Campbell & McDearmid Optometrists

11/04/2026

Today’s post is a very personal post on behalf of my sister Sophie - she keeps the practice running smoothly behind the scenes and can sometimes be seen - usually mistaken for me(!) - behind the desk for holiday cover accompanied by Albus Dumblepaw 🐾

For those of you who don’t know yet - we suddenly lost our Dad at the beginning of March - many of you will have met him or spoke on the phone during COVID when he volunteered to help me with reception work so I could keep the practice open and run things on my own!

Dad instilled our never give up spirit - I’ll let Sophie continue in her own words

Faye x

2 weeks tomorrow I’ll be running The London Marathon for Ehlers-Danlos Support UK 🇬🇧 🦓

This training block was always going to be the hardest of my life physically with so many sacrifices and logistics, think planning 15hrs connected to a feed pump around work, travelling for cheer to Blackpool, Edinburgh and Telford, resting injuries, taping pretty much every part of my body back together and running on way below empty fumes. But combine with that what happened on 4th March, it has also been a monumental challenge mentally to just keep running. 🏃‍♀️

It has shown me that running has the power to be so mentally healing ❤️‍🩹. Giving yourself that headspace to just keep going - which is exactly what I’ll be doing on the 26th. I know I’ll have a guardian angel with me the whole way (probably ahead of me, Dad was a way better runner than I’ll ever be).

To everyone who has sponsored me - Thank you so much - the support means so much to both Carl and I ❤️🫶🏻. This charity is an incredible cause and is much smaller than some of the other wonderful causes. We would love to raise as much as we can for them so they can continue their wonderful work supporting, educating and researching to improve the lives of people like me - until you’ve lived with EDS it really is impossible to understand just how hard EVERYTHING is.

15 days til I go out and hopefully show life doesn’t end at diagnosis, you just get really good at adapting and keeping moving!

If you are able to sponsor me, any amount is hugely appreciated, every little helps and it is truly a wonderful cause.

https://2026tcslondonmarathon.enthuse.com/pf/sophie-mcdearmid

02/04/2026

Happy Easter from our Team to yours!

As usual we are closed for the Easter break and look forward to consuming our body weights in chocolate, creme eggs and mini-eggs (not Bertie though!)

We are back at 8:30am on Tuesday 7th April and we might have another exciting update for you…

Wishing you a very Happy Easter

Faye and all The Team at C&M

18/03/2026

Very proud of Tim and his Teammates coming top of the league with a game in hand!

If you need help keeping your eye on the ball - you know where we are 😍

Huge congratulations to our Men’s 2nd Team who have become Durham & Cleveland Division 3 Champions with one game to go…

A fantastic season with some brilliant matches and individual performances have seen them score 234 points to top the table with a final home game against Yarm to come next Monday evening….

Why not come down to the club to watch this final match and celebrate the league win with the players….

02/03/2026

Morning All - apologies that our phone lines are down this morning.

Our VOIP provider behind the scenes is working hard to resolve but in the meantime you can reach Emily on the practice email info@campbellandmcdearmid.co.uk

Multi-tasking making a quick post while I’m doing in London doing an event - don’t tell on me 🤭

Faye

11/02/2026

So lovely to see our new neighbours doing so well and bringing something new, exciting and special to Station Road.

We had our first Team outing of the year here on Monday evening and everything was fantastic - food, service, atmosphere ❤️

We ate:
Hot Shot Parmo with extra garlic and a side of broccoli for me (I love Broccoli and got to get the greens in for your peepers 👁️ 🥦 )
Smash Burger 🍔
Chicken Burger 🍔
Louisiana Chicken with extra spice 🌶️

I could have eaten any of the dishes and can’t wait to go again to try more!

Congratulations to the Team involved 👏🏼

Faye xx

So good it gets accused of being fake. We’ll take that 👀

POV, you walk into KOHA and immediately check you’re still in Redcar 👀
Yes, it’s real. Yes, it’s here. Yes, you should book.

www.koharestaurant.co.uk

28/01/2026

Want to support a British brand?

Like to support family businesses?

Is eco-friendly manufacture important to you?

Want a £50 gift from us towards your frame and 1/2 price lenses for your second pair?

We can’t get enough of these colourful designs that are made from plant-based materials. Bird Eyewear is a UK brand focused on nature, with each design named after a species of Bird found in the wild.

Bird Eyewear are the UK's leading sustainable eyewear brand, and the highest scoring B Corp in the global eyewear industry. Founded by three brothers Bird frames are multi-award winning, including Frame of the Year at the Optician Awards!

We have worked with our suppliers to bring you a promotion on one of our favourite brands - British, family-founded and who cares about the environment - just like us!

Until the end of February - or while stock lasts we are gifting you £50 towards any Bird Eyewear frame, on as many pairs as you like, PLUS our lens supplier friends are gifting you 50% off a second pair of lenses into a Bird frame.

The order for the second pair needs to be placed within 30 days of the original pair to qualify and needs to be for the same prescription - you can have 2x Distance specs, 2x Reading specs or Varifocals in your first pair and varifocals, multi-use or just distance or reading in your second pair AND the second pair can be made into sunnies if you want to get ahead for the amazing summer we must be due after all the rain!

The most fun part is trying them on and narrowing it down to what you'd chose - keep an eye on the page over the next week as the Team share their picks of the flock!

Faye xx

25/01/2026

Excellent squash playing by our friends Redcar Squash and Racketball Club

Well done everyone who took part and congratulations to all the winners 🏆

16/01/2026

It’s Friday again! And this week’s exciting news is a sneak preview of an absolutely iconic brand on its way to Redcar…!

Any guesses as to what it might be?

To give you a few clues…

Five words to describe the brand:
LUXURY. VISION. PERSONALITY. UNMISTAKABLE. IRRESISTIBLE.

Always known as a trendsetter, the brand expresses a style rooted in luxury with unique charm and a vision capable of guiding design and elegance towards innovative aesthetics. Modern, provocative and refined, the brand's personality translates into glamorous allure through products characterized by high-quality materials, exclusive design, and meticulous details.

I’ve picked an amazing pair and we all can’t wait to be able to style you in them too!

Faye x

09/01/2026

Wow, we've done a week of 2026 already and I promised an exciting update in the first week!

For those of you we've known a long-time you will remember Emily, our super smiley, beautiful and wonderful Optical Receptionist from I think 2015 until mid 2020...

Well once you're a much loved part of Team C&M you never truly leave and I'm so pleased to welcome Emily back to the Team!

Emily re-joined us on 6th January and has already had some lovely catch-ups with long-term clients and I'm sure they'll be many more of you happy to see her again.

With Emily back we welcome two more doggo's to the practice animal family - Hugo and Clifford the labradors!

It's been all hands to the deck this week with Charlotte also completing her first "full" week on her new hours back from maternity leave and Kelsey getting used to having two extra people!

We are also now operating on our new working hours:

Monday 9am - 6:30pm for all clinics, eyewear styling and dispensing services, repairs, collections and adjustments with me (Faye), Tim and James supported by Kelsey and Emily

Tuesday 8:30am - 5:30pm with part-day clinic with me, and til 5pm for eyewear styling and dispensing services, repairs, collections and adjustments with Charlotte supported by Kelsey and Emily

Wednesday 8:30am - 5:30pm with Tim's clinic and eyewear styling, dispensing services, repairs, collections and adjustments with Charlotte til 5pm supported by Kelsey and Emily

Thursday 8:30am - 5:30pm - same as Tuesday

Friday 9am - 6:30pm for all clinics, eyewear styling and dispensing services, repairs, collections and adjustments with Tim and James supported by Kelsey

Our audiology clinic also runs most Friday's with Aroosah from 9am - 5pm.

TWO MORE EXCITING UPDATES NEXT WEEK! Eeep!

Also it's probably the last day I can say - Happy New Year...so Happy New Year and all the best for 2026 to all our friends and followers,

Faye xx

18/12/2025

Good Morning All!

Well I just can’t believe it’s that time of year again - I know I say it every year but it’s true that when you’re busy the time really does disappear.

Thank you to all of our wonderful clients, friends, followers, supporters and suppliers for keeping us so busy for another year.

As usual we will be taking a break to enjoy festive time with our loved ones.

Clinics running as usual until 6:30pm on Tuesday 23rd.

There is limited availability on Friday 19th, Monday 22nd and I think currently just one left on Tuesday 23rd - otherwise we will *see you* in the New Year!

After 20 years of my late clinic being on a Thursday, then adding a Tuesday also in 2020 - the late clinics are shifting to Monday and Friday in 2026 - this will give us some extra capacity with both Tim and I working together. How long will it take me to get used to the diary change?! My filofax will be on fire!!!

I’ve also added a regular early morning clinic - I’ve done these sporadically over the years and thought we would test making it a regular thing. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday the clinic will be open from 8:30am with all 3 days closing at our regular time of 5:30pm.

There has been some exciting new additions to clinic in 2025 - I’ll try and post some reviews and recaps - the downside to being so busy is I get such little time to post and share what’s been happening, so thank you so much to those who choose us for their eyecare for recommending us and keeping our clinics so full! Please keep doing it and save me from doom-scrolling!

As always we have some exciting plans up our sleeves for 2026 - the first coming within the first week...so keep your eyes peeled!

However you spend your time over Christmas I wish you peace, love, happiness and friendship.

With all our love

Faye, Bertie (he’s the real boss) and all the Team ###

03/08/2025

Today’s outside the consulting room post live from Darlington 5 and 10km!

Faye ran 28.02 in her first competitive 5km race which was good enough for 10th female!

Sophie ran 48 minute 10km and it was her first official warm-up race for 2026 London Marathon!

Those of you who know Sophie will know she lives with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome which is a connective tissue disorder affecting every part of the body.

If you’d like to read more about the EDS Charity Sophie is fundraising for please see the link to her London Marathon 2026 page below:

https://2026tcslondonmarathon.enthuse.com/pf/sophie-mcdearmid?utm_campaign=website&utm_medium=email&utm_source=enthuse

Bertie didn’t get to take part in the race but felt he was the winner as he gets so many walks while his Mom tries to get fitter - so he plonked himself on the first place podium spot 🐶🐾

Faye is wearing Evil-Eye photochromic sports sunglasses

Sophie is wearing her WOOW eyewear specs

26/07/2025

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