MARLOVIANS with poor eyesight have donated a spectacular' amount of spectacles to the Rotary charity Vision Aid Overseas with the number of spare pairs this month reaching the 10,000 mark.

Marlow Rotary Club began appealing for residents to dig out their old glasses four years ago so that it could donate them to the charity which supplies prescription spectacles to people living in those African countries that have no resident opticians.

When it started the scheme it placed blue collection boxes in both the tourist information centre and Insight Opticians in the High Street, Burgers in the Causeway and Liston Hall, Chapel Street.

These boxes have become such a hit since then that, to date, a grand total of 10,000 pairs has been handed in.

Dennis Sargeant, a spokesman for the Marlow Rotary Club, said: "Once people realised the purpose of these, now familiar, blue boxes, they kept them constantly supplied with spectacles. In the first year alone, more than 3,000 pairs were donated.

"The Rotary Club of Marlow organisers wish to thank, most profusely, all those who have made this undoubted achievement possible firstly, all those Marlovians who have donated such an amazing number of pairs of spectacles in such a short time and, of course, the wonderful staff of the WDC Area Office, Insight Opticians, Burgers and the Marlow Community Association office in Liston Hall and our fellow Rotarians for their continuous support. Thank you all. Please keep the supply coming."

Vision Aid Overseas was founded more than 20 years ago by Rotarians.

As well as giving second-hand pairs of glasses to people who need them, it also sends abroad teams of volunteer optometrists and dispensing opticians who set up clinics to give eye tests to thousand of patients.