Collecting spectacles for recycling was a Club activity as far back as 1967; however it became a major project for the Club in 1980 with a delivery of 700 sorted spectacles to the Missionary Optical Society in Devon for use in their clinics in Kenya and India.

Their collecting area soon grew and other Lions Clubs started feeding their collections to them. Over the next four years some 50,000 specs were sent to the Missionary Optical Society in Devon.

In 1985 they linked up with the Le Havre Lions and Medico France and over the following five years some 100,000 spectacles, 43,000 lenses, and 10,000 frames were sent to Medico France while still delivering to the Missionary Optical Society as many pairs of sorted specs as they needed.

In 1988, another outlet was established through Vision Aid Overseas, and in 1990 Boots the Chemist and Help the Aged joined them in a national campaign which produced 460,000 pairs of spectacles in six months. Once sorted they went to places such as Cameroon, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Sri Lanka, India, Zanzibar, Jamaica, Bolivia and Brazil. All that took more resources than the Club could sensibly provide.

Today Chichester Lions are receiving used spectacles from Lions Clubs throughout the United Kingdom, as well as from opticians and supermarket sources within Chichester. Spectacles are delivered to them in boxes and bags of all shapes and sizes and are processed by their Club members and other volunteers in their workshop. They use their considerable experience to select the items that are suitable for recycling and to sort them in preparation for onward transmission to Medico France in Le Havre. Medico France has the necessary equipment to clean and grade the spectacles ready for use in eye camps in Africa, India and Eastern Europe.

Chichester Lions have recently developed, with the help of the Inside Out Trust, facilities for grading spectacles in the United Kingdom and have shipped directly to Ghana, Papua New Guinea, Nepal and recently to Nigeria. In each case, the glasses are sent directly to known or Lions club contacts. They have also developed contacts with individuals and charities based in the United Kingdom who are carrying out eye-camp projects overseas, which are able to use spectacles that Chichester Lions are recycling and supplying to them.

Chichester Lions are very grateful to the Apuldram Centre who have made land available for their workshop, the many Lions Clubs who collect spectacles and send them to them, the shops, surgeries and organisations who provide facilities for collection bins, Parcelforce, without whose help the scheme could not function - and also to the members of the Chichester Lions Club who have committed their time and expertise to the project.

Last year Chichester Lions sent over 300,000 pairs of spectacles to Medico France. Through Chichester the United Kingdom Lions Clubs provide more than 50% of the spectacles processed by Medico France - more than any other national group including France itself.