THE director of an opticians has completed a mountain challenge to save the sight of people in developing countries.

Stephen Thomas, of Specsavers Opticians, in Northallerton, North Yorkshire, along with a group of five friends, made up one of 30 teams from across the country who completed the Sight Savers Mountain Challenge.

Their task was to climb three mountains in the UK in only 24 hours - tackling Stob Ban in Scotland, Hellvelyn in the Lake District and finishing with the highest of the three, Mount Snowdon in Wales.

Mr Thomas' team completed the challenge in 21-and-a-half-hours, finishing in fourth place.

He said: "It was certainly hard work to do the challenge in such a short space of time, but we had put a lot of training in and knew what to expect."

Each of the teams hoped to raise £5,000 to support Sight Savers International's work on preventing and curing needless blindness and supporting blind people in more than 20 countries across Asia, Africa and the Caribbean.

If anyone would like to make a donation, they are asked to contact Northallerton Specsavers on (01609) 760500.