AN optician is flying halfway around the world to help visually impaired people who are too poor to buy spectacles.

David France, 52, who runs the Stockton branch of Specsavers, on Teesside, will jet out to the strife-torn island of Sri Lanka next month.

Accompanied by his wife Florence, 54, and daughter Rachel,25, he hopes to give up to 400 people a new outlook on life.

Apart from the stifling heat, the family from Great Ayton, near Middlesbrough, will also have to be cautious about the political situation.

For many years a civil war has raged between the Tamils and the Sinhalese.

The trio are going to the Jaffna area in the north, which is currently peaceful.

"We always wanted to do Voluntary Service Overseas but we had three children and a business to run," said David, a qualified optometrist.

Recently Mrs France bumped into her former colleague, plastic surgeon Charles Viva, who said he was planning to fly to Sri Lanka with the charity Interplast UK, repairing hair lips and cleft palates.

The couple decided to join him - and Rachel volunteered to come too. "We get bored on beaches so it seemed a good thing to do," said Mr France.

They have been collecting unwanted spectacles which can be recycled. So far, they have 1,500 pairs, including 1,000 pairs donated by Specsavers.

l It is not to late to donate unwanted spectacles, which can be handed in to any Specsavers shop for the Stockton branch.