They say that charity begins at home – and to us that means our community. We love supporting local, whether that’s local businesses, local suppliers or local events. We recently had the chance to support two local charities by getting involved in fundraising events and it was incredibly rewarding to see the impact they had, with thousands of pounds raised to support some extremely worthy causes. First up was an open evening which featured a raffle to raise funds for Compton Care – a hospice based in Wolverhampton – with additional money going to the Ukraine appeal. Compton Care provides free care and support for people living with incurable illnesses and their families. This year marks 40 years of Compton providing countless moments of care and support to families across the region who have been affected by incurable illnesses. The amazing team at Compton support families to navigate every aspect of life after diagnosis, including their physical, practical, and emotional needs. Care is tailored to each person and focuses on providing the tools, encouragement and support they need to live a good quality life. It was a privilege to be able to support them in their work and we were delighted to help contribute £438 to be shared between the two causes. Secondly, we were delighted to sponsor a particularly hair-raising event held in support of Secret Angels – a small non-profit organisation set up in April 2021 in Wolverhampton to empower communities and transform lives by helping residents in deprived areas tackle fuel and food poverty. The charity provides information and advice, run services in our local communities and campaigns with current projects including a food bank, digital inclusion and a clothes bank. The event, which was organised by Asian Music Radio, saw presenters Khalid Akhtar and Shabaz Ahmad have their bodies waxed in public while on air to raise money. Shabaz, aged 40, said: "My arm hair meant the world to me but we were happy to exchange our pain for people's pounds." The event raised an incredible £8,000 for Secret Angels. Founder Alvina Ali said: "It was a painful challenge for a good cause and raised a lot of money for our charity that will make a difference to people's lives.” Seeing the difference these events have made to all those charities has been a real boost to the team and has reinforced the importance of supporting worthy causes in our local community. We’re looking forward to getting involved in many more events in the future!

Kids are back at school, and after such a long break it may take them a while to get back into the swing of things. Not all problems are just down to a preference for video games or YouTube over schoolwork, though! Visual stress is something that affects at least 20% of the UK and can make learning and studying harder for children. A visual stress test and, if necessary, treatment such as visual stress glasses, could help your child to reach their full academic potential and make school life much easier in general. What Is Visual Stress? Visual stress, also known as Meares-Irlen Syndrome, is sometimes linked with dyslexia, but it is a condition in its own right and often affects children who are not dyslexic. It causes visual discomfort when trying to read and can put children off reading and impact their learning. There are a number of signs of visual stress, including: headaches and eye strain after reading for a short time text appearing to move on the page needing to use a finger to follow a line of text becoming distracted by patterns when reading fidgeting, squinting and a reluctance to read. If your child displays any of these symptoms, it is worth booking them in for a visual stress test. Treatment for Visual Stress The first step is to carry out a full eye exam to rule out any other potential problems, like vision correction. Next, we use a series of tests including a colorimetry assessment – you can find out more about what is included in the full assessment here. Research has shown that colour can be used to alleviate symptoms of visual stress, so the colorimetry, performed using an advanced piece of equipment called the intuitive colorimeter is used to identify which precise tint, out of thousands of combinations, is most effective in helping children to read with more ease. Once this has been identified, we can look at the best form of treatment. Coloured overlays can be used when reading from a page, but many students find specialised visual stress glasses which have tinted lenses are most helpful at school, as they can then read the board more easily too. We can even offer tinted contact lenses, if preferred. This isn’t an overnight cure, but rather a management method for visual stress, which is why more than one visit is needed to see our optometrist so they can continue to assess and monitor your child’s progress and improvement in reading. We encourage parents to enrol their children onto our Visual Stress Treatment Programme, as their appointments will then be covered at a set monthly fee. Children who have been diagnosed with visual stress and have gone through our programme have been able to enjoy increased self-confidence and fluency when reading, as well as reduced or eliminated headaches, allowing them to develop at the same rate as their school peers. Book an Assessment If you think your child could benefit from tinted glasses for visual stress or you’d like to find out more, contact us to discuss your child’s symptoms and book an assessment today.

We’re proud to be supporting World Diabetes Day on the 14th November, which is held to highlight diabetes symptoms, improve awareness of the treatments and resources available and raise vital funds to further research and tackle this disease. Diabetes comes in two forms, type 1 and type 2. The former is managed by insulin injections and the latter typically controlled by diet and exercise, but the impact of this disease on eye health is similar regardless of which type the patient has. With around 6% of the population, or 4 million individuals, affected by diabetes, ensuring that you have regular eye exams and monitoring is essential to avoid complications with eyesight further down the line. With diabetic related eye problems such as cataracts, glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy on the rise, early diagnosis is crucial for vision management and to reduce the chance of any sight loss. Here at Taylor Biddle Opticians, we use the latest, cutting-edge technology to detect a number of key eye conditions during a routine eye exam. By using our non-invasive 3D OCT scan or our Optomap retinal imaging to carry out a detailed examination of the back of your eyes, we can detect any early signs or significant changes a lot sooner than traditional methods, meaning we can act faster with any diagnosis and treatment that may be required. We also provide in-depth private diabetic screenings, which are included as part of our cost-effective monthly payment plans, starting from as little as £6.50 per month and allowing you to access technology not typically available with NHS funded eye exams. Covering all of your professional charges, with additional plans (Taylor Biddle Eye Plan) even giving you a 25% discount on all eyewear, these are designed to give you complete peace of mind as well as the best possible care. To find out more about our diabetic screening service, learn about the diabetic retinopathy stages or book your next eye exam, contact the team today.

< Back Tracy Morris Tracy has worked at Taylor Biddle as an Optical Assistant since 2014 and enjoys all aspects of working alongside our great team. She loves keeping fit and travelling to new places. Optical Assistant

At Taylor Biddle Opticians, we pride ourselves on the highest levels of customer service & top-quality eye care & products, near you in Compton & Wombourne. YOUR INDEPENDENT OPTICIANS IN WOLVERHAMPTON At Taylor Biddle Opticians, we pride ourselves on the highest levels of customer service paired with top-quality eye care and products. The two practices are conveniently located in Compton and Wombourne, both with easy disability access and free parking. MORE ABOUT US WELCOME TO WOMBOURNE WELCOME TO COMPTON SPECIALIST EYE CARE SERVICES FOR ALL YOUR FAMILY Customer service has always been at the heart of what we all do. This ethos, combined with continually pushing the boundaries by investing in the latest technology to improve eye care, and offering fabulous frames and lenses, ensures that we will always offer the very best service available anywhere. OCT & OPTOMAP EYE SCAN HEARING CARE & AUDIOLOGY CONTACT LENS FITTING & ADVICE VISUAL STRESS & COLORIMETRY DISCOVER DESIGNER EYEWEAR We stock some of the top designer frames including Ray Ban, Gotti and Jimmy Choo to name but a few. In addition we stock a fabulous selection of frames starting from just £29.99. VIEW OUR BRANDS EYEWEAR STYLING READ OUR PATIENT TESTIMONIALS “Taylor Biddle Opticians look after three generations in our family with equal care and expertise. Tracey is always available for caring support and we have easy access to appointments. Staff are welcoming and friendly at both practices.” - S.D Claverley - READ MORE REVIEWS

Our privacy policy provides detailed information on when and why Taylor Biddle Opticians collects your personal information, how we use and store it. PRIVACY POLICY Your Privacy At Taylor Biddle, we are committed to the highest privacy standards. However you choose to interact with us, we will only collect data that is necessary for us to deliver the best possible service and ensure you are reminded about appointments or anything else relevant to your ongoing care. This policy provides detailed information on when and why we collect your personal information, how we use it and the very limited conditions under which we may disclose it to others. Collection of your Personal Information In addition to your basic contact information (name, date of birth, telephone numbers and your addresses) we will collect other relevant details including current and past health and medication information, your examination results, payment details and lifestyle information. We may also store associated information received from other health care professionals as part of your ongoing care. How we use this information The information we collect about you is used to ensure we provide you with the best and most appropriate products and services. In addition to your ongoing eye care, we will remind you when appointments are due and suggest relevant products or services that we believe would be of interest. We use your contact information to respond to queries from you, and where appropriate your bank details to collect Direct Debit payments as agreed. We may occasionally contact you to ask for your feedback on the services we have provided and to offer the opportunity to trial new products. Our policy on storage, processing, and retention of your information To provision and manage our services, your data is stored and processed by Optix Software Ltd within their UK facilities that are certified to ISO27001. If we collect Direct Debits from you these payments will be processed by Eyecare Payments Ltd. Any third-party company is only permitted to process your data for the specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions. We retain your information for as long as reasonably necessary to provide our products and services and to maintain records to satisfy tax and other legal requirements. How and when we may share your personal information Where necessary we may disclose your information to health care professionals including the NHS. We may also pass information to external agencies and organizations, including the police, for the prevention and detection of fraud and criminal activity. Should any claim be made, we may pass your personal information to our insurers and if our business is wholly or partially transferred to a third party, your personal information may be one of the transferred assets. Your rights with respect to the Personal Information we hold You are entitled to access the personal information that we hold on you; any such request should be made using our contact details below. If any data we hold is inaccurate, this will be corrected promptly on request. In certain circumstances, you can request that we erase your data which we will do where this would not prevent us from meeting our legal and regulatory obligations. Updating your communication preferences You may ask that we do not send you communications using any of the contact details we hold on our records, this may include your email, SMS, telephone and postal information. You may also request we restrict our communications to clinically necessary messages. Your personal preferences can be changed at any time by using the link at the end of every email and SMS message we send or by using our contact details below. Use of cookies Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites that you visit. They are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site. The table below explains the cookies we use and why. Cookie: Cookie preference Name: CookieControl Purpose: This cookie is used to remember a user’s choice about cookies on ico.org.uk. Where users have previously indicated a preference, that user’s preference will be stored in this cookie. Cookie: Language selection Name: language Purpose: This cookie is used to remember any selection a user has made about language on ico.org.uk, using the language selector, so that the site will be shown in their chosen language when returning to the site. Cookie: Universal Analytics (Google) Name: _ga, _gali, _gat & _gid Purpose: These cookies are used to collect information about how visitors use our website. We use the information to compile reports and to help us improve the website. The cookies collect information in a way that does not directly identify anyone, including the number of visitors to the website and blog, where visitors have come to the website from and the pages they visited. Cookie: YouTube cookies Name: PREF*, VSC*, VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE* & remote_sid* Purpose: We embed videos from our official YouTube channel using YouTube’s privacy-enhanced mode. This mode may set cookies on your computer once you click on the YouTube video player, but YouTube will not store personally-identifiable cookie information for playbacks of embedded videos using the privacy-enhanced mode. PREF - * Expires after eight months VSC - * expires at the end of your session VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE - *expires after eight months remote_sid - * expires at the end of your session Cookie: Vimeo cookies Name: player - vuid Purpose: We embed videos from our official Vimeo channel. 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Cookie: Wix Name and Duration: XSRF-TOKEN - Session Duration hs - Session Duration svSession - 2 Years SSR-caching - 1 Minute _wixCIDX - 3 Months _wix_browser_sess - Session Duration consent-policy - 365 days smSession - Session Duration TS* - Session Duration bSession - 30 minutes fedops.logger.sessionId - 365 days wixLanguage - 365 days Purpose: wix - These cookies are used to maintain and improve the customers experience of the website. We uuse the information to identify registered members, monitor and analyze performance, operation and effectiveness of the platform and ensure the security and safe use of the platform. Cookie: Facebook Pixel Name: c_user – 365 days xs – 365 days fr – 90 days _fbp – 90 days oo – 5 years dpr – 7 days wd – 7 days presence – session duration sb – 2 years dbln – 2 years csrf – 24 hours Purpose: These cookies are used to collect information about how visitors use our website. We use the information to compile reports and to help us improve the website. The cookies collect information in a way that does not directly identify anyone, including the number of visitors to the website and blog, where visitors have come to the website from and the pages they visited. Managing cookies You can remove any cookies already stored on your computer and you can control how your web browser deals with cookies by changing your browser settings. However this may prevent you from using parts of our website. Many browsers give a range of options for managing cookies, including obtaining consent for every cookie, blocking certain types of cookie and blocking cookies from unrecognised websites. Finally, you can set your browser to block all cookies however you should be aware that many sites will not work as smoothly as you are used to and some basic functionality that is dependent on cookies will not work at all. The following links go to the relevant help sections for the major web browsers and explain how to manage your cookies: Chrome https://support.google.com/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=95647&p=cpn_cookies Safari OS X http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Safari/5.0/en/9277.html Safari iOS http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1677 Internet Explorer http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows7/How-to-manage-cookies-in-Internet-Explorer-9 Firefox http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Cookies?s=cookies&r=0&e=es&as=s Android http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=169022 Blackberry http://help.blackberry.com/en/blackberry-q10/10.3.1/help/mwa1334238823957.html Windows phone http://www.microsoft.com/windowsphone/en-us/howto/wp7/web/changing-privacy-and-other-browser-settings.aspx Privacy Policy updates We reserve our right to make any changes and updates to this privacy policy without giving you notice as and when we need to. Our most up to date privacy policy is always available on our website. Last updated: April 2022 Contacting us Visit our contact page to find our most up to date contact information.