Practice supports air ambulance

A Tewkesbury-based Specsavers practice has chosen the county air ambulance as its charity for the year and is offering pilots and crew free eye tests.

Collection tins and air ambulance badges will be in store for the next 12 months to support the service, which has a base at Strensham, Worcestershire. The ambulance operates over an area of 8,000 square miles and serves a population of 7.8 million at an operational cost of £3.6m.

Glenn Dunkley, store director at the Bishops Walk branch, said: 'We wanted to choose a local charity and decided the local area gets a lot of benefit from the county air ambulance, especially now that we have had the flooding. All the staff are keen to be involved and we hope that our customers will support us in trying to raise as much money as possible for this essential emergency service in the coming year.'