous - £100,000 was a lot of money to give back then.

'His greatest strength was his ability to communicate with the public. He was always upbeat despite his poor health and he met an awful lot of people in the medical profession. He used to joke that he'd been in every ward apart from the maternity ward. I am delighted his wish has come to fruition all these years later.'