A LEADING York optometrist has been presented with the MBE for her work in supporting visually impaired patients in Africa.

Ruth Perrott travelled to Windsor Castle last Tuesday (December 7) to receive the award from Prince William.

The MBE was given to Ruth in the Queen's New Year's honours last year.

She has visited the African continent 16 times, providing glasses to poor rural communities.

The countries Ruth has visited over the years include Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Malawi, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Tanzania.

It all started with an initial visit to Cameroon in 1991 in support of Prince Charles’s Operation Raleigh.

Ruth, who works in Acomb as a behavioural or developmental optometrist providing specialist help to children and adults with reading difficulties, has received support in the SpecSort project from Rotary York Ainsty.

Members help sort, cleanse, measure and pack the spectacles into libraries of spectacles, which are essential to her work.

The project started in 1991 following visit with a combined Vision Aid Overseas and Operation Raleigh project and Ruth has travelled four times to Malawi in support of Gill and David Mason’s mission from Acomb Methodist Church.

York Ainsty meet on a monthly basis to ensure that the donated spectacles are measured and assembled into quality controlled spectacle libraries, which Ruth and her team then take with them when they visit Africa.

However, since the start of of the Covid-19 pandemic the spectacle libraries are now airfreighted to local charities who provide sight tests, to ensure the specs delivered to each person are optically correct and are the right size and fit.

Rotary York Ainsty recently recognised Ruth’s work by making her an honorary member and presenting her with the Paul Harris Fellowship award.

Ruth specialises in neuro-developmental optometry, assessing and treating children, teens and adults with reading issues, and also patients with mild traumatic brain injury or strokes.

Speaking about her work in a previous interview Mrs Perrot said: "It’s not just a job to me, I like to talk and I’m fascinated with people. When people come to me I like to think I can listen carefully and pick up on the little things people say to pinpoint what their exact eyecare requirements might be to try and help them in their everyday life. This can make a huge difference to quality of life."