WITH National Children’s Eye Health month well underway, colleagues and customers at Specsavers in Okehampton are raising funds for the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB).

National Children’s Eye Health month (October 24 to November 23) is the national fundraising campaign designed to increase awareness around the importance of good eye care among children.

To support the campaign, participating Specsavers stores nationwide will be fundraising for local children’s eye health hospitals and charity partner RNIB through its Wear Dots, To Raise Lots initiative.

The campaign followed research from Specsavers and the Royal National Institute of Blind People that revealed around 20% of school children still have an undiagnosed vision problem despite eye tests being free with an NHS voucher.

The state of the nation’s eye health report also showed that 27% of parents with children aged three to 16 said their children had never had an eye test.

Store director Kath Dandy said: ‘Good eye health plays such an important role in a child’s overall development — be it enhancing their language and cognitive skills, to improving their social abilities when interacting with others. Therefore, it is shocking to learn that such a significant number of parents are leaving it so late before taking their child for an eye test.

‘The detection of common sight problems amongst children, such as a lazy eye, squint or short sightedness, can be treated more effectively provided they are spotted early enough — ideally before a child turns eight. However, many parents are clearly still in the dark about how to protect their child’s vision.

‘This is a great way to get the message out there and hopefully encourage more parents to take advantage of the free sight tests available to their children.’

Stores are contacting local schools to offer the free School Screener EZ software.

It is unique in being suitable for use with children as they progress through schooling up to age 18 and includes a colour vision test.

The software, created by Thomson Screening, has been designed to be operated by teachers or classroom assistants and is currently being used by more than 1,700 schools.

It also has 35 different language options. Schools can also register to receive the free kit at screeningforschools.com