OPTICAL assistant Michele de Vaal is to travel thousands of miles to take the gift of sight to the Third World.
After two years of raising funds for the charity Vision Aid Overseas, Michele, 46, from East Witton, near Ripon, is travelling with a team of others to Pune, a city of 3m people, 125 miles south of Mumbai, formerly Bombay.
During their three-week stay they will be prescribing and issuing spectacles to thousands of people.
She said: "We go to the slums that the tourists never see, and I know it's not going to be very nice."
Michele works at Cowen and Morgan opticians' in Ripon.
Vision Aid Overseas runs a spectacle recycling programme. To make a donation or pass on an old pair of glasses, ring (01765) 600561.
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