An independent opticians in Keynsham transformed their practice to raise money and show support during Autism Acceptance Week.

Norville Opticians chose to join with the local community and raise money for an incredibly worthy cause.

During Autism Acceptance Week, the staff at Norville Opticians revamped the practice in an effort to raise awareness, complete with bright and colourful bunting, a cake sale and a rainbow raffle.

The team wore their Autism Acceptance T-shirts with pride and spent time openly discussing the topic with patients and passers-by who came through the practice. In total, throughout the week, the Norville Opticians team were able to raise over £200 towards the National Autistic Society and personally donated an additional £110.

The National Autistic Society is an organisation that aims to support the 700,000 autistic people in the UK and ensure they are living in a society that truly works for autistic people.

Beth Bracey, Director at Norville Opticians, said: “It was really important to the whole team that we were able to show our support for Autism Acceptance Week and we’re really grateful that we’ve been able to give back to the local community.

“We welcome patients into our practice that are a wide range of ages and backgrounds and we always want each and every patient to feel valued and cared for to the same extent.”

Autism and adequate care for autistic people is a cause especially close to the Norville team’s hearts as many of their staff have close family members with autism.

The £200 raised by the Norville Opticians team will have a huge impact on the Autistic community, enabling the National Autistic Society to provide online support to those who need it as well as allowing multiple families to receive support via their Education Rights line.

Norville Opticians are at the heart of the Keynsham and wider Gloucestershire community, providing high quality eyecare to patients in and around the area.

This year, Norville Opticians will be celebrating 125 years since their establishment, an achievement that the practice chalks down to their strong ties with patients and the local community as well as their willingness to spend time tailoring an appointment to each individual patient that they see.

Beth Bracey added: “The practice team really enjoyed supporting Autism Acceptance Week and we hope it helped to spread some positive in the community. “We’d like to thank all the patients who joined us and contributed to the fundraising and we’re looking forward to supporting more causes in the future!”

To book an appointment or find out more about Norville Opticians, please visit: www.norville-keynsham.co.uk