A Chester-le-Street Rotarian has collected more than 2,000 pairs of glasses for a scheme helping African people with sight problems.

Ron Trotter, chairman of the international committee of the Rotary Club of Chester-le-Street, toured the town's opticians, collecting unused and unwanted spectacles.

He also gathered pairs that had been handed in at local churches and the Chester-le-Street Civic Centre, and appealed for donations in the district council's quarterly newsletter.

The 2,042 spectacles Mr Trotter, a former chairman of Chester-le-Street District Council, collected are being taken to Kenya by Steven Morgan, the senior opthalmic surgeon at Sunderland Eye Infirmary.

He is leading a team of five surgeons who will hold eye clinics, where they will prescribe spectacles to people with sight defects and perform cataract operations.

Mr Trotter decided to help the cause because his wife Sheila is partially-sighted and is under the care of Mr Morgan, having had a cornea graft.

When he was chairman of the council in 1995/96 Mr Trotter's charity fund raised £1,858, which helped buy a portable opthalmic microscope for the eye department of Dryburn Hospital, Durham. Money for the equipment was also raised by the Friends of Chester-le-Street District Hospital.

Mr Trotter has also collected 12kg of stamps, many donated by Durham North MP Giles Radice and Euro MP Stephen Hughes, to help the Guide Dogs for the Blind's training centre, at Middlesbrough.

Rotary Club spokesman Kenneth Howe said: "The Rotarians are very proud of Ron."