Such an honour to be recognised tonight for the Newbury Town Business Civic Award for my work running a volunteer homeless eye care program in conjunction with Newbury Soup Kitchen at their Tuesday Health Clinic at the Salvation Army. 

The 25th Annual Newbury Town Civic Awards presentation saw the presentations  of

• NEWBURY TOWN CIVIC AWARD
• NEWBURY TOWN YOUNG PERSON'S CIVIC AWARD
• NEWBURY TOWN BUSINESS CIVIC AWARD
• NEWBURY TOWN ENVIRONMENTAL CONTRIBUTION AWARD

I had the pleasure of meeting lots of others in the local community trying to make a difference to our Newbury.  The awards are done every year in recognition of outstanding contributions to the Town of Newbury.  ​Recognising unsung heroes going above and beyond, these awards highly all the volunteers in our area making exceptional contributions.  

To check out the full list of winners visit https://newbury.gov.uk/the-council/civic-office/civic-awards.

Special thanks to the Newbury Town Council for hosting the awards in the beautiful town hall.  

Special congratulations to all the well deserving winners!

International Women’s Day 2022 was a very memorable one for our optometrist, Dr. Valarie Jerome.

In recognition of her strong contribution to entrepreneurship, Valarie was among 100 impressive, multi-achieving female business owners, championed by Small Business Britain’s ƒ:Entrepreneur #ialso100 campaign  invited to attend a special International Women’s Day reception at the House of Lords earlier this month.  
 
“Meeting so many inspirational businesswomen who have set up and are running small businesses all over the UK in such a historic place was delightful.  After 2 years of so much uncertainty and sacrifice for small business owners, it was refreshing to celebrate coming out the other side of the pandemic with fellow entrepreneurs” explained Valarie.
 
The women enjoyed afternoon tea and networking in Westminster, meeting their peers from ƒ:Entrepreneur #ialso from both 2021 and 2022, as well as special guest speaker Labour MP Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, who paid tribute to the power of female entrepreneurship.

Dr. Jerome was named an ƒ:Entrepreneur #ialso100 in 2021, in recognition of her inspiring entrepreneurial journey, which has involved opening up her own independent opticians, Valarie Jerome Optometrists, in late 2019 and representing fellow optometrists from the South East of England on The Association of Optometrist Council.
 
Delivered by Small Business Britain – the leading champion of small businesses in the UK – f:Entrepreneur campaign was launched in 2017 to highlight the stories of amazing female business owners and to help provide inspiration and role models across the wider small business community.

Now in its fifth year, the campaign offers a host of events, training, and networking opportunities to boost skills, capability, and confidence.  Recent research carried out by the campaign this month found that, following the pandemic, nearly a fifth (17%) of women are considering entrepreneurship, with 44% of them citing pursuing a passion as a key motivator, alongside 46% wanting greater flexibility.

“To hear the incredible things that these women do, and the impact they are making, not just in their businesses but in their wider communities, is truly inspiring, and underlines that we must do everything we can to support them,” comments Michelle Ovens CBE, founder of Small Business Britain and the ƒ:Entrepreneur campaign.
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To see the full line-up of the 100 women featured in this year’s f:entrepreneur #ialso100 campaign visit https://f-entrepreneur.com/fentrepreneur-100/.
 

If you are on a computer many hours of the day, you may be wondering if your computer is damaging your eyes.  There is lots of talk about blue lights and blue light glasses for sale are all over social media feeds lately.  Some people swear by blue light glasses or blue light anti-glare.  Some don't really notice any improvement with it.

Well, first let's talk more about that infamous BLUE LIGHT.  

• First the good...Natually occurring blue light like that from the sun that we get daily can help suppress the body's melatonin (the body's natural hormone that makes us sleepy).  This can help boost your alterness, awareness and some would say concentration during the day.
• Now the bad...blue light has been shown to disrupt your melatonin - your body's natural hormone that makes us sleepy.  Excessive nighttime exposure to blue light from man-made sources, such as artificial lighting or digital screens, can disrupt the body's circadian rhythm and keep you awake. At night when the body naturally produces melatonin to encourage sleep, bright light stimulation of photosensitive retinal ganglion cells can disrupt sleep by as much as 14 minutes, per a 2014 study in the journal Photochemistry and Photobiology. 
• It is important to remember there is no new evidence to suggest that device-derived blue light exposure increases the risk of actual ocular damage. If anything, the evidence emphasizes the importance of wearing UV-A and UV-B blocking sunglasses when outdoors.
• It's long been my professional opinion it is a personal choice - if you like it and it helps you, then keep with it.  
  

Now let's talk about your prescription or need of one and computer use

• Using a computer when your eyes naturally have a hard time focussing - trouble with vision or focusing - can cause excessive fatigue and in some people...headaches. You may need a special prescription for close work even if you are young.
• If your eyes are imbalanced - that is they don't work together well as a team - well as you can imagine, that is really going to cause some eye ache after doing prolonged near work.  Solutions are glasses, eye exercises and prism in glasses.
• Most people work work many hours a day on the computer suffer from dry eyes.  This is going to blur your vision and guess what...cause you trouble at the end of the day. Solutions should be personalised but generally involve eye drops, hot compresses and better lid cleaning care.

Best way to tell if your eyes and your computer are working against each other?  
Get a routine eye exam!  Book one today on www.drvalariejerome.com.