A FAR-SIGHTED campaign by fundraisers has resulted in more than 6,000 pairs of discarded spectacles being sent to the third world.
Chester-le-Street Rotary Club has collected 6,322 pairs of glasses in the last nine months and is now preparing to despatch them through the charity Sight Savers International.
Ron Trotter, president of Chester-le-Street Rotary Club, left notices urging people to take unwanted glasses to opticians Boothroyd and Jones and The Optometrics Centre, both situated in the town.
They will now be taken to the Bethany Christian Centre in Houghton-le-Spring and then forwarded to Sight Savers International.
But before they reach their final destination, the glasses will be taken to prisons, where inmates will grade the lenses into different strengths.
Mr Trotter, who is also a Chester-le-Street district councillor, said they have collected about 20,000 spectacles in this way over the past four years.
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