A LEADING 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 collected by Mr Trotter, a former chairman of Chester-le-Street District Council, 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 badly needed 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 council chairman in 1995/96 Mr Trotter's charity fund raised £1,858 to help to 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 Hosp-ital. Mr Trotter has also collected 12 kilograms of used stamps, many donated by Durham North MP Giles Radice and Euro MP Stephen Hughes, to raise money for the Guide Dogs for the Blind's training centre at Middlesbrough.

Rotary Club spokesman Ken-neth Howe said: "The Rotarians of Chester-le-Street are very proud that Ron has gone to so much effort to raise the resources for the under-privileged in the Third World and to assist the training of Guide Dogs for the Blind in the future.

"Ron is junior vice-president of the club and the Rotarians look forward to his leadership as president in the future.''